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minutely specified. Statutory enactments even regulated the fashion of dress for both sexes, the expense of nuptials, and the number and quality of the viands allowed on such occasions, "in order to avoid any appearance of luxury and extravagance in a people depending on their own industry alone for their national greatness and prosperity;" indeed, the enactments went so far as to forbid retail dealings in some of the more costly descriptions of cloth, in order to prevent their being worn by the citizens.

The influential and important board of the "Six consuls of the sea," which regulated the naval affairs of Florence, made all the commercial agreements with foreign states, fixed the quantity and quality of merchandise to be embarked in the public galleys destined for any new and direct trade with the Levant, and kept minute accounts of these voyages. Its members were responsible for their economical management. With them also rested the appointment of the consuls in foreign states; a general superintendence of commerce, with exclusive jurisdiction in maritime causes; and the care of the woods, buildings, chases, and fisheries, besides various other duties totally unconnected with either ships or commerce. Nor did their multifarious duties, as multifarious as those of a modern English Board of Trade, end here. They had power to impose on certain classes of foreign goods and manufactures high and, in some cases, prohibitory duties, "for the encouragement of native industry in those spots where local circumstances, and the natural bent of the people, promised successful competition."