The records of Marseilles demonstrate that the French had for many centuries carried on an important trade with all the Mediterranean ports, as also with India by way of Alexandria,[651] but they do not seem to have made voyages to any of the Atlantic ports. Though daring as mariners in the early portion of their commercial career, the French relapsed during the middle ages into idleness, and, with the exception of the inhabitants of Marseilles, were more notorious as wreckers, who plundered any vessel cast on their shores, than as industrious and honest seamen. Those who resided on its western shores had a wide field for their plunder; for in those days, when vessels hugged the land, the wrecks were numerous along that portion of their coast and especially in the Bay of Biscay, which has been proverbial throughout all time for the storms and the heavy seas which roll in upon it from the Atlantic.
Spain; its early commercial importance.
Spain, after having been conquered by a mixed multitude of Orientals, had by the eleventh century reached a position in manufactures, commerce, and science, superior to that of any country of the West, its port of Barcelona[652] being the principal centre of the intercourse with the eastern countries bordering upon the Mediterranean. Relieved too, except in its south-eastern provinces, towards the close of the ninth century from the yoke of the Saracens, her people had slowly but surely increased in influence and power. Intrepid as mariners, and skilled in ship-building, the Catalonians built not merely all the vessels they required for their own trade, but supplied foreigners to a large extent with their galleys and ships of burden. The ship-owners of Barcelona were then largely employed by the merchants of France, Flanders, and other nations, and stood so high in repute that even the nobility of Spain at that time, and for centuries afterwards, did not disdain to be ship-owners. As the Barcelonians lived under neither an oligarchy nor aristocracy, a certain republican equality subsisted among its citizens. A hundred merchants administered the municipal affairs of the city, and sent thirty-two members to the Council. They also exercised the duties of the consulate and regulated the exchange, sending men chosen from their body as representatives to the Cortes of the provinces. The whole of the early history of the trade of Barcelona[653] shows that its inhabitants owed their progress rather to their natural inclinations for the sea, and their rapidity and skill as mariners and ship-builders, than to the peculiar advantage of the port or to any local consideration.
Superior influence of the Venetians, which was invariably used to their own advantage.
But the Venetians still kept ahead of all their commercial rivals; and when invited as we have seen to transport the Crusaders to the Holy Land, they were strong enough to stipulate, over and above the exorbitant freight which they had obtained, for the privilege of establishing factories in any place where the arms of the Crescent were replaced by those of the Cross. Nor were these extravagant terms sufficient. In the latter Crusades their exactions were increased. Thus, Venice then demanded and obtained a moiety of whatever the Crusaders acquired by arms or by convention, with the assumption, after the fall of Constantinople, of many special advantages, such as the general lordship over Greece, and of the towns of Heraclea, Adrianople, Gallipoli, Patras, and Durazzo, with the islands of Andros, Naxos, and Zante. These acquisitions materially increased the wealth and influence of the Venetian republic, and left it almost without a rival in the waters of the Levant.
Participation of Genoa and Pisa in the profits derived from the Crusades.
It may therefore be assumed that during the long and protracted wars in the Holy Land, Venice was, without doubt, the first maritime power in Christendom, for, as we have shown, there was then no other power which had ships enough to convey the hosts of fanatics who, from every nation in Europe, were hurrying on to the coasts of Syria;[654] and although Genoa and Pisa also participated in the profits realized from the Crusades, she was by far the greatest gainer. Indeed it has been well said of her people, that while the Christians lavished money on the Crusades without any return, the Venetians turned everything they touched to an incredible profit. Besides furnishing the largest proportion of the transports, she secured many contracts for military stores and provisions; while her ships were the principal storehouses from which the armies were supplied at enormous profits to their owners. “There are charters yet extant,” remarks Dr. Robertson, in his History of the Reign of Charles V.,[655] “containing grants to the Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese, of the most extensive immunities in the several settlements which the Christians made in Asia. All the commodities which they imported or exported are thereby exempted from any imposition; the property of entire suburbs in some of the maritime towns, and of large streets in others, is vested in them; and all questions arising among persons settled within their precincts, or who traded under their protection, are appointed to be tried by their own laws, and by judges of their own appointment.”
A.D. 1124.
Venice claims the dominion of the Adriatic, A.D. 1159.
Nor were the Venetians in all cases satisfied with a moiety of the spoils of war beyond their gains by trade. Historians say[656] that, when Tyre was besieged by the united forces of the republic and of Varemond, bishop of Jerusalem, the Venetians stipulated that on its reduction they should receive two-thirds of the spoil and property captured. Indeed, the troops on shore complained loudly that while all the fatigue, dangers, and hardships of the two months’ siege fell upon them, the Venetians lay at ease in their ships, deriving large profits on everything they supplied, and exacting their full portion of the plunder agreed upon before the operations commenced. Thus riches poured into Venice securing for her a position far beyond that of any other republic. Having brought under subjection the people inhabiting the shores of the Adriatic, she claimed its dominion; the declaration of Pope Alexander III. when he visited Venice confirmed her claims; and other nations admitted them when they asked permission to pass their merchandise and ships through the Gulf. But when the Pope exclaimed to the Doge, “That the sea be subject to you, as the spouse is to her husband, since you have acquired it by victory,” he had little idea that the Venetians would consider its dominion as more than an honorary title, much less that they would compel even the clergy to pay their share of the tax levied for the special defence of the Adriatic.