Commerce of the Gauls.

the same time, to furnish a sufficiency for the expences, in which tlie plan of an universal monarchy continually engaged them.

These resources beginning to fail them, the commerce of Egypt seemed very proper to support by its riches (and, as I may say, by its credit) the reputation and empire of Rome.

From the time that Augustus had reduced this kingdom to a province, he earnestly endeavoured to make the trade of Alexandria flourish more than ever, and at the same time he augmented that which the Egyptians had always maintained, or carried on in Arabia, the Indies, and to the most remote parts of the east, by way of the Red Sea. Alexandria, become Roman, was only inferior to Rome itself in grandeur and in number of inhabitants. The magazines of the capital of the world were no longer filled but with the merchandizes which came to it from the capital of Egypt; and very soon neither Rome, nor all Italy, subsisted, but by the corn and other provisions brought to it by the merchants and Egyptian fleets; and that in so great a quantity and abundance, that an historian (Josephus) affirms, (though doubtless with some exaggeration) that Alexandria yielded more riches to the treasury of Rome in one month than all Egypt in a year: though, if Pliny's calculation is to be credited, the profits of the commerce of Egypt amounted yearly, for Rome, to 125,000,000 of crowns (and these at 54d. to about 28,125,000l. sterling, as the exchange is through this whole work) that is to say, a hundred times more than the Romans employed, whose ordinary expences did not amount to above 1,250,000 crowns.

This great trade (which soon made that of all the other provinces of the empire flourish) augmented incessantly, and made the senate determine to maintain it, by the corporations it established in Rome, for trade and traders, by the laws which it made in their favour (or rather by those of the Rhodians, which it adopted, and which are long since become a specie of the law of nations, for the navigation and commerce of the Mediterranean), by the magistracy it encharged with their execution, and by the protection which it afforded to the merchants, as well strangers as Romans, in all the extent of the empire.

Alexandria, notwithstanding, had in the end the fortune of Tyre and of Carthage. Trade had raised her, and the fall of her trade overset her. The Saracens, who seized on Egypt in the reign of Heraclius, having by their fierceness driven away the merchants, who love tranquillity and peace, this city, which then held the first rank after Rome and Constantinople, hardly preserved any thing of its ancient splendor; and though it afterwards regained some vigour under the Sultans, and the same now from the Christian nations, which carry on the Levant trade, and maintain a tolerable good business; it is, however, no longer possible to know again that ancient Alexandria, so famous, and which by its trade was, for so long a time, the glory and support of an empire, which, in truth, was founded by arms, but that received its principal strength from commerce.

Before we proceed to treat of the commerce of the moderns, we will yet add some examples of the Gallick cities, which were formerly rendered famous by the enterprizes of their merchants.

It is easy to demonstrate to the French of the present times, (to excite them to revive their trade) that the goût and genius of the nation has been always divided between the glory, which it acquired by its arms, and the solid advantages produced by trade.

Marseilles, the most ancient ally of the Romans, equally celebrated for its antiquity,

* Mons. Savary calculates a French crown to be worth 54d. sterling, at the time of his writing, though it is greatly altered since.

for the wisdom and equity of its senate, for the sciences taught in its academies, for the many colonies it established, and for the wars it gloriously maintained against so many different people, jealous of its riches, was indebted only to its trade for these advantages; and it was solely by the means of commerce, that it arrived in so short a time to that high point of respect and power, as to render it for a long time the arbitrator of the neighbouring nations, who were drawn there to learn the arts and politeness of Greece, which its first inhabitants brought from Asia, when they left it to settle among the Gauls.

The example of Marseilles soon animated the greatest part of the French cities to trade, more especially those that were situated upon the same sea, or that were not far distant.

Arles became famous for its experience in navigation, and for its ability in the art of building ships. It likewise distinguished itself for the invention of divers manufactures, and, above all, its works in gold and silver gave it a great reputation.

Narbonne even yet exceeded Arles, and, so long as its port existed, it saw arrive fleets from the East, Africk, Spain, and Sicily, loaden with all sorts of merchandize; whilst the inhabitants on their side equipped their own ships to carry abroad the products of their country, or the manufactures which were owing to their industry.

When the alteration of the course of the river Aude had occasioned its deserting the port of Narbonne, Montpellier took the advantage of that's decline; and this last city received in her own, ships from all parts of the Mediterranean which arrived before in that of the first mentioned.

There were yet reckoned among the number of the French cities situated on this coast, which trade had rendered flourishing (though in a very inferior degree to those just now mentioned) Agde, Toulon, Antibes, Frejus, and Aigue-Morte, particularly the last, before the sands of the Rhone had left it at a distance from the sea; and no one can be ignorant, that even to the time of St. Lewis, this was where the embarkments were made for the holy wars, and that it was the merchants of this place which furnished that great and holy king with the greatest part of the ships that composed that numerous fleet which he fitted out in the last years of his life for his expedition against Tunis.

The Gallick ocean had likewise its ports and cities for trade, of great reputation; as Bourdeaux in Guyenne, Vannes and Nantes in Bretagne, and the famous Cerbillon, (now unknown) whieh Strabo places near the mouth of the Loire.

In fine, in the inland country was Lyons, (a city yet so famous for its trade) where, if we may believe some authors, there formerly assembled no less than sixty nations to treat of their commerce, and which, from that time, (by its happy situation at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone) extended, as one may say, its arms from the ocean to the Mediterranean, and was become as a general staple or storehouse for all the French merchandizes, without reckoning the trade which she carried on in all the Levant, and particularly in Egypt, by means of the correspondencies which she had with Arles and Marseilles.

blishment

Let us now pass from the ancient history to those of the middle age and latest times; Re-estaand these two histories will furnish us with facts, which will not be less interesting, nor of comless glorious to commerce, than those of which antiquity has taken care to preserve to merce in us the memory.

Though the Romans, as we have seen, cultivated and improved the commerce of Egypt, after that country became one of their provinces; yet in general they were not a people possessing the spirit of commerce, they rather supplied the want of native industry by their attachment to military glory, and they provided themselves with the luxuries of other nations by conquering and plundering them. The accounts of the

the West.

immense treasures they brought home, after subduing the richest countries of the then known world, almost surpass the bounds of probability; but they are so well authenticated, that they must find a place here as memorials of the splendor of ancient Rome. Julius Cæsar, upon his conquest of Gaul, Africa, Egypt, and Pontus, is said to have had at one time carried before him in his triumph, vessels of gold and silver, computed by modern authors to have been equal in value to twelve millions sterling, which were deposited in the publick treasury; also 1822 gold diadems, weighing 15,023 pounds, independent of the vast treasure which belonged to him as general. Their pro-consuls were likewise continually sending or bringing home, from the conquered provinces of the East, immense riches in gold and silver, precious stones, and every article rare or excellent for clothing, furniture, tables, and equipages, and for the decoration of their publick buildings. The palaces, estates, and revenues of many of the first citizens of Rome equalled those of sovereign princes. Lentulus, Crassus, and others had estates worth three or four millions. The emperor Nero's donations at sundry times are by some computed to have amounted to 17,760,000l. sterling; and it is recorded, that he paid for a single carpet the sum of 32,000l. Some Roman ladies are said to have paid 3,000l. for a single piece of linen; and Lullia Paulina, when dressed in all her jewels, wore to the value of 322,000l. sterling. Yet these immense luxuries not being employed in circulation, through the various channels of commerce, were in a great degree to be considered as a dead stock locked up in the houses of individuals; and as the sloth, luxury, and effeminacy of the emperors, the magistrates, and the people increased with them, it was soon found by sad experience, that the empire could not sustain the vast expence of her civil and military establishments without industry, without manufactures, without trade, to support general commerce. Its dissolution was the consequence of relaxation from the principles of industry, sobriety, and economy, the basis of the durable prosperity of commercial states.

The fall of the Roman empire had drawn after it that of all the people who had submitted to it. The inundation of the barbarians, so fatal to the sciences and polite arts, was not less so to trade; and, if the learned saw their libraries, and the finest works, sacrificed to the flames, by people equally fierce as ignorant, the merchants had not more power to save from their fury, either their numerous trading fleets, with which they covered both the one and the other sea, nor the vast magazines, which they had always full of merchandizes the most useful and rich.

So that whilst these nations, greedy of blood and pillage, were fighting with the Romans, or whilst they were disputing among themselves the possession of the countries they had usurped, all their commerce consisted only in the spoils of the vanquished; and they had no other trade than the sharing of those immense treasures, which they found amassed in all the towns of the empire which they sacked, and particularly in the capital, which was more than once exposed in prey to their fury and

avarice.

But after that the bravest and most fortunate of these barbarians had formed puissant monarchies from the ruins of the Roman empire; after that they were established, some among the Gauls, as the Franks; others in Spain, as the Goths; and others yet in Italy, as the Lombards; they soon learnt from the people they had subjected, and whom they had afterwards associated, the necessity of commerce, and the manner of carrying it on with success; and they became so skilful, that some of them were in a state or capacity of giving lessons to others; for it is to the Lombards that the invention and usage of the bank, of books with double entries, of exchanges, and a number of other ingenious practices, which facilitate and secure trade, are commonly attributed.

It does not appear very certain who were the people of Europe, which (after that

the new masters had divided it, and recalled peace) applied themselves first to trade, and made it flourish.

Some injunctions of Charlemagne, and of Louis le Debonnaire, might make it be believed, that it was by France that commerce re-established itself in the West; and the laws that those two princes made, either to hinder their subjects from a contraband trade with their neighbours, or to ease the merchants which trafficked in the interior parts of their estates from the new impositions which they would have laid on their merchandizes, at least shews that the French before the eighth century, did not carry on an inconsiderable trade, either within or without the kingdom.

There is, however, an appearance that the civil wars, which were so frequent under the reign of Debonnaire, and during that of his children, soon interrupted the first success of commerce (revived in France); and the incursions of the Normans, which laid waste almost at the same time the French empire, having entirely destroyed trade, the Italians had a juncture to acquire the glory of being its new restorers, as they ought to have that of afterwards recalling the liberal arts and sciences, which had been banished ever since the dismembering of the Roman empire.

It is therefore to the people of Italy, particularly to those of Venice and Genoa, that the re-establishment of commerce is indebted; as it is also to commerce that these two famous republicks, which have been so long rivals, owe their glory and puissance.

Venetians.

In the bottom of the Adriatick Sea, there were a quantity of small marshy isles, commerce separated only by narrow canals, but covered, and (as one may say) secured, by divers of the morasses, which rendered the taking them almost impracticable. Here some fishermen retired, and lived on the small traffick which they made with their fish, and of the salt which they drew from the ponds on some of these isles.

It was these islands which served for a retreat to the Venetians, a people of that part of Italy which is along the gulf, when Alaric, king of the Goths, and afterwards Attila, king of the Huns, came to ravage Italy, particularly after that this last (who highly merited the name of the Scourge of God, which he had given himself) had taken Padua and Aquila, and had reduced them to ashes.

These new inhabitants of the morasses did not at first compose any body politick, but each of these seventy-two isles of this little Archipelago had, for a long time, their proper magistrates, and, as one may say, a separate sovereignty.

When their commerce became so flourishing as to give jealousy to their neighbours, the Venetian islanders thought of forming themselves into a republick, and it was this union (first begun in the sixth century, but not perfected till towards the middle of the eighth) which laid the most solid foundations of the power and commerce of the Venetians, particularly that of the last, which, during more than four ages, had not, in any respect, its equal in all Europe.

Until the union of the isles, the trade of their inhabitants spread but little beyond the coast of the Mediterranean; but the establishment of the new republick having. given courage and strength to their merchants, their fleets were in a short time seen to visit the most distant ports of the ocean, and afterwards those of Egypt; and by the treaties made with the Sultans, under the Pope's approbation, secured the trade of spices, and other rich merchandizes of the East, which they were to purchase at Cairo, a new city the Saracen princes had built on the banks of the Nile.

The riches of the Venetians increased to such a degree, by the commerce with Egypt, that they thought themselves strong enough to undertake some conquests, and to form, from the taking a number of important towns, what they called their state of terra firma, which rendered them yet more considerable in Italy, though they lost a part after the famous league of Cambray. C

VOL. I.

Commerce of the Genoese.

Commerce

Hanseatic lowns.

Animated by these first successes, and supported by the resources of their commerce, and by the inexhaustible funds, which their merchants were capable of furnishing to the treasury of the republic, Venice happily carried her arms yet farther, and extended her conquests on the side of the Morea, and in many of the principal islands of the Mediterranean and Archipelago, which she subjected to her dominion; and, to complete her glory, she had a great share in almost all the croisades which were made for the recovery of the Holy Land, or for the succour of the Christians of the Levant, as well as at the taking of Constantinople, and the conquest of the best part of the Grecian empire, which passed under the dominion of the French princes, in the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Venice was in this state of prosperity and glory, when she experienced the lot of so many powerful cities, which the fall of their commerce had either ruined or weakened; she found, in the diminution of her own, the fatal term of that puissance which had given umbrage to so great a number of princes combined to her destruction, who signed the treaty of Cambray in 1508; and two of her most celebrated historians take particular notice, that their sage senate had not had so much trouble to re-establish their publick affairs after the famous battle of Aignadel, but because the Republic could not any longer find the same resources as heretofore, in the trade of the merchants, already greatly enfeebled by the loss of that of the spices, which the Portuguese had begun to carry from them, and which was yet diminished from another side by the Provincials, particularly by those of Marseilles, who became in greater esteem than the Venetians at Constantinople, and in the principal sea-ports of the Levant, and who knew so well how to maintain their credit, that very soon all the commerce of those parts was only carried on under French colours.

Genoa, which had re-commenced an application to commerce, at the same time with Venice, and had not been in any degree less fortunate in making it flourish, was, for a long time, a troublesome rival, who disputed with the Venetians the empire of the sea, and who shared with them the trade, which they carried on in Egypt, and all the other ports of the Levant, and of the West.

A jealousy was not long in breaking out, and the two republicks having come to blows, it was not till after three ages, of an almost continual war, (only suspended by some treaties) that the Genoese (commonly superior to the Venetians, and which was signalized by many advantages that they had gained during the new wars they had together) lost, about the end of the fourteenth century, their reputation and superiority at the battle of Chiozza, where Andrew Contarini, Doge and General of the Venetians, secured to his republick, (by a happy desperation) the honour of an unequal combat, which decided for ever a quarrel so famous, and brought to Venice the empire of the sea, and the superiority of trade, which were the reward of a victory so unexpected.

Genoa was never able to rise again from its loss, and victorious Venice enjoyed for a whole century its advantages, both in trade and war; but, in fine, these two republicks, although very unequal for the rank which they have now in Europe, and for the figure that they make, are become, as one may say, to a sort of equality in trade, with this difference however, that the Venetians carry on a greater than the Genoese in the Levant, and the Genoese a more considerable one than the Venetians in France, Spain, and other Christian states in Europe.

At the time that commerce re-commenced and gained strength in the meriof the dional parts of Europe, there was formed in the North a society of merchants, which not only brought it to all the perfection it was capable of having, before the discovery of the one and the other India, but also begun to give it those laws it has continued to observe under the name of uses and sea customs, and