THE HISTORY OF COMMERCE. 171 
favourable position, Alexandria ruled the coasts of three parts of the 
earth, and after the fall of Carthage, shared with Ehodes and Corinth 
the maritime commerce of the Mediterranean. From thence Alexandria 
pushed her navigation up the Bed Sea, and soon embraced the greatest 
part of the commerce of Arabia and India, for which purpose the 
harbours of Berenice, Oumas, and Myos were founded by the Ptolomies 
as places of commerce. From these places merchandise caravans, 
through the Nile, brought the markets of the commercial world into the 
harbour of Alexandria, whose riches at length, together with the whole 
of Egypt, fell into the hands of the insatiable Romans. 
Now, although the warlike Romans, after the destruction of Carthage, 
urged navigation, and for a long time neglected and despised commerce, 
which they looked upon as business fit only for manumitted slaves and 
citizens of the lowest class, yet they ultimately began to give it their 
attention, and after many battles at length also founded a naval 
power. They obtained the lucrative traffic of the Levant, and under 
Augustus, a.c. 30, after the conquest of Egypt, seized the Arabian and 
Indian commerce in Alexandria ; but owing to their perpetual wars it 
could never become a commercial state. Through their conquests almost 
all known countries brought the Romans treasures, which produced 
among them a high degree of luxury and love of enjoyment, whereby 
indeed the fine arts prospered, but at the same time their increasing 
effeminacy not only ruined commerce but brought the Roman empire 
itself to an end. Alexandria in Egypt, however, continued to maintain 
to the last the rank of the first commercial place in the great Roman 
empire, and remained through all changes the ruler, with only few 
interruptions, for more than 1,000 years after the fall of Rome, the 
principal place of trade for the commercial world, and at the same time 
the chief seat of learning and science. 
Next to Alexandria, after the fall of Rome, rose Constantinople, the 
ancient Byzantium, and the new residence of the Ottoman and Greek 
emperors, 476 years after Christ. It began to flourish under the 
dominion of Justinian, who brought the silk-worm from China to 
Europe about a.d. 555, and by prosperous wars and wise laws raised 
the splendour of the country of the Greeks to a significant magnitude. 
After the conquest of Alexandria by the Saracens, a.d. 640, it was 
desirable for them to obtain the most lucrative commercial connections,, 
and to profit by them. Constantinople was therefore made by the 
Saracens the principal seat of commerce, and a market not only for the 
Levant, but also for Asiatic and African merchandise, and whither, 
therefore, the treasures of many countries flowed. The city itself pre- 
pared for commercial diffusion a great number of valuable fabrics in 
silk, cotton, wool, goats' hair, leather, steel, gold, and silver, and brought 
besides wax, wine, Indian aromatics, and spices, as well as precious 
stones and pearls, and much Russian peltry for exportation to the West. 
The foundation of a new kingdom in Lesser Asia Minor, and Northern 
