THE HISTORY OF COMMERCE. 173 
hides, and metals, for the necessary wants of life. The inhabitants of 
the coast prosecuted the fisheries successfully, and several places on the 
'Rhine were already famed for wines. But most of the commerce 
circumscribed itself here to the interior, which was especially carried 
on in the neighbourhood of monasteries on festive occasions, called their 
fairs. 
Although at this time the cities of Southern Germany came into 
connection with Constantinople, yet it is more important, especially for 
Northern Germany and the countries on the Baltic Sea, to point out the 
commercial roads and the merchandise tracks. These were from Con- 
stantinople over the Black Sea, and by means of caravans through 
Russia, by Kiev on the Dneiper, the central point of this diffused 
commerce, and Novogorod on the Ilmansee, went to the Baltic, 
In the ninth century the Sclavonic city Mureta, on the Pomerania 
Island, Usedom, at that time next to Constantinople, the most important 
trading place in Europe, and after its decline, Wisby, on the Swedish 
Island, Gotland, was the place of trade, whither goods from the Levant 
and India arrived, to be exchanged for northern products, peltry, amber, 
flax, cordage, wool, hides, leather, iron, copper, tar, blubber, &c. 
Since the 10th century the following have become noted as trading 
places : — On the Baltic, Dantzig ; Julin on the Pomeranian Island, 
Wollin, Schleswig, but especially Lubeck ; on the North Sea, Ripen 
on the Peninsula of Jutland, Hamburg and Bremen ; on the Rhine, 
Cologne, Coblentz, Mayence, "Worms, Spire, and Strasbourg, particularly 
Frankfort-on-the-Maine (whose fairs had commenced in a.d. 843) ; 
whilst in inner Germany, Bardowia in the Launeburg, Brunswick, 
Magdeburg, Erfurt and Halle ; in Southern Germany, Ulm, Augsburg, 
Nuremburg, Prague, Salzburg and Vienna nourished by the industrial 
arts and commerce, as did Belgium, Flanders, and Brabant, Ghent, 
Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp, pattern states of the industrial arts, and 
embroidery sought in European markets. 
Several cities of upper Italy, enriched by commercial navigation on 
the Mediterranean and with the East, ascended higher than Germany, 
and Western Europe, about a.d. 1000, separated from the rule of the 
German princes, had formed itself in part into powerful Republics. 
For many centuries had Italy been oppressed by the hard blows of 
savage unsettled wars, and after the overthrow of the Roman empire, the 
rough people from the East and North, the conquerors, crushed her and 
desolated this beautiful land. Then at last a new and happy life for 
Italy developed itself through industry and activity in navigation and 
commerce at several points, and she elevated herself gradually by trade 
with the Levant — viz., to Constantinople. The maritime cities of Venice, 
Genoa, Pisa, and Amain especially became enriched, whilst contem- 
poraneously through active industry, Florence, Siena, Mailand, Lucca, 
and Bologna shared this greatness. 
The Crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries animated and extended the 
