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change for the wondrous fabrics and rare spices of the 

 East. In raw produce Europe is no match for Asia. 

 The Venetians, therefore, were driven to invent ; they 

 manufactured furniture and woollen cloth, armour, and 

 glass. It is evident, from the old names of the streets, 

 that Venice formerly was one great workshop ; it was 

 also a great market city. The crowds of pilgrims re- 

 sorting to Rome to visit the tombs of the martyrs, and 

 to kiss the Pope's toe, had suggested to the Govern- 

 ment the idea of Fairs which were held within the 

 city at stated times. The Venetians established a 

 rival fair in honour of St Mark, whose remains, revered 

 even by the Moslems, had been smuggled out of 

 Alexandria in a basket of pork. They took their 

 materials, like Moliere, wherever they could find them ; 

 stole the corpse of a Patriarch from Constantinople, 

 and the bones of a saint from Milan. They made 

 religion subservient to commerce : they declined to 

 make commerce subservient to religion. The Pope 

 forbad them to trade with infidels : but the infidel 

 trade was their life. Siamo Veneziani poi Cristiani, 

 they replied. The Papal nuncios arrived in Venice, 

 and excommunicated two hundred of the leading men. 

 In return they were ordered to leave the town. The 

 fleets of the Venetians, like the Phoenicians of old, 

 sailed in all the European waters, from the wheat fields 

 of the Crimea to the ice-creeks of the Baltic. In that sea 

 the pirates were at length extinct ; a number of cities 

 along its shores were united in a league. Bruges in 

 Flanders was the emporium of the Northern trade, and 

 was supplied by Venetian vessels with the commodities 

 of the South. The Venetians also travelled over 

 Europe, and established their financial colonies in all 

 great towns. The cash of Europe was in their hands ; 



