f 
CO NCLUSION. 1047 
VI. After {hewing how Commerce was in a Manner 
totally overwhelmed in the Eail, we proceed next to 
point out the Methods by which it was in fome Meafure 
revived by the Subjeds of the two trading Republicks 
of Venice and Genoa ; and we have taken great Fains to 
difcover the different Ways, by which, at feveral Times, 
and under various Circumftances, the Commodities and 
Manufadures of the Eaft were brought into Europe. 
But as the Manner of our treating that Subjed would 
not allow us to digrefs there, fo tar as to give any Ac- 
count of the Rife of thofe two celebrated States, it can- 
not be amifs, in this Review of our Performance, 
■ to fupply that Defed in as concife a Manner as it is 
poffible. 
When the Weftern Part of the Roman Empire was 
over- run by Barbarians^ and Arts and Sciences funk 
with that Power which had cultivated and proteded 
them ; Commerce alto vifibly declined, or to fpeak 
with greater Propriety, was overwhelmed and loft ; 
for in Times of Confufion and publick Defolation, 
when the Giant War ftalks abroad, overturns great 
Cities, tramples down the nobleft Improvements, and 
lays whole Countries wafte, it is impoffible that Trade 
Ihould continue ; or rather, it is highly probable, 
that on the very Approach ot thefe Dangers {he muft 
have already {led. It is a common Saying, that Riches 
are the Nerves of War, rather, I think, the Food of it ; 
and therefore where War devours, there Commerce 
cannot fubfift, which is a perpetual Reafon why all 
Trading Nations ihould avoid offenfive Wars ; for by 
thofe that are abfolutely defenfive they can never be 
hurt. But to keep to the Point ; when that Irruption 
of various Nations had driven the Roman Policy out of 
the greateft Part of Europe^ fome ftraggling People, 
either forced by Neceffity, or led by Inclination, took 
Shelter in a few ftraggling Elands that lay near the Coaft 
of Italy^ and which would never have been thought 
worth inhabiting in a Time of Peace. 
This was in the Sixth Century, and at their iirft fixing 
there, they had certainly nothing more in View, than 
living in a tolerable State of Freedom, and acquiring a 
Subfiftance as well as they could. Thefe Iflands being 
divided from each other by narrow Channels, and thofe 
Channels fo incumber’d by Shallows, that it was im- 
poffible for Strangers to navigate them, thefe Refugees 
found themfelves tolerably fafe, and uniting among 
themfelves for the Sake of improving their Condition, 
and augmenting their Security, they became in the 
Eighth Century a well fettled Government, and affumed 
the Form of a Republick. 
Simple and mean as this Relation may appear, yet it is 
a plain and true Account of the Rife, Progrefs, and 
Eftablifhment of the famous and potent Republick of 
Venice. Her Beginnings were indeed weak and flow, 
but when the Foundation was once well laid, her Growth 
was quick, and the Increafe of her Power amazing. 
She extended her Commerce on all Sides, and taking 
Advantage of the barbarous Maxims of the Mohamedan 
Monarchies, fhe drew to herfelf the Profits of the Indian 
Trade, and might in fome Senfe be faid to make Egypt 
a Province, and the Saracens her Subjects. 
By this Means her Traffick fwelled beyond Concep- 
tion, fhe became the common Mart of all Nations, her 
Naval Power arrived at a prodigious Height, and ma- 
king ufe of every favourable Conjuncture, {he ftretched 
her Conquefts not only over the adjacent Eerra Firma 
of Italy, but through the Iflands of the Archipelago, fo 
as to be at once Miftrefs of the Sea, of many fair and 
fruitful Countries, and of Part of the great City of Con*‘ 
ftantinople it felf. But Ambition, and the Defire of 
Lording it over her Neighbours, Paflions equally, fatal 
in publick and private Life to States and Empires, as 
well as to great Men, and to great Families, brought 
upon her thofe Evils which firft produced a Decay of 
Trade, and then a Declenfion of Power. General Hi- 
ftories indeed afcribe this to the League of Camhray, 
when all the great Powers in Europe combined againft 
this Republick •, and in Truth, from that Period the 
Jinking of her Power is truly dated ; but the Venetian 
Writers very juftly obferve, that though this Effed fol- 
Yol, if N® J43^ 
lowed the League, yet there was another, a more la- 
tent, but, at the fame Time, a more efteftual Caulcj. 
which was the falling off of their Commerce. 
Her Subjeffs were become lefs frugal, and lefs weal- 
thy, and, at the fame time, more ambitious and more 
profufe. It was impoffible, in fuch a Situation, that 
the State ffiould maintain it felf when fo warmly at- 
tacked j a Man in a Confumption cannot ftruggle with 
the fame Force as in Health ; and though By-ftanders 
may attribute the Fall he receives to the Strengh ot his 
Adverfary, he cannot help knowing, that it proceeds 
folely from the failing of his own Strength. This was 
the Cafe of the Venetians, and they have ever flnce been 
more indebted to their Wifdom, than their Power, to 
the prudent concealing of their own Weaknefs, and ta- 
king Advantage of the Errors of their Enemies, than to 
any other Cafe ; for their keeping up that Port which 
they ftill bear, and which had been loft long ago by any 
other Nation but themfelves. 
At the lame Time that Venice rofe, as it were, out of 
the Sea, another Republick was ere6led on the Coafts 
of Italy, there could not well be a worfe Situation than 
the narrow, marffiy, unprofitable and unwhollome 
Iflands in the Adriatick, except the rocky, barren, and 
inhofpitable Shores of Liguria ; and yet as Commerce 
raifed Venice the Rich, on the one 5 fo flie erefted Genoa 
the Proud on the other. In Spite of ambitious and war- 
like Neighbours, in Spite of a confined and unprodu- 
cing Country, and which were ftill greater Impedi- 
ments, in Spite of perpetual Factions and fucceflive Re- 
volutions, the Trade of Genoa made her rich and great. 
Her Merchants traded to all Countries, and throve by 
carrying the Commodities of the one to the other. Her 
Fleets became formidable, and befides the adjacent 
Ifland of Corfica, flie made larger and more important 
Conquefts. She fixed a Colony at Caffa, and was for fome 
Time in Poffeflion of the Coafts on both Sides of the 
Black Sea. 
That Emulation which is natural to neighbouring 
Nations, and that Jealoufy which rifes from the Purfuit 
of the fame Miftrels, Commerce, begat continual Wars 
between thefe Rival Republicks, which after many ob- 
ftinate and bloody Battles, was at laft terminated in Fa- 
vour of Venice, by that famous Viffory of Chiozzi, gain- 
ed by her Doge Andrew Contarini, from which Time 
Genoa never pretended to be Miftrefs of the Sea. Thefe 
Quarrels were fatal to both \ but what proved more im- 
mediately deftruffive to the Genoefe, was their Avarice,, 
which induced them to abandon the fair Profits of Trade, 
for the Sake, by that vile Method of acquiring Wealth 
by Ulury. 
This leads us to mention another Subjeeft that has a 
dole Connedion with Commerce, and that is, the Bu- 
finefs of Exchanges. This, tho’ in many Cafes ufeful 
to Commerce, concerns alfo many other Things, fuch 
as Tranfadions of State, and of War, the Rem'oval of 
Families, or the Defcent of Succeffions upon. Strangers 5 
all of which create the Neceffity of removing Money 
from one Country to another, which fometinies cannoC 
be done at all, and in moft Cafes muft be attended with 
Inconveniency, if pradifed in the plain Way of Tran- 
fportation. The Lombards, one of the many Nations 
that eftabliflied themfelves in Italy after the Ruin of the 
Roman Empire, and who have beftowed their Name on 
one of the fineft Countries in it, devifed a Method for 
removing, in a great Meafure, this Inconvenience ; for 
they obferved that Money was very often wantino- re- 
ciprocally in feveral Countries, and therefore they'^ima- 
gined, that if a Way could be found to eftablifli a Cor- 
refpondence capable of fupplying their mutual Wants, it 
might prove very advantageous to the middle Perfons, and 
this produced that Kind of Pradice now known by the ' 
Name of Exchange ; which, as it was invented by, 
fo it continued long in the Hands of the Lombards. For 
this Purpofe, they fettled themfelves in moft of the great 
Cities in Europe, and having a ftrid Correipondence 
one with another, they managed this new Branch 
of Bufinels, of drawing and remitting Money with 
vaft Advantage to themfelves ; and to do this the 
more effedually, they enter’d into Partoerfliip, kept 
12 K large 
