Constantinople, A.D. 718-1453: its increased prosperity—Manufactures of Greece—System of taxation, and of expenditure—Fleets, and mode of warfare—Struggle for maritime supremacy—Scandinavians—Muscovites, their trade and ships—Russians; their early commerce, and attempts to capture Constantinople—Their ships—The Normans, and their expeditions—Establish themselves in Italy, A.D. 1016—Amalfi—Futile attempts of the Normans to take Constantinople, A.D. 1081-1084—Rise of Venice—The cause of its prosperity—Spread of the Scythians, Huns, or Turks, A.D. 997-1028—The Crusades, A.D. 1095-1099—Siege of Acre, A.D. 1189—Armistice, A.D. 1192—Fourth Crusade, A.D. 1202—The effect of the Crusades on the commerce of Constantinople, and on its fall—Power of Venice, A.D. 1202; her ships join in the Crusade, which was afterwards altered from its original design—They besiege and take Constantinople, A.D. 1204—Commerce declines under the Latins, but revives on the restoration of the Empire, A.D. 1261—Genoa—Genoese settlement at Galata and Pera—Arrogance of the Genoese, who at last rebel, A.D. 1348, and declare war, A.D. 1349—The progress of the Turks, A.D. 1341-47—Their fleet—First use of gunpowder and of large cannon—The Turks finally become masters of the Eastern capital, A.D. 1453.
Constantinople, A.D. 718-1453: its increased prosperity.
Although the Greeks had suffered considerable hardship during the thirteen months they were besieged by the Saracens, the siege was no sooner raised than they returned to their usual occupations with increased energy. The losses they had sustained, by an interruption to their maritime commerce, and the curtailment of their home manufactures, required to be met with renewed vigour. Fresh commercial projects were formed and carried into effect with remarkable energy; circumstances favoured their efforts; trade rapidly increased, manufactures flourished; and, as the cities of the West had fallen with the decline of the ancient empire, Constantinople secured a large portion of their commerce, and became a centre of commercial intercourse, equalled only in wealth and influence by Baghdad, the capital city of the Arabian Khalifs.
Nor was her prosperity transient in its nature. During nearly three centuries Constantinople continued to be the principal seat of commercial exchange, increasing in power and influence as the Christians of Syria, Egypt, and Africa respectively shook off the yoke of the Khalifs, and returned to their allegiance to the emperor of the East. Those who had gone to settle in the capital took with them whatever portion of their movable wealth had eluded the search of their oppressors, and Constantinople thus acquired the fugitive trade of Alexandria and Tyre. The chiefs of Armenia and Scythia, flying from hostile or religious persecution, were alike hospitably entertained, and their followers encouraged to build new cities, and to cultivate waste lands within the limits and under the protection of the empire. Increased facilities were afforded to persons engaged in trade and manufactures, and some symptoms of a liberal policy may be traced in a law exempting from personal taxes the mariners of the Peloponnesus, the workmen in parchment and purple, and the manufacturers of linen, wool, and silk. These arts not merely afforded employment to many persons in Constantinople, but to a still greater number in Corinth, Thebes, and Argos. Moreover, from the reign of Justinian to the twelfth century, Greece was the only country in Christendom possessing silkworms, or workmen familiar with the art of preparing their produce.
Manufactures of Greece.
Gibbon describes the manufactures of Greece, during the period of Constantinople’s greatest prosperity, as unequalled in elegance and fineness by any similar manufactures of either ancient or modern times. “The gifts,” he states, “which a rich and generous matron of Peloponnesus presented to the Emperor Basil, her adopted son, were doubtless fabricated in the Grecian looms. Danielis bestowed a carpet of fine wool, of a pattern which imitated the spots of a peacock’s tail, of a magnitude to overspread the floor of a new church, erected in the triple names of Christ, of Michael the Archangel, and of the prophet Elijah. She gave six hundred pieces of silk and linen of various use and denomination; the silk was painted with the Tyrian die, and adorned by the labours of the needle; and the linen was so exquisitely fine, that an entire piece might be rolled in the hollow of a cane.”[351] The value of these manufactures was estimated according to the weight and quality of the article, the closeness of the texture, and the beauty of the colours; some, too, of the embroidery is said to have been of the most exquisite description.
System of taxation, and of expenditure.
But though the mariners and some of the manufacturers were relieved from personal taxation, we have the authority of Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Constantinople in the twelfth century, for the statement that the taxes fell very heavily on the ordinary shopkeepers, and on the merchants of foreign countries who frequented the capital.[352] Nor, indeed, could this have been otherwise, where a system of pomp and luxury was promoted by the imperial rulers, scarcely less than that which had mainly caused the ruin of Rome.
Fleets, and mode of warfare.
But, besides this, vast sums of money were required to maintain the army and navy, as the command of the Mediterranean, from the mouth of the Tanais (Don) to the Columns of Hercules, was always claimed and often possessed by the successors of Constantine. To secure an adequate fleet, the capital was filled with naval stores and skilled artificers; the native Greeks, from long practice among their own bays and islands, formed excellent sailors; while the trade of Venice and Amalfi also supplied an excellent nursery of seamen for the imperial squadrons.