TKANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 733 



who had their centre at Samarcand ; and these Sogdians, or Asi as they are called 

 in the Chinese annals, fearing lest they should lose the profit on the transit trade, 

 threw every obstacle in the way of direct communication between China and the 

 Roman Empire. The difficulties which thus interrupted the land traffic gave an 

 impetus to the trade by sea, and so benefited Alexandria and the cities in the 

 Persian Gulf. The sea trade at this time was carried by way of the Persian Gulf 

 and the Red Sea. In the first case the cargoes were landed at some port on the 

 Euphrates or Tigris, whence the goods were carried by river and caravan up the 

 valleys of those rivers and then through Syria to Beiriit and Antioch, and through 

 Asia Minor to Ephesus, Smyrna, Constantinople, and Samsiin, lu the second c.ise 

 the merchandise was landed either near Suez, whence it was conveyed by caravan, 

 canal, and river to Alexandria, and at a later date to Pelusium ; or at the head of 

 the Gulf of Akabah for transport to Syi-ia and Palestine. The sea trade was to 

 a great extent a coasting trade, and it appears to have been shared by the Greeks 

 and the Arabs, and perhaps by the Chinese, whose junks were to be seen at Hira, 

 on the Euphrates, in the fifth century. 



On the disruption of the Roman Empire the Byzantines, with their capital 

 situated on the confines of Europe and Asia, naturally became the intermediaries 

 between the East and the West, and they retained this position until the mari- 

 time towns of Italy, France, and Spain became sufficiently strong to engage in 

 direct trade with the Mediterranean ports to which the produce of the East 

 found its way. Until the seventh century the Sassanians held the lines of com- 

 munication by land, and they did all they could to prevent Eastern produce from 

 being carried over any other roads than those passing through their territory or by 

 any other hands than theirs. In the sixth century they allowed an exchange of 

 produce between the East and the West to take place at only three points: 

 Artaxates for goods arriving from Central Asia ; Nisibis for those from Central 

 Asia and by the Tigris route : and Oallinicum {Rakka) for those coming by way of 

 the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates. Justinian attempted to free Oriental com- 

 merce from its dependence on the Sassanians by opening up new trade routes. 

 The Sogdian silk merchants passed, outside of Persian territory, round the north 

 end of the Caspian to meet those of Byzantium on the shores of the Sea of Azov 

 and the Black Sea ; the products of India were obtained from Ethiopian traders at 

 Adulis, on the Red Sea ; and Greek navigators, taking advantage of rbe monsoons, 

 sailed direct from the southern end of the Red Sea to the Malabar coast and 

 Ceylon. 



In the seventh and eighth centuries the Arabs overran the whole of Central 

 Asia, and_ the carrying trade by sea and by land passed into their hands. Profound 

 modifications were thus introduced into the commercial intercourse between the 

 East and the West. All land traffic from the East was directed upon Baghdad, 

 which became the distributing centre whence goods were despatched by the ancient 

 trade routes to the West, and which almost rose to the splendour of Babylon. On 

 the sea the Arabs regained their old reputation ; they sailed direct from the Red Sea 

 to Cape Comorin, and from Ceylon to the Malay Peninsula, and extended their 

 voyages to Kanpu on a delta arm of the Yang-tse-Kiang ; they established factories 

 in the Indian Ocean, and, in the eighth century, were so numerous in Canton as 

 to be able to attack and pillage that city. Their only rivals were the Chinese, 

 whose junks visited the Euphrates and Aden, and brought silks and spices to the 

 Malabar coast to be there exchanged for the raw material and manufactures of 

 the West. 



The Eastern produce brought by the Arabs to the ports of the Mediterranean 

 was conveyed to Europe by the merchants of Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and other towns, 

 who also traded to Constantinople and the Black Sea. Venice from its geographical 

 position was well adapted to be the intermediary between the East and Central 

 Europe, and even before the rise of Islam a large share of the carrying trade of the 

 Mediterranean had fallen into its hands through the apathy and luxurious indo- 

 lence of the Byzantines. It is unnecessary to trace the rise of Venice or discuss 

 the impetus given by the Oiisades to commercial intercourse between the East 

 and Western Europe ; it will be sufficient to note that in the first quarter of the 



