Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/561

 *



to reinstate the Greek dynasty, then fugitive at Nicæa in Asia; and to demand as their reward the entire command of the commerce of the empire, with an exclusive monopoly of the trade of the Black Sea. Nothing could well have surpassed the audacity of this enterprise. If Genoa failed, her commerce in Greece, at least, would be extinguished; while if she succeeded, she was certain to bring down upon herself the thunders of the Latin Church, the hatred of the Franks, and the vengeance of the Venetians. But the Genoese only thought of humiliating Venice, and of securing for themselves fresh monopolies; and they were for a time completely successful. Their navy brought back the Greek dynasty to Constantinople, and they themselves, armed with an imperial diploma, converted the suburbs of that city into a fortress for their own protection.

Having made Galata (now Pera) a place of great strength, their port soon became the entrepôt of commerce with the North and East. With vessels especially adapted for the navigation of the Black Sea, the Genoese, unlike the Greeks, did not intermit their voyages during even the most inclement months of winter; and Kaffa, through their enterprise and influence, thus became a place of great commercial importance as the factory for the receipt of the productions of the north of Persia and of India, which came thither by way of Astracan and the Caspian Sea. The Genoese, however, like the Venetians, were but too frequently harsh and imperious masters, forbidding foreigners to make purchases or sales among themselves, and requiring that every transaction should pass through the hands of their own