Each feudal estate, therefore, became a sort of industrial centre by itself, producing its own food-stuffs and much of the coarser manufactures. It was not a very high condition of enlightenment, but it was much better than the one which preceded it, for at least it offered protection. It encouraged a certain amount of trade and commerce, because the feudal lord had many wants, and he was usually willing to protect the merchant who supplied them.
The Crusades and Commerce.—The Crusades, or wars by which the Christians sought to recover the Holy Land from the Turk, resulted in a trade between Europe and India that grew to wonderful proportions. Silk fabrics, cotton cloth, precious stones, ostrich plumes, ivory, spices, and drugs—all of which were practically unknown in Europe—were eagerly sought by the nobility and their dependencies. In return, linen and woollen fabrics, leather goods, glassware, blacklead, and steel implements were carried to the far East.
Milan, Florence, Venice and Genoa, Constantinople and a number of less important towns along the Mediterranean basin became important trade centres, but Venice and Genoa grew to be world powers in commerce. Not only were they great receiving and distributing depots of trade, but they were great manufacturing centres as well.
The routes over which this enormous commerce was carried were few in number. For the greater part, the Venetian trade went to Alexandria, and thence by the Red Sea to India. Genoese merchants sent their goods to Constantinople and Trebizond, thence down the Tigris River to the Persian Gulf and to India. There was also another route that had been used by the Phœnicians. It extended from Tyre through Damascus and Palmyra[2] to the head of the Persian Gulf; this gradually fell into disuse after the founding of Alexandria.
The general effects of this trade were very far-reaching. To the greater number of the people of Europe, the countries of India, China, and Japan were mythical. According to tradition they were infested with dragons and gryphons, and peopled by dog-headed folk or by one-eyed Arimaspians. About the first real information of them to be spread over Europe was brought by Marco Polo, whose father and uncle had travelled all through these countries during the latter part of the thirteenth century.[3] Marco Polo's writings were very widely read, and influenced a great many people who could not be reached through the ordinary channels of commerce. So between the wars of the Crusades on the one hand, and the growth of commerce on the other, a new and a better civilization began to spread over Europe.
The Turkish Invasions.—But the magnificent trade that had thus grown up was checked for a time by an unforeseen factor. The half-savage Turkomans living southeast of Russia had become converted to the religion of Islam, and in their zeal for the new belief, determined to destroy the commerce which seemed to be connected with Christianity. So they moved in upon the borderland between Europe and Asia, and one after another the trade routes were tightly closed. Then they captured Constantinople, and the routes between Genoa and the Orient were hermetically sealed. Moslem power also spread over Syria and Egypt, and so, little by little, the trade of Venice was throttled.
ROUTES TO INDIA—THE TURK CHANGES THE COMMERCE OF THE WORLD
Now a commerce that involved not only many millions of dollars, but the employment of thousands of people as well, is not likely to be given up without a struggle. So the energy that had been devoted to this great trade was turned in a new direction, and there began a search for a new route to India—one that the Turks could not blockade.