634 



MEDLEVAL HISTORY. 



[PART V. 



The productions of India, whether they passed by 

 the Oxus to the Caspian, or were transported in cara- 

 vans from the Tigris to the shores of the Black Sea, 

 were poured into the magazines of Constantinople, the 

 merchants of which, previous to the fall of the Lower 

 Empire, were the most opulent in the world. During 

 the same period, Egypt commanded the trade of the 

 Eed Sea; and received, through Aden, the luxuries of 

 the far East, with which she supplied the Moorish 

 princes of Spain, and the countries bordering on the 

 Mediterranean. 1 



EJyen when the dominion of the Khalifs was threat- 

 ened by the rising power of the Turks, and long 

 after the subsidence of the commotions and vicissitudes 

 which marked the period of the Crusades, part of this 

 lucrative commerce was still carried to Alexandria, 

 by the Nile and its canals. The Genoese and Vene- 

 tians, each eager to engross the supply of Europe, 

 sought permission from the emperors to form establish- 

 ments on the shores of the Black Sea and the Mediter- 

 ranean. The former advanced their fortified factories as 

 far eastward as Tabriz, to meet the caravans returning 

 from the Persian Gulf 2 , and the latter, in addition to 

 the formation of settlements at Tyre, Beyrout, and 

 Acre 3 , acquired after the fourth crusade, succeeded (in 

 defiance of the interdict of the Popes against trading 

 with the infidel) -in negotiating a treaty with the 

 Mamelukes for a share in the trade of Alexandria, 4 It 

 was through Venice that England and the western na- 



1 ODOARDO BARBOSA, in Ramusio, 

 vol. i. p. 292. BALDELLI Boirr, Hela- 

 ziane delF Europa e dell' Asia, lib. ix. 

 ch. xlvii. FARIA Y SOITSA, Poring. 

 Asia, part i. ch. viii. 



3 GIBBON, Decl. and Fall, ch. Ixiii. 



3 DARTT, Hist, de Venise, lib. xix. 

 vol. iv. p. 74. MACPHERSON'S Annals 

 of Commerce, vol. i. p. 070. 



4 So impatient were the Venetians 



to grasp the trade of Alexandria 

 that Marino Sanuto, about the year 

 1321 A.D., endeavoured to excite a 

 new crusade in order to wrest it from 

 the Sultan of Egypt by force of 

 arms. Secrefa Ficlelium Crucis, in 

 BONGARS, Gesta Dei per Franco*, 

 Han an, 1611. ADAM SMITH, Wealth 

 of Nations, b. iv. ch. vii. DARTT, Hist. 

 de Venise, lib. xix. vol. iv. p. 88. 



