BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aside from the current manuals of the history of commerce very little has appeared in English on the routes and wares of the Levant trade. Lincoln Hutchinson, *Oriental trade and the rise of the Lombard Communes, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1901-2, 16: 413-432 (esp. 415-421), can be recommended; and Cheyney, **Eur. background, has two excellent chapters on the subject (Levant wares in chap. 1; routes in chap. 2).
The reader will have to rely largely on accounts of the crusades, in which there are incidental references to commerce: Adams, *Civ.; Robinson (* bibliography); Emerton, Med. Eur. (bibliog.); etc.
CHAPTER XI
COMMERCE OF SOUTHERN EUROPE
100. Position of Venice; early history.—The course of the eastern trade can best be followed in connection with the fortunes of the city of Venice which still shows, in the splendid palaces lining its canals, the evidence of its former greatness.
The beginnings of the city are traced back to the period of barbarian invasions when fugitives from the mainland sought shelter on the islands a short distance from shore. The inhabitants, thus protected from the unending wars of the feudal period, were at the same time forced to seek their living on the sea, first as fishermen but more and more as merchants. The Italian conquests of the Emperor Justinian (about 500 A.D.), brought them into relations with Constantinople which were maintained by trade and frequent embassies. Even before the year 1000 the Venetians had won a secure position in Constantinople by an imperial charter which granted them, among other privileges, freedom from the vexatious tolls and delays imposed by subordinate customs officers. Still more important was a charter of 1082, which granted lands and buildings in Constantinople for a special Venetian quarter, which freed the Venetians from all taxes and at the same time required their trade rivals, the Amalfitani, to pay taxes to them for the right to trade.
101. Expansion of Venetian empire during the crusades.—Before the crusades, therefore, Venice had a commanding position in the eastern trade. It confirmed this position by a series of bitter struggles with its rivals, especially the cities of Genoa and Pisa which were rising to great prominence. These cities imperiled for a time Venetian control of the Black Sea trade at Constantinople; but the outcome of the fourth crusade (1204), was a victory for Venice which left her supremacy for the time unquestioned.
THE VENETIAN EMPIRE
In the share taken by them in the partition of the Eastern Empire the Venetians showed that common sense which is always found at the bottom of all their actions. They left to the crusaders the inland provinces and took for themselves the coast-towns and islands which promised the best commercial returns and were easiest to defend. In Constantinople itself they took a large part of the city, in which their podestat ruled almost as an independent sovereign. At places commanding the all-important sea route to the East, in the Peloponnesus or Morea, in Crete and in Eubœa, naval stations were established under the control of officers sent out by the home government. The strict rules by which these officers were governed gives an insight into the discipline which existed in the Venetian foreign service. In every place in which the Venetians founded a principality their capital was surrounded by Italian colonies; there where one found formerly only nests of pirates, the terror of Venetian commerce, one found now friendly ports, refuges fortified and secure, where Venetian captains and merchants, certain of a good reception, could ask asylum and protection.