Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/182

 JH

IIISKJJCV UJ' 1NJ>1A.

(liooK i

A.D. 1453.

Tlie Floren- tines.

European demand for Indian com- modities.

Capture of Constanti- nople by the Tuiks.

both by the overhind rijute across Syi'ia, Jiiid Ijy the way of the Red Sea. With this view the Venetian senate was empowered to appoint two eoiwuLs, with mercantile jurisdiction, tlie one to reside at Damascus and the other at Alex- andria. Both of these cities were accordingly resorted to Ijy Venetian mer- chants and artisans; while at Beyrout, as the port of the former, and in the harbour of the hitter, mercantile vessels bearing the Venetian flag far outnum- bered those of all other countries. The Genoese, contented with their undisimted monopoly at Constantinople, seem not at this time to have made any attempt to share in the advantages which the Egyptian sultans had conferred on the Vene- tians; but the Florentines, after they had, by the conquest of Pisa, in 1405, acquired the seaport of Leghorn, turned their attention to the Indian trade, and succeeded, in 1425, in concluding a treaty which placed them on the same footing as the Venetians in respect of commercial privilege. Tlie earnest attempts thus made to share in the trade to the East Indies, would of themselves lead to tlie conclusion that a taste for the products of the- regions included under that general name must no longer have been confined, as at fii'st, to a few countries on the eastern part of the Mediterranean, but must have spread far west and north, so as to include a large portion of Europe. The fact was really so ; and there is not much difficulty in accounting for it. Many of the most distinguished leaders of the Crusades, with their followers, came from those quartei-s ; and on their return brought home with them new ideas and new wants. To theii" astonishment they had found that in several points, usually considered as tests of civilization, they were far surpassed by the infidels whom they had been accus- tomed to regard as mere barbarians. Galled by their inferiority in these respects, they had little difficulty in learning to sm-mount it ; and imbibed tastes and formed habits which they could not indvilge in the absence of Eastern pro- ducts. The demand naturally produced a supply; and Italian ships, freighted with these products, were frequently seen in the English Channel, in the Gennan Ocean, and even within the Baltic. In course of time the maritime spirit of the North was completely roused ; and its merchants, instead of waiting for Italian visits, sent theii- own vessels into the MediteiTanean, and there became pur- chasers of Indian produce at second hand from the Florentines, Venetians, and Genoese. In this traffic the lead was taken by the cities of the Hanseatic League, and ])articularly by Bruges, which in consequence became one of the most populous and floui'ishing marts in Northern Europe.

The Genoese were still in possession of theii- monopoly in 1453, when an event occurred which abruptly terminated it, and was followed by a series of disasters which ultimately annihilated their maritime greatness. This event was the captiu^e of Constantinople, and the extinction of the Greek empire, by the Turks under Mahomet II. They made an effort to escape the destruction which threatened them, by attempting to form a commercial treaty with the Mameluke Sultans of Egypt ; but the monopoly which they had held at Con-