THE ORIGIN AND DUTIES OF CONSULS. 277 



Catalonians had consuls at Constantinople, Bey rout, 

 Damascus, Cyprus, Ehodes, &c., and they had one 

 upon the confines of Asia, at Tanais, who in 1397 

 appeared before Tamerlane and offered him presents 

 upon his return from the triumphant expedition 

 into Muscovy and Kipsac.* 



In Europe, the Catalonians had consuls among all 

 the peoples living upon the Mediterranean : at Mar- 

 seilles, Genoa, Pisa, Naples, Venice, and Sardinia, 

 and especially Sicily. They also had a consulate at 

 Seville, and the historian Capmany mentions fifty-five 

 consulates of which Barcelona could boast in the days 

 of her splendour, but of which not more than five or 

 six remained in the sixteenth century. 



In the Act of Privilege which King Ferdinand 

 granted in 1251 to the Genoese at Seville, it was 

 especially stipulated that the Genoese should have in 

 that city consuls of their own nationality, with the 

 right of deciding without appeal all disputes between 

 persons of their own nationality. If the dispute was 

 between a burgher of Seville and a domiciled 

 Genoese, it was also to be settled by the consuls, 

 but an appeal was to lie to the alcaldes. The 

 consuls were to have nothing to do with criminal 

 affairs.f 



The habit of appointing consuls in a foreign 



* See Count de Laborde's Itineraire d'Espagne, vol. v. 

 f See Navarrete's Colecdon de los viages y descubrimientos que 

 hicieron por mar los Espanoles, vol. xi. 



