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the ships of the military orders, and levied upon them vexatious duties. The two orders complained to the constable of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and the vessels of the Marseillais with their other property were about to be seized by force in the port of Acre, but a negotiation set on foot at Marseilles happily prevented a rupture. In 1234 the burgesses, convened together at the Hotel de Ville at Marseilles, gave permission by a solemn act to the two orders of the Temple and of St. John of Jerusalem to send respectively two ships each, annually, to their port, one at Easter and one at Midsummer, to load or unload any goods they pleased under payment of the usual duties. Each vessel might take on board any number of merchant passengers who desired to make the voyage, and fifteen hundred pilgrims. In the event of the Templars and Hospitallers requiring more vessels to carry cargo belonging to their convents, they were permitted to despatch them; but these supplementary vessels were not permitted to embark either merchants, or pilgrims, as passengers.

Although religious differences were professedly not allowed to interfere with foreign commerce; and although in a convention made between the bishop and the commonalty it was stipulated that all Christians, Jews, and Saracens should have the right of frequenting Marseilles with their merchandise, of discharging their ships' cargoes, and of selling and buying unrestrictedly; yet the records of the Customs show, that while the duties were one denier per livre upon numerous imports, the burgesses of Marseilles were exempt from this duty, and