318 THE VENETIAN TRADE. 



and the sign of three golden balls declared that Lom- 

 bards lent money within. 



During the period of the Crusades, their trade with 

 the East was interrupted ; but it was exchanged for a 

 commerce more profitable still. The Venetians in 

 their galleys conveyed the armies to the Holy Land, 

 and also supplied tbem with provisions. Besides the 

 heavy sums which they exacted for such services, they 

 made other stipulations. Whenever a town was taken 

 by the Crusaders, a suburb or street was assigned to 

 the Venetians ; and when the Christians were expelled, 

 the Moslems consented to continue the arrangement. 

 In all the great Eastern cities, there was a Venetian 

 quarter containing a chapel, a bath-house, and a fac- 

 tory, ruled over by a magistrate or consul. 



Constantinople, during the Crusades, had been 

 taken by the Latins, with the assistance of the Vene- 

 tians, and had been recovered by the Greeks, with the 

 assistance of the Genoese. The Venetians were ex- 

 pelled from the Black Sea, but obtained the Alex- 

 andria trade. In the fifteenth century, the Black Sea 

 was ruined, for its caravan routes were stopped by the 

 Turkish wars. Egypt, which was supplied by sea, 

 monopolised the India trade, and the Venetians mono- 

 polised the trade of Egypt. Venice became the nut- 

 meg and pepper shop of Europe : not a single dish 

 could be seasoned, not a tankard of ale could be 

 spiced, without adding to its gains. The wealth of 

 that city soon became enormous ; its power, south of 

 the Alps, supreme. 



Times had changed since those poor fugitives first 

 crept in darkness and sorrow on the islands of the wild 

 lagoon, and drove stakes into the sand, and spread the 

 reeds of the ocean for their bed. Around them the 



