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TIIIC SPIRAL STAIRCASE IN ONK OF THi; FAMOUS PALACFS OF VFXICF 



From the time that the "City of the vSea" shared in the triumph of the fall of Constanti- 

 nople in I2C0, and received as its portion an amount estimated by Gibbon as equal to ten 

 times the annual revenue of the England of that day, the great traders of Venice became 

 among the richest m the world Villehardouin declared that it was his belief that the plunder 

 ot the city exceeded all that had been witnessed since the creation of the world. The plunder 

 of the Venetian wars added to the profits and Venetian trade gave the city a greater propor- 

 tion ot ^'apoleons of finance than any other city state of its time enjoyed 



6c6 



