and the best scholars of Italy, France, and England by the side of learned Byzantines and of industrious and active Jews; to all of them royal favor was extended. By the fusion of the characteristic qualities of the various races, intellectual and artistic achievements were obtained which modern writers love to extol.

Security and prosperity reigned in both Sicily and southern Italy. Material wealth grew by commerce as much as by industry (as, for instance, the manufacture of silk, until then monopolized by Greece and the Orient). No sooner had the Normans become firmly settled in Sicily before the Amalfites, the Venetians, the Pisans, and the Genoese sought and obtained permits from the Norman kings to establish "factories" (fonduks) in the latter's ports and participate in their carrying trade. It was of transcendent importance to all maritime nations of Europe that the Strait of Messina should be controlled by friends instead of by pirates. In those days, as far as practicable, seagoing craft invariably hugged the coast lines.

Sicily's foreign trade was, in no small measure, directed toward the seaports of Africa, and especially Alexandria, greatly favored by the pleasant relations existing between the Moslems and the Normans. It also extended in other directions. Sicilian vessels were frequently seen in the Golden Horn.

VENICE.

As early as the beginning of the ninth century, Venetian ships called at ports of Egypt, Syria, and the eastern Empire. Through its communications by land, Venice was the nearest outlet for German industry, and here the merchants of central and western Europe bought as much of the products of the Orient as their limited means would afford, to be distributed to the tribes and nations of the interior from Nurnberg, Augsburg, and similar budding marts among the barbarians. History informs us of the troubles Venice drew down upon its head by selling to the Moslems, in spite of papal prohibition, shipbuilding material, arms, and slaves. In the Greek Empire, the Venetians traded already at the time of Charles the Great. Many Venetians served in the imperial army, Venetian ships carried mails between west and east. Doge Peter II Orseolo (991-1009) powerfully promoted the foreign trade of Venice by treaties with many nations, both Christian and Saracen. The capitulations obtained by the doge's ambassadors are not known except that which was granted by Emperors Basil II and Constantine (991) securing to Venetian merchants and Venetian ships numerous important concessions, among them their own special magistrate in Constantinople, named by the Emperor for this exclusive purpose. However, much more valuable was the capitulation accorded to the Venetians in 1082 in reward for their assistance to the Emperor in the war against Count Robert Guiscard and his ambitious Normans.

Under this capitulation," Emperor Alexis promised to pay an annual tribute of 20 pounds of gold to the church of St. Marc, to bestow on the doge in perpetuo the title and stipend of protosevasto ("most august prince"), to grant the title and stipend of ipertino

71 Anna Komnena: Alexiad (trans. by O. A. Hovgaard, Copenhagen). Alethea Wiel: The Navy of Venice, London, 1910.

("most honorable") to the patriarch; to compel the citizens of Amalfi to pay a yearly tax to the church of St. Marc, which was to be levied on all the warehouses and goods owned by them in Constantinople; to make a free gift of a warehouse, some residences, four landing stages, and a bakery, with its dues, to the Venetians living in Constantinople (this quarter was situated between the Jewish quay and the Vigla or Vigilia, a night guardhouse); to make a gift to them of the church of St. Andrew at Dyrrhachium (Durazzo in Albania) with its tithes; to grant the Venetians free trade absolutely, with no duties of any sort, whether of custom, anchorage, and the like, in all the ports of the Empire. No magistrates might limit the commerce of the Venetians, and no restrictions as to goods or tariffs could affect them; in commercial and shipping matters 72 they became independent of all Greek jurisdiction. While the principle of exterritoriality had been recognized in other and earlier capitulations, the imperial "bull" of 1082 ranks among the first typical capitulations of which full and reliable record is available.

Among all the commercial nations of the Middle Ages, Venice gained first rank, and this preponderance the Republic of St. Marc was able to maintain (with short intervals when Genoa, in Constantinople at least, took her place) until the discovery of America and the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope.

Half oriental in its architecture, costumes, habits, and ideas, by virtue of its commerce the most cosmopolitan of the Italian cities, Venice became the connecting link between the east and the west, and the medium through which the arts, industries, etiquette, and diplomacy of the Orient were transplanted to western Europe, there to enter upon a career of fruitfulness and development.15

GENOA.

As Venice owed its progress to republican institutions which afforded free vent for the enterprise of its merchants, so the Tuscan Republics first entered upon their career of remarkable development when, toward the end of the eleventh century, shortly prior to the Crusades, their respective citizens acquired self-government under consuls elected by themselves.

For nearly two centuries the fleets of Venice and Genoa contended, as did formerly the navies of Rome and Carthage, for the supremacy of the sea, Venice ultimately predominating in the ports of Syria and Egypt and over the trade routes of the Euphrates and the Red Sea, while Genoa's hegemony prevailed in the Greek empire and in the Black Sea. Genoa's influence was greatly lessened by the Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1204 and, so far as the Greek Empire. was concerned, was brought to an end by the capture of Constantinople in 1453 when Galata, itself a walled city under Geneose administration, was at the height of its power under capitulations which, however, were renewed within a month by Mohammed, in virtually the same form.

Genoese statesmen had managed to be of service to the Greek Empire almost as early as the Venetians. In reward they obtained from the emperors various trade advantages which, however, did not at first comprise any specific provision for extraterritorial jurisdiction

15 Hill.

12 Miltitz, without sufficient warrant, includes criminal cases.

as in the Venetian capitulation or in that granted the Pisans by Alexius Comnenus in return for help against Count Bohemund of Antioch, both antedating the Genoese concessions.

BYZANTIUM.

73

As regards the Greek Empire, its commerce, which flourished abundantly as late as the reign of Justinian and even later, gradually became moribund under the weight of monopoly. In earlier days the Greeks had themselves gone to India and Persia to fetch spices, drugs, textiles, jewelry, and other oriental specialities. Even after they had lost portions of Asia Minor, all of Syria and Palestine, and Egypt to the Saracens, the Greeks still figured as a predominating factor in the commerce of the world as middlemen between the Arabs (who in turn dealt with Asia and Africa) and the nations of the west and the north. Ultimately Greek effeminacy and monkishness, indisposed to endure the strain of commercial activity, retired from the field in favor of the more vigorous and more aggressive Latins, Franks, and Northmen.

Leaving out the monarchy of China, the world was disputed by the three great empires of the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Franks. As appraised by Gibbon, their strength may be ascertained by a comparison of their courage, their arts, and riches, and their obedience to a supreme head who might call into action all the energies of the State. The Greeks, far inferior to their rivals in the first, were superior to the Franks and at least equal to the Saracens in the second and third of these qualifications.25

The entire world was influenced by Byzantium, sometimes called "the Paris of the Middle Ages." Through her the barbarians of the west obtained the idea of a more refined, more elegant life; through her the Slavs of the east were raised to the dignity of an historical existence; even the clever Arabs owe to her some of the splendor of Bagdad and Cordova." As the keeper for centuries of the treasures of ancient civilization, Byzantium justly occupies an important place in universal history.

In the Greek Empire the leading commercial centers next to Constantinople, which remained the chief emporium of the world, were Antioch and Trebizond. Salonika and Cherson also loomed large. In the Islamic world Alexandria vied with Bagdad, Barcelona, and Palermo for leadership in foreign commerce. The two latter cities, however, did not long abide in the possession of the Moslems. But Constantinople outshone even Bagdad and Cordova. "It is here," says Benjamin of Tudela, "in the queen of cities, that the tributes of the Greek Empire are annually deposited, and the lofty towers are filled with precious magazines of silk, purple, and gold. It is said that Constantinople pays each day to her sovereign 20,000 pieces of gold, which are levied on the shops, taverns, and markets, on the merchants of Persia and Egypt, of Russia and Hungary, of Italy and Spain, who frequent the capital by sea and land."

Gibbon.

78 Just as the Roman Emperor and later the Turkish Sultan so the Byzantine Emperor united in his person all the political and ecclesiastical power of the State, from the time of Justinian to the fall of Constantinople. Similar causes produce similar results. As in the Greek so also in the Turkish case, the centralized military power destroyed the free development of the popular forces, caused the monopolizing of nearly all branches of commerce and industry, and rendered impossible an orderly, equitable administration of justice.--Martens.

74 Chas. Diehl: Etudes Byzantines, Paris, 1905.

CHERSON, TREBIZOND, ANTIOCH.

In the Crimean peninsula Greeks early had founded a trading post under the name of Cherson, which for several centuries exercised a paramount influence in its commercial relations with the barbarians of the north, just as Trebizond, on the other side of the Black Sea, served the caravan trade of the east, of India and China, via Samarkand and Bokhara. Tana, on the Don, and Itel, on the Volga, ranked high as commercial outposts. Antioch, the capital of Syria, as the terminal on the Mediterranean of important caravan routes from the Persian Gulf, figured among the greatest trading cities of the Middle Ages. Its harbor, a few miles distant from the city itself (Seleuciaor Suedieh), was the meeting place of vessels of many nations. Here the Amalfites had a "factory" (fonduk), probably managed under capitulations, prior to the Crusades.

THE ARABS.

Travelers and traders par excellence, the Arabs, although they preferred the camel and the caravan, could boast a merchant marine of no mean size, and their sails were spread in many waters, especially in those of Asia-the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Indian Oceanbut also on the coasts of Africa and in the sea of China. The Arabs established governments and institutions in Asia, Africa, and Spain which in many respects served the Christians as models. "The use of the compass, gunpowder, books engraved on wood blocks, paper money, and astronomical lore are so many fruits gathered through intercourse with Mongols. Progress in the art of engineering and in the use of projectiles, development of the study of geography, medicine, botany, and mathematics, these were some of the effects of contact with the Arabs." To all this should be added, says Dr. Nys most appropriately, "a higher consideration, the widening of the circle of opinions, and the destruction of prejudices and errors." For 900 years Moslem culture influenced an essential part of the world. The light which flashed from Samarkand, Bagdad, and Cairo, from Cordova, Seville, and Valencia illuminated countries far and wide.

The Arabs not only left their intellectual impress upon Europe whose teachers they were for centuries: Our obligations to them in the arts of life are even more marked than in the higher branches of science. In agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce they achieved triumphs which forever will conspicuously associate them with the world's progress.

Describing the reception of a Greek Embassy to the Khalif in 917, the historian Abdulfeda suggests the glory of Bagdad at a time when Arab initiative and enterprise had given place to outward show of luxury:

The Khalif's whole army, both horse and foot, was under arms, which together made a body of 160,000. His state officers, the favorite slaves, stood near him in splendid apparel, their belts glittering with gold and gems. Near them were 7,000 eunuchs 4.000 of them white, the remainder black. The porters or doorkeepers were in number 700. Barges and boats, with the most superb decorations, were seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was the palace itself less splendid, in which were hung up 38,000 pieces of tapestry, 12.500 of which were of silk embroidered with gold. The carpets on the floor were 22,000. A hundred lions were brought out, with a keeper to each

Among the other spectacles of rare and stupendous luxury was a tree of gold and silver spreading into 18 large branches, on which, and on the lesser boughs, sat a variety of birds made of the same precious metals, as well as the leaves of the tree. While the machinery affected spontaneous motions, the several birds warbled their natural harmony. Through this scene of magnificance the Greek ambassador was led by the vizir to the foot of the Khalif's throne.25

In fetching from distant Asiatic and African markets goods needed and wanted in Europe, and which they deposited in Mediterranean and Black Sea ports to be withdrawn by the vessels from the west, the Arabs had often had administered to them the exterritorial system which they subsequently applied in Egypt, Syria, and Spain to the traders of Europe.

ARAB COLONY IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

Opinions differ as to when an Arab colony was first founded in Constantinople. It may be safely observed that a mosque was built in the Greek metropolis in the days of Emperor Leo the Isaurian (717).75 In 1049 Emperor Constantine Monomachus, in order to mollify the Turkish invader Ertoghrul, repaired the mosque and furnished it, at his own expense, with all requisites for the proper worship of Mohammed. That an Arab colony already existed is shown by a riot directed against it in 1044 by Armenians and Jews. These Arabs undoubtedly were governed by a Mohammedan official of their choice, but history, as we have it, leaves to Sultan Bayazid the satisfaction of establishing (1391) a kadi and a Turkish court in the metropolis of the Eastern Church.

ALEXANDRIA.

No trade route of the Middle Ages outranked that from India and China to Aden and thence to Egypt. This commercial highway drew also upon the resources of the eastern coast of Africa. Most frequently transshipment was effected at Aden into minor vessels familiar with the navigation of the Red Sea. At a point on the latter called Aidab, the merchandise was loaded onto camels for Assuan, there to be transferred into Nile boats and carried to Alexandria which, in the language of William of Tyre, had once more grown into "a public market for both worlds" (forum publicum utrique orbi). In 638 Egypt had been invaded by the Arabs, whose leader reported to the Khalif, Abu Bekr: "I have taken Alexandria, the great city of the West." In the heat of conquest, the Alexandrine library had been burned; the city had been dismantled. Soon, however, the Arab leaders set to work repairing the damage and Alexandria became once more a flourishing commercial metropolis on which numerous Italian, French, Spanish, and even Greek ports depended for their supply of cotton, sugar, and spices. In return, Amalfitan, Venetian, Pisan, and Genoese ships would carry to Egypt, iron, shipbuilding timber, and arms, not to mention slaves, and thus incur the condemnation of the church for rendering aid and comfort to the enemies of Christianity. While capitulations were entered into between the Sultans of Babylon (as El Kair or Cairo

25 Gibbon.

Von Hammer: Geschichte des Osmanischen Reichs, 1835; Heyd, Depping.