n 



COMMERCE. 



r'rosjre.'s of 

 commerce 

 in Italy. 



course of ages, Constantinople appeared to be almost 

 the only place where commerce flourished, and the li- 

 terary treasures of antiquity were to be found. No si- 

 tuation could be better adapted to the maintenance of 

 communication with surrounding countries. On the 

 one hand lay the Euxine ; on the other, the Mediterra- 

 nean. When Egypt was separated from the empire by 

 the Arabians, and the intercourse with India was sus- 

 pended, a new channel was found out for the transport 

 of eastern commodities. They were carried up the In- 

 dus, as far as that great river is navigable, and were 

 then transported by land to the banks of the Oxus. 

 Here they were again put on ship-board, and conveyed 

 down the stream to the Caspian, where they served to 

 load vessels belonging to the merchants of Constanti- 

 nople. Ramusio, vol. 1. p. 372. 



In modern times, Italy became, from the concurrence 

 of different causes, the chief scene of the revival of com- 

 merce. Venice was founded in the midst of waters, by 

 fugitives, who sought safety in flight from the ravages 

 of the Huns. In progress of time, this little republic 

 became the seat of wealth and of considerable political 

 power. The possession of the trade to India, by way 

 of Egypt, has been accounted by many the main spring 

 of that grandeur, of which the origin should be sought 

 in a more comprehensive cause. Genoa and Pisa fol- 

 lowed in the same career of industry and prosperity ; 

 but their progress was eventually retarded by wars 

 abroad, and by civil dissensions at home. Constanti- 

 nople, being still the only great city in that age, be- 

 came the principal mart of the Italians. There they 

 obtained great mercantile privileges, and were supplied 

 both with the precious commodities of the East, and 

 those which the ingenuity that still subsisted among 

 the Greeks enabled them to manufacture, and vend to 

 their neighbours. The sagacity of the Italians disco- 

 vered also other methods of procuring rare and precious 

 commodities, as they were enabled to purchase them 

 r. casionally iiv Aleppo, Tripoli, and other parts of Sy- 

 ria, to which they were brought by a route not unknown 

 to the ancients. They were conveyed from India by 

 sea up the Persian Gulf, and, ascending the Euphrates 

 and Tigris as far as Bagdad, were carried by land across 

 the desert to Palmyra, and from thence to the towns on 

 the Mediterranean. It was while Italy was thus advan- 

 cing in the career of improvement, that the martial spi- 

 rit of the Europeans, inflamed by religious zeal, prompt- 

 ed them to attempt to deliver the Holy Land from the 

 dominion of the Infidels. A new sphere for Italian in- 

 dustry was here created. The Genoese, the Pisans, and 

 Venetians, supplied the- crusaders with military stores, 

 provisions,, and shipping; receiving in return large sums 

 of money,, as well as great commercial privileges in Pa- 

 lestine and the maritime parts of Europe. The sight 

 of the comparatively civilized countries of the Mediter- 

 ranean, afforded considerable means of improvement to 

 the rude inhabitants of the north. Among other things, 

 it deserves tt be mentioned, that they here found, in 

 the laws of Rhodes, the first outline of marine insurance. 

 (Schomberg's Observations on the Rhodian Laws.) By a. 

 fqrtunate coincidence, the discovery, of the mariner's 

 compass took place soon after. This discovery, whieh 

 has been truly said to have " opened to man the domi- 

 nion of the sea," was made by a citizen of Amalfi in 

 Italy, about the year 1 302. It was in vain that the 

 commercial jealousy of the Italians laboured to conceal 

 it. from other nations. Its properties were of too gene- 

 ral use to be kept secret. 



Ovx countrymen appear to have been considerable 



gainers, as well as' their neighbours, by the intercourse €omrcu.rc& 

 with the civilized part of Europe attendant on the cru- "*"'" "^"' 

 sades. Our enterprising monarch, Richard I. is suppo- Progress of 

 sed to have directed the compilation of the celebrated commerce 

 laws of Oleron (Selden de Duminio Mails, c. 24.) from in-kn&lsnck 

 the Rhodian maritime code. However, the progress of 

 English commerce was not in correspondence with so 

 auspicious a beginning; for in the reign of Edward III. 

 more than a century afterwards, navigation (Hume's 

 History of England, 8vo. edit. vol. ii. p. 494.) and in- 

 dustry were at a low ebb. That monarch, struck with 

 the flourishing state of Flanders, and perceiving the 

 true cause of its prosperity, endeavoured to excite a si-. 

 milar spirit among his subjects, Avho seemed blind to 

 the advantages of their situation, and unacquainted with 

 the sources, whence they (Robertson's View of Society, 

 &c.) might derive wealth and opulence. So far were 

 they lulled by ignorance and indolence, that they did 

 not even attempt those manufactures, the materials of 

 which they themselves supplied to foreigners. But not- 

 withstanding the endeavours of Edward, and the many 

 wise establishments proposed and encouraged by him, . 

 (Park's Introd. 36. 5th edit.) it was not till the reign of 

 Elizabeth, that the English began to discover then - true 

 interests, and the arts by which they were to obtain the 

 pre-eminence which they now hold among commercial 

 nations. This slow progress may be accounted for on 

 various grounds. During the Saxon heptarchy, Eng- 

 land was split into many kingdoms, perpetually at va- 

 riance with each other. It was exposed to the incur- 

 sions of the northern pirates, sunk in barbarity and ig- 

 norance, and consequently in no condition to cultivate • 

 commerce, or pursue any system of wise and useful po- 

 licy. To this succeeded the Norman conquest, and all 

 the consequences of a feudal government, military in 

 its nature, hostile to commerce, to the arts, and to the 

 refinement of a liberal and civilized people. Scarcely 

 had the nation recovered from the shock occasioned by 

 this revolution, when it was engaged in supporting the 

 pretensions of its monarch s to the French crown ; and 

 it long continued to waste its vigour and wealth in wild 

 endeavours to conquer that country. To this we may 

 add the destructive civil wars between the houses of 

 York and Lancaster, which deluged the kingdom with 

 blood, and to which a period was at last happily put by 

 the union of their several titles to the crown, in the per- 

 son of Henry VII. The reformation became the next 

 source of agitation, and it was not till the reign of Eli- 

 zabeth, that the feuds and dissensions, which such an 

 important event necessarily occasioned, began to sub-, 

 side. During her long reign, and her wise administra- 

 tion, commerce began to rear its head, and found at last 

 effectual protection from the directors of public affairs. 



On turning from our own country to the continent of Hanseatk 

 Europe, our attention is chiefly occupied by the celebrar '"gue. 

 ted Hanseatic league. This league took its origin from 

 the necessity of a permanent confederation on the part, 

 of the different, cities, for the purpose of protecting their 

 navigation. Europe in that. age was occupied by men 

 "■ whose trade, was war," and who accounted it no great 

 crime to lay violent hands on the property of a foreign 

 merchant. In the year 1200, this association had branch- 

 ed out so as. to comprehend no , less than seventy-two 

 cities, consisting of sea-ports of the Baltic, Holland, 

 France, Spain, Portugal, England, and a few of the Ita- 

 lian ports. Such was the progress of a union, confined 

 on its first formation to the towns of Lubeck, Bremen, 

 and Amsterdam. The league lasted in power and 

 splendour to the sixteenth century, a period during 





