Even during the dark centuries that followed the end of the Roman Empire, some trade with the Orient had been carried on by the cities of Italy and southern France. The crusades, which brought East and West face to face, greatly increased this trade. The Mediterranean lands first felt the stimulating effects of intercourse with the Orient, but before long the commercial revival extended to the rest of Europe.
ASIATIC TRADE ROUTES
Before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope the spices, drugs, incense, carpets, tapestries, porcelains, and gems of India, China, and the East Indies reached the West by three main routes. All had been used in ancient times. [16] The central and most important route led up the Persian Gulf and Tigris River to Bagdad, from which city goods went by caravan to Antioch or Damascus. The southern route reached Cairo and Alexandria by way of the Red Sea and the Nile. By taking advantage of the monsoons, a merchant ship could make the voyage from India to Egypt in about three months. The northern route, entirely overland, led to ports on the Black Sea and thence to Constantinople. It traversed high mountain passes and long stretches of desert, and could profitably be used only for the transport of valuable articles small in bulk. The conquests of the Ottoman Turks greatly interfered with the use of this route by Christians after the middle of the fifteenth century.
EUROPEAN TRADE ROUTES
Oriental goods, upon reaching the Mediterranean, could be transported by water to northern Europe. Every year the Venetians sent a fleet loaded with eastern products to Bruges in Flanders, a city which was the most important depot of trade with Germany, England, and Scandinavia. Bruges also formed the terminus of the main overland route leading from Venice over the Alps and down the Rhine. But as the map indicates, many other commercial highways linked the Mediterranean with the North Sea and the Baltic.
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS
It is important to note that until late in the Middle Ages trade existed, not between nations, but between cities. A merchant of London was almost as much a foreigner in any other English city as he would have been in Bruges, Paris, or Cologne. Consequently, each city needed to make commercial treaties with its neighbors, stipulating what were the privileges and obligations of its merchants, wherever they went. It was not until the kings grew strong in western Europe that merchants could rely on the central government, rather than on local authorities, for protection.
[Illustration: Map, MEDIEVAL TRADE ROUTES
Land Routes
Water Routes
Marco Polo's Route]