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 254 General History of Europe III. BUSINESS IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 414. Revival of Business. The chief reason for the growth of the towns and their increasing prosperity was a great develop- ment of trade throughout western Europe. Commerce had pretty much disappeared with the decline of the Roman roads and the general disorganization produced by the barbarian invasions. In the early Middle Ages there were no officials whose business it was to keep up the ancient Roman thoroughfares. The great network of highways from Persia to Britain fell apart when independent nobles or small isolated communities took the place of a world empire. All trade languished, for there was little demand for articles of luxury and there was but little money to buy what we should consider the comforts of life ; even the nobility lived uncom- fortably enough in their dreary and rudely furnished castles. 415. Italian Cities trade with the Orient. In Italy, however, trade does not seem to have altogether ceased. Venice, Genoa, Amalfi, and other towns appear to have developed a considerable Mediterranean commerce even before the Crusades. The Italian cities established trading stations in the East and carried on a direct traffic with the caravans which brought to the shores of the Mediterranean the products of Arabia, Persia, India, and the Spice Islands. 416. Commerce stimulates Industry. So long as the manor system prevailed and each man was occupied in producing only what he and the other people on the estate needed, there was nothing to send abroad and nothing to exchange for luxuries. But when merchants began to come with tempting articles, the mem- bers of a community were encouraged to produce a surplus of goods above what they themselves needed and to sell or exchange this surplus for commodities coming from a distance. Merchants and artisans gradually directed their energies toward the produc- tion of what others wished as well as what was needed by the little group to which they belonged. 417. The Luxuries of the East introduced into Europe. The people of Europe were astonished and delighted by the