Early efforts of France to restore the civilization of
Europe—Charlemagne, A.D. 771-814—Protection against
pirates—Efforts of Venice to suppress piracy—Rise of
Marseilles—Monopoly in shipping trade—Customs on shipping—Spain;
its early commercial importance—Superior influence of
the Venetians, which was invariably used to their own
advantage—Participation of Genoa and Pisa in the profits derived
from the Crusades—Venice claims the dominion of the Adriatic,
A.D. 1159—Annual ceremony of espousing the Adriatic—Bucentaur
state barge—Form of espousal—The progress and commercial
policy of Venice—Variable character of her laws, A.D. 1272;
which were protective generally, especially as regards her
ships—Official exposition of the trade of Venice—Her ships and
dockyards—Merchant galleys—Their greatest size—Contract for the
construction of vessels—Great variety of classes—The Gondola—The
Tarida—The Zelander—The Huissier—The Cat—The Saitie—The Galliot,
&c.—The Galeass—The Galleon—The Buzo—Government merchant
galleys—How engaged, equipped, and manned—Nobles’ sons taken
on board—Capacity of these vessels—Crew, and regulations on
board—Value of their cargoes—Despatch boats—Consuls; their
establishment, duties and emoluments—Ancient ships’ consuls; their
duties—The Cartel—Conditions of the contract—Restraints upon
seamen—Extraordinary display on the departure of any important
expedition—The reception of the commander, and his plan of
inspection—Signal to depart—Adaptation of merchant vessels to the
purposes of war—Regulations at sea—Stringent rules to regulate the
loading of vessels.
[Sidenote: Early efforts of France to restore the civilization of
Europe.]
[Sidenote: About A.D. 500.]
France may be ranked among the earliest nations which emerged from
the darkness and inactivity into which Europe had fallen, after the
invasion of the barbarous tribes of the north; her Merovingian
princes, who were highly civilized compared with even the best of
the marauders who had overrun the Roman provinces, having devoted
themselves to agricultural and other industrial pursuits, and having
thus paved the way for the revival of maritime commerce. As the
barbarians had divided what Rome had united, and Europe was broken up
into innumerable communities with no interest in common, navigation
could not be otherwise than dangerous in seas infested by pirates,
while strangers could not count on friendly reception at ports occupied
by semi-civilized nations: the French princes, however, by the
suppression of the Visigoths, obtained possession of Marseilles, then,
with the exception of Constantinople, the most important commercial
city in Europe, and thus caused their civilizing influence to be felt
along the shores of the Levant.
But Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, at this period slowly succeeded
in rivalling, if not in superseding, the great maritime city of the
French. The practice of piracy, however, unfortunately continued long
after civilization had again dawned on the shores of the Levant; nor,
indeed, as we have seen, did Amalfi, though the first to do so, become
really worthy of note as a commercial entrepôt till the close of the
eighth century, and even then its maritime commerce was comparatively
insignificant and of little importance, until a more enlightened ruler
removed a yet further portion of the dark cloud still hanging over the
fairest portions of the continent of Europe.
[Sidenote: Charlemagne, A.D. 771-814.]
[Sidenote: Protection against pirates.]
The extensive conquests of Charlemagne, unlike those of but too many of
more ancient times, tended to spread far and wide the benign influence
of civilization, and to secure by all possible means the peaceful
operations of trade. The security of property once re-established, the
enterprise and cupidity of mankind discovered with alacrity cheap and
expeditious modes for exchanging the products of labour with distant
as well as with neighbouring nations. To encourage the people under
his rule to enter upon commercial transactions, Charlemagne concluded
treaties of commerce with various foreign princes, including the Saxon
kings of the Heptarchy, to which reference has been already made. He
repaired the lighthouse built by Caligula at Boulogne, erecting fresh
ones at those points where the greatest danger was to be apprehended,
provided effectual means of defence against the pirates and the
Saracens, and encouraged those of his people who were willing to embark
in over-sea occupations.
[Sidenote: A.D. 838.]
This new commercial energy, which first showed itself under the kings
of Lombardy, rapidly bore fruit, when Charlemagne resolved that the
trading rights of Amalfi, Venice, Marseilles, and of other cities
should be rigorously respected. His son, Louis le Débonnaire, followed
the bright example of his illustrious father; but the destruction of
Marseilles by the Saracens shortly after his death put an end for a
while to the progress of commerce in the south of France. Nor, indeed,
was Charles the Bold successful in recovering the losses sustained
by the capture of Marseilles, while the invasion and piracies of the
Normans on the north side of France, and the repeated attacks of the
Saracens on the south, well nigh destroyed the seeds of progress sown
by Charlemagne, so that the preservation of any form of civilization
for some time seemed almost hopeless.
[Sidenote: Efforts of Venice to suppress piracy.]
But the exiles from other nations, who had, three centuries before,
planted their future homes on a few barren isles in the Adriatic, now,
A.D. 997, raised a fleet to suppress the Istrians and Dalmatians, who
had made descents upon their city by sea as well as by land. Sailing
in pursuit of their enemies, they destroyed or captured many of their
vessels, compelling them to sue for peace, by these means proving to
the neighbouring nations that they were strong enough to vindicate
their rights and to protect their commerce. From that period the power
and influence of Venice steadily advanced. The natural advantages
of the city, in point of security, more than counterbalanced the
inconveniences attending her situation; while the character of her
constitution and laws afforded a guarantee that industrious and
intelligent citizens would reap the full reward of their labour.
Gradually rising by her industry, daring,[647] frugality, and above all
by her prudence in keeping aloof from the dissensions of other peoples,
and confining herself as much as possible to commerce, she obtained
extensive privileges from the Greek emperors, and became not only the
commercial emporium of Italy but also of Greece.
[Sidenote: Rise of Marseilles.]
We have already referred to the extensive trade carried on by
Marseilles at a very early period, and pointed out the many advantages
which the situation of that port conferred upon its possessors with
regard to the trade of the Mediterranean; advantages which might now
be extended and materially developed by the passage for large vessels
across the Isthmus of Suez, if the rulers of France would only adopt
a more liberal and enlightened policy. We have likewise attempted to
describe the commerce of Marseilles under the Roman Empire, which, so
far as can now be traced, must have been of considerable importance;
but, like other commercial towns, its early history, in connection with
the business of shipping, is shrouded in doubt and in the mystery of
romance.
Various writers, however, confirm the prevailing opinion that the
shipping belonging to or frequenting Marseilles was very considerable
during the dark and early part of the middle ages, as great numbers
of pilgrims took their departure from that port to the Holy Land,
although it is not until the time of the Crusades that we have any
authentic records of the extent of the intercourse between the two
places: however, from these records, it is manifest that trade
attracted pilgrims to Jerusalem quite as much as devotion, or, at
least, that one speculation by no means excluded the other. Though
ready to mingle commerce with their devotion, there is no doubt that
when the fervour for the Crusades rose to enthusiasm, the people of
Marseilles were among the foremost in this infatuation. They not
merely conveyed numbers of crusaders and pilgrims in their ships, but
the noble families of Marseilles entered freely into these fanatical
expeditions, while the city itself advanced large sums of money and
was liberal in its presents to the Frank lords who obtained oriental
principalities.[648]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1163.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1190.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1279.]
Hence, during the domination of the Franks in Syria, the most intimate
relations subsisted between them and the city of Marseilles. Thus, in
1163 the Marseillais lent Rodolph, bishop of Bethlehem, two thousand
two hundred and eight bezants upon security of his castle and his
possessions in the city of Acre. In 1190 they assisted in besieging
that city, and obtained, as the price of their services, various
commercial advantages. In 1279 they sent corn to the Grand Master of
the Order of Jerusalem, by which means their mercantile franchises were
confirmed in Palestine: indeed, the history of Marseilles records many
services rendered to the potentates of the time, the consideration
for which was, however, invariably the concession of some commercial
franchise or the confirmation of ancient privileges, so that amidst all
their religious enthusiasm they never forgot their own interests.
[Sidenote: Monopoly in shipping trade.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1234.]
The spirit of monopoly soon, however, exhibited itself at Marseilles
as in other places. Her viscounts, who were the lords paramount at the
time, had permitted ships belonging to the order of the Temple and of
St. John of Jerusalem to frequent the port of Marseilles; but when the
commonalty of that city were enfranchised from the jurisdiction of
the viscounts, they refused to recognize the freedom of 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.
[Sidenote: Customs on shipping.]
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 that the shipping of the Levant was placed in a different
category. Syrian merchandise paid two bezants[649] and a half per
livre; from Alexandria, the rate was one bezant and a half; and from
the island of Gerbi, upon the coast of Africa, three bezants and a
half. There were also other municipal dues. If a foreign ship in the
port of Marseilles took on board pilgrims, passengers, or cargo for the
Levant, the owner was obliged to pay the commonalty one-third of the
freight. It will be seen, therefore, that Marseilles exacted as high
differential duties as her republican neighbours of Italy.
Again, while the Christian religious bodies received many privileges
as shippers, the Jews throughout the whole of this period were ground
down under excessive taxes. In the same spirit, the Venetians shut
them out from the Damascus trade; the Spaniards, as far as they could,
expelled them from Spain, and they were then universally persecuted,
as much, it may be, from popular indignation against the social
evils they were supposed to promote, as from the hatred engendered by
religious prejudice. Yet, in spite of the atrocious treatment which
the Jews[650] received from the so-called Christians, they were the
means of greatly developing the commerce of the middle ages, and have
ever since rendered important service in promoting friendly intercourse
between nations, and thereby extending civilization. To the Jews, as
much as to the Lombard merchants, we are indebted for the introduction
of bills of exchange, by which great facilities have been afforded for
the development of trade, and a system of the most perfect security
established for remittances to the most distant parts of the globe.
The records of Marseilles demonstrate that the French had for many
centuries carried on an important trade with all the Mediterranean
ports, as also with India by way of Alexandria,[651] but they do not
seem to have made voyages to any of the Atlantic ports. Though daring
as mariners in the early portion of their commercial career, the French
relapsed during the middle ages into idleness, and, with the exception
of the inhabitants of Marseilles, were more notorious as wreckers, who
plundered any vessel cast on their shores, than as industrious and
honest seamen. Those who resided on its western shores had a wide field
for their plunder; for in those days, when vessels hugged the land, the
wrecks were numerous along that portion of their coast and especially
in the Bay of Biscay, which has been proverbial throughout all time for
the storms and the heavy seas which roll in upon it from the Atlantic.
[Sidenote: Spain; its early commercial importance.]
Spain, after having been conquered by a mixed multitude of Orientals,
had by the eleventh century reached a position in manufactures,
commerce, and science, superior to that of any country of the West, its
port of Barcelona[652] being the principal centre of the intercourse
with the eastern countries bordering upon the Mediterranean. Relieved
too, except in its south-eastern provinces, towards the close of the
ninth century from the yoke of the Saracens, her people had slowly but
surely increased in influence and power. Intrepid as mariners, and
skilled in ship-building, the Catalonians built not merely all the
vessels they required for their own trade, but supplied foreigners to
a large extent with their galleys and ships of burden. The ship-owners
of Barcelona were then largely employed by the merchants of France,
Flanders, and other nations, and stood so high in repute that even the
nobility of Spain at that time, and for centuries afterwards, did not
disdain to be ship-owners. As the Barcelonians lived under neither an
oligarchy nor aristocracy, a certain republican equality subsisted
among its citizens. A hundred merchants administered the municipal
affairs of the city, and sent thirty-two members to the Council. They
also exercised the duties of the consulate and regulated the exchange,
sending men chosen from their body as representatives to the Cortes
of the provinces. The whole of the early history of the trade of
Barcelona[653] shows that its inhabitants owed their progress rather to
their natural inclinations for the sea, and their rapidity and skill as
mariners and ship-builders, than to the peculiar advantage of the port
or to any local consideration.
[Sidenote: Superior influence of the Venetians, which was invariably
used to their own advantage.]
But the Venetians still kept ahead of all their commercial rivals;
and when invited as we have seen to transport the Crusaders to the
Holy Land, they were strong enough to stipulate, over and above the
exorbitant freight which they had obtained, for the privilege of
establishing factories in any place where the arms of the Crescent
were replaced by those of the Cross. Nor were these extravagant terms
sufficient. In the latter Crusades their exactions were increased.
Thus, Venice then demanded and obtained a moiety of whatever the
Crusaders acquired by arms or by convention, with the assumption, after
the fall of Constantinople, of many special advantages, such as the
general lordship over Greece, and of the towns of Heraclea, Adrianople,
Gallipoli, Patras, and Durazzo, with the islands of Andros, Naxos, and
Zante. These acquisitions materially increased the wealth and influence
of the Venetian republic, and left it almost without a rival in the
waters of the Levant.
[Sidenote: Participation of Genoa and Pisa in the profits derived from
the Crusades.]
It may therefore be assumed that during the long and protracted wars
in the Holy Land, Venice was, without doubt, the first maritime power
in Christendom, for, as we have shown, there was then no other power
which had ships enough to convey the hosts of fanatics who, from every
nation in Europe, were hurrying on to the coasts of Syria;[654] and
although Genoa and Pisa also participated in the profits realized from
the Crusades, she was by far the greatest gainer. Indeed it has been
well said of her people, that while the Christians lavished money
on the Crusades without any return, the Venetians turned everything
they touched to an incredible profit. Besides furnishing the largest
proportion of the transports, she secured many contracts for military
stores and provisions; while her ships were the principal storehouses
from which the armies were supplied at enormous profits to their
owners. “There are charters yet extant,” remarks Dr. Robertson, in
his History of the Reign of Charles V.,[655] “containing grants to
the Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese, of the most extensive immunities
in the several settlements which the Christians made in Asia. All the
commodities which they imported or exported are thereby exempted from
any imposition; the property of entire suburbs in some of the maritime
towns, and of large streets in others, is vested in them; and all
questions arising among persons settled within their precincts, or who
traded under their protection, are appointed to be tried by their own
laws, and by judges of their own appointment.”
[Sidenote: A.D. 1124.]
[Sidenote: Venice claims the dominion of the Adriatic, A.D. 1159.]
Nor were the Venetians in all cases satisfied with a moiety of the
spoils of war beyond their gains by trade. Historians say[656] that,
when Tyre was besieged by the united forces of the republic and of
Varemond, bishop of Jerusalem, the Venetians stipulated that on its
reduction they should receive two-thirds of the spoil and property
captured. Indeed, the troops on shore complained loudly that while all
the fatigue, dangers, and hardships of the two months’ siege fell upon
them, the Venetians lay at ease in their ships, deriving large profits
on everything they supplied, and exacting their full portion of the
plunder agreed upon before the operations commenced. Thus riches poured
into Venice securing for her a position far beyond that of any other
republic. Having brought under subjection the people inhabiting the
shores of the Adriatic, she claimed its dominion; the declaration of
Pope Alexander III. when he visited Venice confirmed her claims; and
other nations admitted them when they asked permission to pass their
merchandise and ships through the Gulf. But when the Pope exclaimed
to the Doge, “That the sea be subject to you, as the spouse is to her
husband, since you have acquired it by victory,” he had little idea
that the Venetians would consider its dominion as more than an honorary
title, much less that they would compel even the clergy to pay their
share of the tax levied for the special defence of the Adriatic.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: Annual ceremony of espousing the Adriatic.]
[Sidenote: Bucentaur state barge.]
On various occasions the Venetians exhibited the greatest
punctiliousness lest their rights to the sovereignty of that sea should
be infringed. Every year the ceremony of espousing the Adriatic was
performed with extraordinary magnificence by the Doge. A state galley,
celebrated as the Bucentaur,[657] preserved from time immemorial in the
Venetian arsenal, carried the Doge and Senate upon these occasions; and
everything which could add pomp and splendour to this annual ceremonial
was employed, the public functionaries and foreign ambassadors being
present as well as the senators and chief nobility. The Bucentaur, of
which the drawing on the preceding page is an imperfect representation,
measured 110 feet in length, and 21 feet in width. A covered deck was
specially appropriated for the Doge’s reception; and the splendour of
her equipment equalled the most gorgeous floating palaces of ancient
Egypt.
[Sidenote: Form of espousal.]
In this magnificent state barge the Doge, accompanied in the manner
described, was rowed, amid the sound of music and the loud acclamations
of the people, from the city to an appointed spot on the waters of
the Adriatic. As a sign of the perpetuity of the dominion of the
republic over that sea, the Doge cast into it a ring, in token of
his love, exclaiming, “We wed thee with this ring in sign of a real
and perpetual dominion!”[658] This peculiar and splendid matrimonial
ceremony was observed annually, throughout many centuries, until 1795,
when Napoleon, having conquered the once proud and powerful city,
handed Venice and all its wealth and territory over to Austria: nor
did the Bucentaur escape the notice of the rapacious conqueror, who
stripped her of her gold, which, with her other valuable contents, he
transferred to the treasury of Milan. The hulk afterwards, under the
name of the Hydra, became a guard-ship, mounting seven guns, and was
anchored to protect the mouth of the Lido, till, in 1824, a decree of
the Aulic Council ordered her final demolition. A model of this once
magnificent and historical barge, which, in the course of centuries
must have been frequently rebuilt, is now preserved in the arsenal of
Venice.
[Sidenote: The progress and commercial policy of Venice.]
Although the Holy Wars gave Venice, Genoa, and Pisa a position which
they might never otherwise have attained, other causes contributed to
revive the spirit of commerce between different and distant nations.
The Italians, by their intercourse and commercial relations with
various cities of the Greek empire, and especially with Constantinople,
had obtained a knowledge of the valuable trade of the East, and
had cultivated a taste for its precious commodities and curious
manufactures. They were consequently not slow to embrace and develop
direct intercourse with India; hence, in the course of the twelfth
century, Venice established a regular commerce with the East through
the ports of Egypt, which she maintained during four centuries.
Introducing into their own territories manufactories of various kinds,
and carrying on these with surprising ingenuity and vigour, the
Italians transplanted from warmer climates several new productions
which furnished the materials of a lucrative and extended trade. “All
these commodities,” remarks Dr. Robertson,[659] “whether imported
from Asia, or produced by their own skill, they disposed of to great
advantage among the other people of Europe, who began to acquire some
taste for an elegance in living unknown to their ancestors, or despised
by them. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the commerce of
Europe was almost entirely in the hands of the Italians, more commonly
known in these ages by the name of Lombards. Companies or societies of
Lombard merchants settled in every different kingdom, and were taken
under the immediate protection of the several governments, with the
enjoyment of extensive privileges and immunities. The operation of the
ancient barbarous laws concerning strangers were suspended with respect
to them; and they became the carriers, the manufacturers, and the
bankers of all Europe.”[660]
[Sidenote: Variable character of her laws, A.D. 1272;]
The commercial policy of the Venetian republic frequently varied,
and though generally protective and sometimes strictly prohibitory,
the most perfect freedom was in many instances allowed to foreign
merchants to encourage them to make Venice the chief depôt for the
supply of produce and manufactures to the markets of Europe. By the
decrees of the Grand Council, during the latter half of the thirteenth
century, when Venice had reached the zenith of wealth and splendour,
her merchants were allowed to import freely from the Levant, from
Marseilles, and from other ports of France, produce and manufactures
of every kind, provided they were warehoused in the markets of the
republic; while they had equal freedom in the export of their own
manufactures. This freedom was likewise extended to Flanders. Cloth
imported from that country paid no duty. Ship-owners were encouraged by
special laws to import iron, tin, and lead, the Senate having in view
the policy of concentrating in the city of Venice as many articles of
merchandise as possible, so as to attract merchants to that exclusive
market, and to secure there a stock of goods for the lading of Venetian
merchant ships to the Levant, as also an abundant supply of raw
materials for their home manufactures.
[Sidenote: which were protective generally, especially as regards her
ships.]
In the midst, however, of this liberal policy, the Venetians seem
always to have kept clearly before them the interests of their own
shipping. In the registers of Venice may be found numerous instances
of the anxiety of the merchants to monopolize in their own ships their
commercial intercourse with other countries. Thus, in the year 1319
there is a record of one Tomaso Loredano, a merchant of Venice, who had
despatched eleven hundred tons of sugar to London, stipulating that
the amount arising from its sale should be invested in English wool,
to be shipped exclusively in Venetian vessels. Laws were also in force
which levied differential duties equivalent to one-half their value
upon certain goods imported in foreign vessels; while in some cases the
ships of foreign nations were not allowed, under any circumstances, to
enter the ports of Venetia.
Again, a special law provided that neither German, Hungarian, nor
Bohemian traders should have any dealings with Venetian merchants
except in Venice itself: these traders were, therefore, compelled to
resort thither for the purchase of whatever goods they required, the
Venetian merchants being at the same time forbidden to convey them
inland, probably to avert any danger of plunder by the barbarians, by
whom the interior was too frequently infested. But, perhaps, the most
unwisely rigorous portion of this law consisted in the enactment which
forbade the Germans, trading with Venetia, from showing their own goods
to any foreigner before offering them to the Venetian merchants, and,
at the same time, prohibiting those who had brought their goods to
Venice to carry back to other places any portion of them that remained
unsold. Nevertheless, in spite of such prohibitory laws, a very
considerable foreign commerce was carried on with Venetia; the Germans,
Armenians, Moors, and Greeks, having each their respective places of
resort (_fondas_) in its capital, and the Jews from first to last being
its leading bankers.
[Sidenote: Official exposition of the trade of Venice, A.D. 1421.]
From a speech which the Doge, Tomaso Moncenigo, delivered in the Senate
of Venice to Francis Foscari and the Florentine ambassadors, who, in
A.D. 1421, sought the aid of the Venetians against the Duke of Milan,
some idea may be formed of the extent of the commerce of Venice in the
days of her prosperity. “Every week,”[661] remarks the Doge, “there
arrive from Milan seventeen to eighteen thousand ducats; from Como,
Tortona, Novara, Pavia, Cremona, Palermo, two thousand ducats each;
from Bergamo, one thousand and five hundred ducats; and from Monza,
Alexandria, and Piacenza, one thousand each.... The bankers, also,
declare that in every year the Milanese owe us a balance of one million
six hundred thousand ducats.” “The same and other cities,” he adds,
“import from us cloths to the value of nine hundred thousand ducats;
while France, Lombardy, and other countries receive annually from
Venice, pepper, ginger, woods for dyeing, slaves, and soap to the value
of one million eight hundred and seventy-one thousand ducats.” The
entire commercial wealth of Venice the Doge estimated at twenty-eight
millions and eight hundred thousand ducats. But he expressly states
that he does not include in this the duty on salt, which Filiasi values
at one hundred thousand ducats (47,500_l._), or that derived from
conquered districts, which he reckoned (in a subsequent speech) at
four hundred and sixty-four thousand (220,400_l._). “Consider how many
ships,” exclaims the Doge, “the collection and delivery of these goods
maintain in activity; whether to deliver them in Lombardy, whether to
seek them in Syria, Roumania, Catalonia, Flanders, Cyprus, or Sicily,
and all parts of the world. Venice gains from two and a half to three
per cent. on the freight. See how many persons gain a livelihood by
this business—brokers, artificers, sailors, thousands of families, and
at last the merchants, whose profits amount, at least, to six hundred
thousand ducats.... This is the produce of your garden; do you wish
to destroy it? Surely not; but we must defend it against all attacks;
seeing that you are the only people to whom the land and the sea are
equally open; you are the channel through which all riches flow; the
whole universe is interested in your prosperity; all the gold and
silver in the world come into your hands.”
Nor, indeed, though as Count Daru has suggested there may be some
inaccuracies in these numbers owing to the errors of copyists, were
the words of the old Doge those of merely idle bombast. Besides the
revenues recapitulated by him, in the home manufacture of silk, cloth,
arras, glass, gold, silver work, and wax, the Venetians, by means of
their wealth and skill, assisted in some measure by their system of
protection, and by their geographical position, carried on a very
extensive and lucrative trade, which, with other branches of their
commerce, greatly increased when they obtained the supremacy over their
commercial rivals, the Pisans and Genoese. Not the least valuable
object of merchandise at that period was the traffic in slaves; for,
strange inconsistency! while the Popes rigorously prohibited all
commerce with the Infidels, a prohibition to which the Venetians
reluctantly submitted, the Church allowed the purchase and sale of
slaves without hindrance in the open markets of Europe!
[Sidenote: Her ships and dockyards.]
[Sidenote: Merchant galleys.]
The arsenal of Venice, which included also the dockyards, had long been
the admiration of foreigners; and when that city reached the plenitude
of her power, there was nothing of the kind superior to it in the
world. Embracing a vast area of land and water, surrounded by walls,
and flanked with towers, it presented the appearance of a stupendous
fortress. The preparation and equipment of the fleets, destined either
for the service of the republic, or for trading purposes, were here
effected, as all commercial vessels trading to foreign ports were then,
and long afterwards, armed for defence. Some of their galleys employed
in distant voyages, such as to Flanders or England, are described as
having had two sails only, one on each mast, of very great dimensions,
the masts being of extraordinary length.[662]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1172.]
[Sidenote: Their greatest size.]
There is a tradition of a ship built at Venice, shortly before the
quarrel between the Venetians and the Emperor Manuel, so large that,
when she reached Constantinople, it was remarked that “no vessel of
so great a bulk had ever been within that port;” but no historian
has furnished posterity with her dimensions. She is merely described
as a vessel with three masts and “of immense size,”[663]—a statement
which may be one of comparison; and consequently she may not have
been greater in her capacity than the larger class merchant ships of
the present day. One historian[664] describes her as being large
enough “to make twenty ships” (coasters?); another[665] states that
being at Constantinople himself, at that time, he found that she
was able to shelter from fifteen hundred to two thousand fugitives,
whom she conveyed to the Adriatic. Nor, indeed, is there any reason
for doubting the existence of such a ship. Vessels employed in the
Crusades carried, in various instances, eight hundred persons,[666]
and the ships of Marseilles frequently took on board a thousand
passengers[667]—(pilgrims?); wherefore it is not unreasonable to
suppose that the Venetians may have built a ship which actually made a
somewhat distant voyage, with two thousand persons on board, and such
provisions, clothing, and valuables as the fugitives could collect in
the emergency. Although furnished with three masts, she does not appear
to have carried any sails except the foresail, mainsail, and mizen; nor
is there any mention of vessels of any nation, so early as the twelfth
century, fitted with topsails; though they occasionally may have
carried, in fair weather, triangular sails.
That the wealthy merchants of the Italian republics, and especially of
Venice, owned various vessels of considerable dimensions, there can be
even less doubt, as there is ample evidence in confirmation of this
opinion. Twenty years after the period when the Venetian merchants
resident at Constantinople found refuge in the large vessel to which
we have just referred, mention is made of five of their ships which
returned from Constantinople to Venice,[668] carrying seven thousand
men-at-arms; or fourteen hundred men to each, if equally distributed.
Although, in this case, the length of the voyage and the class of men
are supplied, the mere fact of a ship being able to carry so many
persons furnishes, in itself, a very imperfect idea of her dimensions,
as they may have consisted of cabin or steerage passengers, troops, or
pilgrims, to whom very different extents of space would be allotted.
Even at the present day the Muhammedans, in their over-sea pilgrimages
to the tomb of Muhammad, are satisfied with one-eighth of the space
which the law of England requires for the transport of her meanest
subjects; while the amount of space varies in different nations, and
materially depends upon the length and character of the voyage.
[Sidenote: Contract for the construction of vessels.]
The only definite information we possess with regard to the actual
dimensions of the vessels built by the Venetians during the periods
of their prosperity, is to be found in a contract which their
ship-builders made to furnish the king of France, in 1268, with fifteen
ships. Of these vessels M. Jal[669] has furnished a minute description,
together with their dimensions, as specified in the contract. The
largest, the _Roccaforte_, was 110 feet in length over all, and only 70
feet length of keel, with 40 feet width of beam, and no less than 39½
feet in depth. The _Saint Mary_ and _Saint Nicholas_ were respectively
2 and 10 feet shorter, their width and depth being in somewhat similar
proportions. The other twelve were smaller, having an extreme length
each of 86 feet, with a keel of 58, a beam of 18, and an extreme depth
of 29 feet. The two largest had each two decks, 5½ feet in height.
Their bows and sterns were somewhat alike, and contained several
cabins, with two poops, one above the other, the upper constituting
a castle or fighting-deck like the vessels of more ancient times.
Their respective crews consisted of 110 seamen; and the contract price
for the construction of the largest of these vessels appears to have
been fourteen hundred marks, or 933_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ The smaller craft
cost 466_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._, and they carried 50 men for their working
crew.[670]
It is to be regretted that no details are given of the size or
number of their masts, yards, sails, rigging, stores, or armament.
The contract merely states that the larger vessels are to have two
masts and two square sails, the foremast reaching over the bows, and
answering the purpose of both mast and bowsprit; but what will strike
the nautical reader most in these vessels is their extreme depth and
their great width in comparison with their length.
[Sidenote: Great variety of classes.]
[Illustration: MALTESE GALLEYS.]
Every account shows that the classes of vessels belonging to the
Italian republics were even more numerous and varied than those of our
own time. Besides the galleys we have named, the Venetians had others,
which were about one hundred and thirty-five feet long, carrying
three sails, very rapid in their movements, and so easily manœuvred,
that they were kept almost exclusively for warlike purposes. A third
description of galleys, carrying four sails, known by the name of the
_Mossane_, were chiefly employed in the commerce of the Levant. Beyond
these, the whole of the Italian republics owned a description of ship
called coccas, or cocches,[671] of very large capacity, which were
also frequently employed in the trade of the Levant. The accompanying
drawing of two modern Maltese galleys, running side by side, which
exhibits a great resemblance to another plate given by M. Jal from a
drawing by an artist of the end of the fourteenth century, no doubt
fairly represents the Venetian war galley of that period, and is at the
same time not unlike another galley we also give by that author, the
original sketch of which is in the famous MS. of Virgil in the Riccardi
Library at Venice.
[Illustration: RICCARDI GALLEY, WITH THE EAGLES.]
[Sidenote: The Gondola.]
But though varying very much in class, size, and form, as well as in
name, ships were then generally distinguished, like the vessels of the
ancient Greeks and Phœnicians, as the “long ships” of war, and the
“round ships” of the mercantile marine, both being propelled, to a
greater or less extent, by oars. The Venetians likewise possessed the
Dromond and the Draker, vessels almost exclusively employed on short
voyages for the purposes of commerce. They had also a small trading
vessel called the Galleon, not unlike the galliot[672] of the present
day; and the Pamphyle, which, in the ninth century, was worked with
two banks of oars, but, in the fourteenth, had no oars, and during
the fifteenth century must have disappeared altogether, as no mention
is made of her after that period. From time immemorial they have had
their gondolas, still to be seen upon the canals of that once gay and
beautiful city. Though the following is the representation of the
modern gondola, time has made little if any change in its form.
[Illustration: PRESENT GONDOLA.]
[Sidenote: The Tarida.]
Beyond the galleys already named, the Italian republics, especially
the Genoese, possessed merchant galleys, which were named Taridas,
and were chiefly employed in the trade between the Levant and
Constantinople. Marino Torsello recommended the use of the Tarida,
which had been previously known under the name of Galata, to Pope John
XXII. towards the commencement of the fourteenth century.
[Sidenote: The Zelander.]
[Sidenote: The Huissier.]
During the tenth century the Zelander, or Galander,[673] figures with
the Dromond and the Pamphyle; but three centuries afterwards these
vessels had discontinued the use of oars and had become sailing vessels
under a somewhat similar name. The accounts which have been preserved
of the Zelander describe her as a vessel of extraordinary length and
great swiftness, having two banks of oars, and a crew of one hundred
and fifty men. Contemporary with the Zelander we have the Huissier, a
vessel of a peculiar description, and deriving her name from having
an opening or large port in her poop, through which horses were
shipped, for the conveyance of which these vessels seem to have been
more especially designed. This large opening, when the Huissier had
completed her loading, was securely closed and caulked, like the bow
and stern ports in the ships of our own time employed in the timber
trade.
[Sidenote: The Cat.]
[Sidenote: The Saitie.]
[Sidenote: The Galliot, &c.]
In the list of ships engaged for the expedition against Crete
(A.D. 949) mention is made, not merely of Huissiers, Zelanders,
and Pamphyles, but of vessels known as Zelander-Huissiers and
Zelander-Pamphyles, or of a description embodying the qualities and
advantages of both. “Cats,” to which William of Tyre, speaking of an
incident in 1121, calls attention, were sharp-beaked ships, larger than
galleys, having one hundred oars, each of which was worked by two men,
or “double banked” in the phraseology of our own time. The Saitie, or
Sagette (arrow), was a small, fast-rowing vessel, or barge, propelled
by oars, but considerably less than even the smallest class of galleys.
In the twelfth century this description of craft had from ten to
twelve oars on each side, and was employed during the five succeeding
centuries for the same purposes as the Brigantine. The Galliot, the
Furt, the Brigantine, and the Frigate became in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries diminutives of the galley, and were known as the
Galeass, when large, broad, and heavily armed. The galeass had her oars
ranged, either in threes upon a single bank, or had twenty-six oars on
each side, in which case, the oar being larger and heavier, from six
to seven men, seated upon the same bench, were employed upon it.[674]
[Sidenote: The Galeass.]
The galeass figures among the drawings of other vessels of a similar
class in the representation of a naval engagement, of, as is presumed,
the fourteenth or fifteenth century. With the exception of the very
high poop, she, in nearly all other respects, resembles the galeasses
which formed the vanguard of the fleet at the battle of Lepanto (A.D.
1571). Of these a drawing may be seen in Charnock’s work on Naval
Architecture.
[Sidenote: The Galleon.]
In the tenth century the Saracens possessed large and very heavy
ships, which, according to the Emperor Leo, were called Cumbaries,
or Gombories. The Venetians adopted this large ship of burden, and
Sagarino, the chancellor, says that they, by whom they were called
Galleons, built and armed thirty-three of these vessels. Charnock
furnishes a drawing of a Galleon of the sixteenth century, A.D. 1564.
[Sidenote: The Buzo.]
These vessels were built with round sides, and broad throughout; short,
high out of the water, and of considerable draught when laden. The
Venetians had also a merchant vessel called the Buzo, or Busse, which
was not unlike the galleon, with the sides bulging out and sitting
well upon the water, capable of carrying very large and heavy cargoes.
According to Matthew Paris, Richard I. had several busses in the
fleet which he took to the Holy Land. Although they had three masts,
they were, he says, “scantily provided with sails.” It is not known
precisely in what manner the ships (nefs) differed from the busses,
but the Italians mark the union of the two ships in their buzo-navi.
A Venetian statute of 1255 makes mention of these, together with the
busses and the nefs or nés, each class being distinctly specified.
Like the nefs, and the common busses, the buzo-navi had two masts, and
carried lateen sails.[675]
Perhaps, however, the sketch on the opposite page (p. 493) furnishes a
better idea of the ordinary and smaller class of vessels of the Italian
republics between the tenth and sixteenth centuries than any other
which has been preserved. It appeared for the first time in a little
book, published by M. Lanetti,[676] and was copied by him from an old
painting by Vittore Carpacci, which, he says, he had often seen and
admired in the chapel of St. Ursula by the side of the church of San
Giovanni and Paolo at Venice.
[Sidenote: Government merchant galleys.]
Among the Italian republics, but more especially in Venice during the
plenitude of her power, the construction, equipment, and armament of
galleys for mercantile purposes constituted a very important branch
of the business of the government. Vessels thus built were put up to
auction for freightage only, and the privilege of employing them on
the “long voyage” was sold by the government. No other merchants of
Venice were permitted to send their ships to those ports to which the
privileged galleys were consigned.[677]
[Illustration: SMALL GALLEY.]
[Sidenote: How engaged, equipped, and manned.]
[Sidenote: Nobles’ sons taken on board.]
When the mercantile vessels thus engaged were completed and armed,
the public crier announced throughout the streets and highways of
Venice that a certain number of galeasses were ready for the annual
expeditions to Egypt and other countries. This proclamation, issued
under the authority of the Doge and the senate, while it allotted the
vessels to the highest bidders, required that the charterers should
submit to a severe examination, with the object of ascertaining
whether those who offered to incur the responsibility of navigating
the vessels, possessed the necessary capital and qualifications. Once
satisfied in this respect, the government handed over the ships all
ready for the voyage to their commanders. For some centuries a singular
law, or rather an ancient custom having the authority of law, prevailed
among the Venetians. With the object of assisting the families of the
indigent nobility, each of these hired galeasses, whatever might be
the voyage undertaken, were required to receive on board eight sons of
poor nobles, who were allowed the pay of seventy pieces of gold for the
expedition, with a mess suitable to their rank. These young nobles had
likewise the privilege of carrying four hundred quintals of specie or
an equivalent, free of freight, to defray their expenses at the ports
they visited, or they might turn the money to account in trade so as to
improve their condition.[678]
[Sidenote: Capacity of these vessels.]
[Sidenote: Crew, and regulations on board.]
Each of these vessels are said to have carried, on an average, five
hundred tons of cargo under hatches, besides a large quantity of
cargo upon their decks, a ton then consisting of only a thousand
weight. Their crews consisted of no less than two hundred men, of
whom one hundred and fifty were necessary to work the oars and sails.
Twelve of the smartest men of the crew were selected to attend to the
duty of steering the vessel under the order of the pilots, of whom
there were two in each vessel. These twelve men, on whom the more
important duties devolved, were required to take the lead in the work
of seamanship, especially in going aloft to furl sails: they bore
the name of “gallants,” whence, no doubt, the word _top-gallant_
sails. Although the master assumed the command, the crew were under
charge of the leading pilot, who had a chief mate, whose station, as
now, was invariably at the bow of the vessel. There were likewise on
board a carpenter, smith, archer, and armourer, and their assistants,
furnished from the government arsenal. Besides several cooks, there
was a storekeeper, and four inspectors, who kept an active watch over
everything shipped and delivered, under the direction of a clerk or
super-cargo, to whom all the merchandise was entrusted.
[Sidenote: Value of their cargoes.]
[Sidenote: Despatch boats.]
The value of the cargoes brought back in the galeasses, especially from
Egypt and Syria, amounted on an average to about two hundred thousand
ducats, and consisted to a considerable extent of precious stones,
spices, perfumes of Arabia, with everything tending to administer to
the luxuries and pleasures of the wealthy Venetians. Large quantities
of medicinal drugs were also imported, the greater portion of which
were afterwards distributed over the markets of Europe. This eastern
trade was a source of immense profit, alike to the merchants and
government. Paul Morosini, in a letter to the syndic at Nuremburg,[679]
says that in his time the republic had twenty-four large galleys,
divided into squadrons, with settled periods of departure for the East,
carrying the mails, or rather the despatches of the government, with
letters from private individuals. Besides these, the government had
in their service numerous despatch boats, known as “geippers,” which
served in war as scouts, and, during peace, for any service requiring
unusual speed.
[Sidenote: Consuls; their establishment, duties, and emoluments.]
In all the commercial places of importance throughout the
Mediterranean, where sovereignty was not exercised by the Venetians,
they established consuls, investing them with considerable power, so as
to ensure the respect of foreigners. Each consulate had a chaplain, a
notary, and a physician. The establishment was allowed to levy a duty
of two per cent. on all Venetian imports and exports, a percentage
which is said to have yielded the consuls of Syria and Alexandria an
annual income of no less than 25,000 ducats. The Venetian consuls were
not merely the advocates of their countrymen in any wrongs they might
suffer, but they had also judicial authority in cases of controversy,
and sometimes even decided disputes among the native population.
[Sidenote: Ancient ships’ consuls; their duties.]
Ships’ consuls appear to have existed at a very remote period in all
the ports of the Mediterranean.[680] Their duty was to watch over
the interests of the vessels of the nations they represented, to see
that no frauds were committed, and especially that the persons who
provisioned them used honest weights, and “mixed no water with the
wine” they sold. They were allowed a half share in all penalties
imposed, and were entitled to a present of a “carpet,” a curious gift,
for every enemy’s ship captured: should, however, the consul connive
at any of the frauds committed against the ships or crews it was their
duty to watch over, they were liable to lose their office, and even to
be branded on the forehead as rogues and outcasts. The same ordinance
ordained, that “any person who shall wilfully cut the cable of a ship
should be impaled alive.”
[Sidenote: The Cartel.]
It was a general rule at all the Mediterranean ports to engage by
“cartel,” or proclamation, such ships as were required for special
purposes. In those of Aragon and at Marseilles the cartel was usually
inscribed upon a board of wood, and affixed to the point of a spear
or lance. This cartel stated the number of ships required, and the
object and character of the expedition. The ceremony was one of a
formal and somewhat attractive description. Garlands of green leaves
and ribbons of the most conspicuous colours ornamented the cartel
board. The royal banner, or that of the prince who required the ships,
floated by the side of the cartel, and a herald repeated in a loud
voice the conditions of the charter, formal contracts being executed
in the presence of a notary. These contracts were very minute in their
details, and specified not only the size of each ship, the number of
the crew, the extent of space to be allotted to the passengers, or for
the conveyance of horses, but even the size of the rigging, with an
inventory of almost every article which had been shipped for the use of
the vessel and crew.
[Sidenote: Conditions of the contract.]
Like the contracts or charter-parties of our own time the conditions
varied. Sometimes the charter-commissioners were left to engage for the
whole ship, or at a stated rate for each passenger; such rates varying,
as now, with the nature of the accommodation afforded, and ranging
from the “paradise”[681] and other cabins, where the passengers had
the greatest convenience, down to the berths in the lower hold, where
they were exposed to stifling heat or offensive smells. In the case
of three-decked vessels, or more likely of those with lofty towers or
poops, the cost of passage from Marseilles to Syria averaged about
four livres tournois in the “paradises” or best parts of the vessel,
sixty sous tournois[682] on the main-deck, and forty sous tournois on
the lower deck. It is not stated whether the rates of passage included
provisions and other necessaries, but these were probably provided
by the passengers themselves. The conditions of the charters made at
Venice and at Genoa were similar to those entered into at Marseilles.
[Sidenote: Restraints upon seamen.]
It is a remarkable fact, that the seamen were occasionally obliged
to pay for their berths. Besides having a limited space in the hold
allowed for their clothes, they had a space on deck allotted to them
for sleeping; but if the mattress of any one of them exceeded, in
however small a degree, the regulated weight of fifteen pounds, or,
if placed upon a bed, the seaman was called upon to pay not only for
the excess, but for the total weight of his mattress, according to the
rate at which passengers were charged for their accommodation. The law,
indeed, provided sleeping places for the seamen; but the owners seem
to have expected them to spread their mattresses upon the sails or
coils of rope, or at least in places passengers would not occupy, and
it is certain that those who insisted on their legal rights were thus
punished whenever they in the slightest degree infringed them.
[Sidenote: Extra ordinary display on the departure of any important
expedition.]
[Sidenote: The reception of the commander, and his plan of inspection.]
In the case of vessels of war, or rather those vessels whose services
were more required for warlike than for commercial purposes, even
greater formalities were made use of when they took their departure
for a distant voyage or for an important expedition. When the hour for
departure arrived the commander came on board, preceded by trumpeters,
and followed by the officers of his staff. The most perfect silence
prevailed on board, and every man was at his post ready to answer any
question the commander might be pleased to put to him. The account,
in Joinville[683] of the scene on board of the galley of the Count de
Japhe describes what probably often took place. “This count,” he says,
“had disembarked in a most grand manner, for his galley was all painted
within side and without with escutcheons of his arms, which were a
cross _pattée gules_ on a field _or_. There were full three hundred
sailors on board the galley, each bearing a target of his arms, and on
each target was a small flag with his arms likewise of beaten gold.
It was a sight worthy to be viewed when he went to sea on account of
the noise which these flags made, as well as the sounds of the drums,
horns, and Saracen nacaires (tymbals or tambourines) which he had in
his galley.” The captain, seated in his state chair, having received
the homage of his officers, commenced his tour of inspection of every
part of the ship, ascertaining for himself that every oar was sound and
in its place, and the rowers on each bench thoroughly well trained and
effective. He then as carefully examined the men at arms, crossbow-men,
steersmen, and sailors, testing their various accoutrements and
appointments to see that everything was in order; the different
departments of the ship were then minutely gone over, including his own
cabin, which was generally in the lower range of the poop or under the
upper deck.
[Sidenote: Signal to depart.]
Everything being now ready for departure, the rowers, at the sound of
a trumpet, simultaneously moved their oars; but if the wind was fair,
the oars, at a given signal, were as simultaneously thrown upwards,
the sails set, and the vessel under full pressure of canvas proceeded
on her voyage. A general holiday usually accompanied the departure of
a fleet. In Venice, these rejoicings were celebrated with even greater
pomp and magnificence than that which characterized almost every public
solemnity of the middle ages. The Doge, with the dazzling pageantry of
his court and council; hundreds of gay gondolas covering the placid
waters, which flowed from the Adriatic among the numerous islets upon
which the proud city had been erected; senators in their scarlet robes,
and the _élite_ of the Venetian dames, famed for their grace and
beauty, and arrayed in the gorgeous dress of the period, constituted a
display of wealth and grandeur never since surpassed. But a dark cloud
overshadowed those gay and glittering scenes. The galley slaves, with
their hideous misery, or reckless daring, formed a saddening contrast
to the haughty bearing of the Doge and the splendour of his court, and
still more so, when we remember how much that court owed to the daring
and unwearied toil of these slaves who were the chief instruments of
its wealth.
[Sidenote: Adaptation of merchant vessels to the purposes of war.]
Throughout the middle ages, the nations of the Mediterranean depended
for the constitution of a navy on their merchant shipping almost as
much as England. The sovereigns of Europe and the Italian republics
had each, no doubt, some ships of their own, though generally these
were too few for carrying on war with rival nations of any maritime
position. The great barons also, during the feudal system, owned
vessels as well as castles; and those especially who lived on the
sea-shore possessed one or more ships, which they employed for war
or commerce, in accordance with their tastes or ambition. During the
period, too, of the Crusades, many noblemen who had no connection with
the sea, and whose estates were far away from it, built vessels for
themselves, which were always available for warlike purposes. When the
time for action arrived these ships were ranged under the flag of an
admiral chosen by their owners, generally though not always with the
approval of the sovereign. Nor was there much difficulty in converting
their trading vessels into ships of war, as most of them were already
armed, and every sailor being trained to war, an extra number of men,
with a few machines for throwing stones or arrows, were sufficient for
the purpose.
[Sidenote: Regulations at sea.]
In the management of their ships, and in almost everything relating to
maritime affairs, the Italian republics were in a great measure guided
by the ancient Rhodian laws.[684] These alike regulated the conduct
of merchants and masters. When a merchant sailed in a ship which he
had chartered on his own account, he was almost supreme on board. If
several merchants embarked, and shipped goods, having hired the vessel
among them, the majority decided upon the general management of the
ship. When bad weather supervened, and it was a question of shortening
sail, or when it became necessary to go out of the direct course to
avoid pirates, the master invariably consulted the charterers. But
if the merchants gave directions that the ship, for safety, or any
other purpose, should enter a certain harbour, in disregard of the
master’s advice, he was no longer responsible for any event or accident
arising from such a proceeding; on the other hand, if the master did
anything from which fatal consequences ensued, he was liable to heavy
punishment, and held responsible for all damages. In case of danger,
either by tempest or an enemy, every person on board, including
merchants and passengers, was bound to use his utmost endeavours for
the protection of the ship and cargo; and merchants, passengers,
master, pilots, steersmen, and sailors, all became soldiers whenever a
suspicious craft appeared. The trade of a ship-owner, even under the
best conditions one of a precarious and speculative character, was
doubtless then full of danger from the number of pirates in every sea,
and especially in the Mediterranean.
[Sidenote: Stringent rules to regulate the loading of vessels.]
Every merchant ship, by the laws in force among the Italian republics,
was subject to prescribed rules to prevent them from being overladen.
When launched, two experienced inspectors measured the ship’s capacity,
and, in conformity, marked upon her sides a line which it was forbidden
to submerge. At Venice this mark consisted of a cross painted or
carved, or formed with two plates of iron. The ships of Genoa had a
triple mark of three small plates of iron fastened upon a particular
line on each side of the hull, indicating a limit in depth which was
not to be exceeded; while, in Sardinia, the centre of a painted ring
marked the extent of the immersion allowed by law. The laws, also,
prescribed many other details in the loading of the ship and in the
stowage of her cargo, which, during the whole period of the middle
ages, were enforced with the utmost rigour.
FOOTNOTES:
[647] One of the most remarkable deeds of daring in the early history
of Venice was the carrying away the body of St. Mark from his previous
resting-place at Alexandria. This robbery is said to have been
committed by the crews of ten Venetian galleys in the year A.D. 827.
See Smedley, “Sketches of Venet. Hist.” i. p. 15.
[648] See, for all that is known of the early mediæval commerce of
Marseilles, De Ruffi, Hist. de la Ville de Marseille, 2 vols. fol.
1696; and Fabre, Hist. de Marseille, 2 vols. 8vo. 1829. It was owing to
the lead which the French took in the early Crusades, that Orientals
came to designate first the Western, and then all Christians by the
name of “Franks.”
[649] It is almost impossible now to determine the relative values
mentioned in records so old as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Moreover, research only shows that there was the greatest confusion
both as to the names and as to the values of the weights and measures
of that period. The Bezant (or Byzant), taking its name unquestionably
from the City of Byzantium, was a common term for gold money in
Western Europe from the tenth to the fourteenth century. Thus Dunstan
bought Hendon of King Edgar for two hundred Byzants (Camden’s “Remains
concerning Britain”), and Wyclif, in his translation of the Bible, uses
“besauntis” for the ten pieces of money in the parable. These Byzants
were not always of the same weight or purity, but it is generally
believed that, in the time of Constantine, seventy-two were coined
to the pound, and that therefore they were worth about the same as
the ducat (with which they are often confounded), viz., 9_s._ (Savile
Script. Dec. post Bedam, fol. 76, 6. Ducange Gloss. in voce.) Those of
Alex. Comnenus, A.D. 1081-1118, weigh about seventy grains English.
[650] One of the most atrocious massacres of the Jews on record is that
which broke out on the departure of Richard I. (who had protected them)
for the Holy Land in A.D. 1190. (William of Newbury, iv. c. 1. Matthew
Paris, p. 157.)
[651] See full details of the course of the trade of Marseilles in
Pardessus, i. pp. 62-5; ii. p. 6, &c. Ruffi, Hist. de Marseille, 2
vols. fol. 1696; and Fabre, Hist. de Marseille, i. p. 301, &c.
[652] Pardessus, ii. p. 66. Capmany, “Memorias,” vol. ii.
[653] Barcelona was indebted to the French for ridding it of the
Saracen rule, and subsequently to the wise rule of Raymond Berenger.
Pardessus, vol. ii.
[654] Pardessus observes that in reading the history of the period of
the Crusades, any one would suppose that the great maritime cities of
the Mediterranean imagined that these expeditions were made merely
to promote and extend their commerce. In vol. ii. p. 39, he gives a
remarkable list of the various privileges conceded to Marseilles,
Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, with the view of securing their aid (or at
least their neutrality) during these expeditions. See also Smedley,
“Sketches of Venet. Hist.,” i. p. 25-45, for details of exactions made
by the Venetians from the leaders of the Crusades.
[655] Vol. i. pp. 34-5.
[656] History of Venice, Universal History, xxiii. p. 414, and E.
Smedley, “Sketches of Venetian History,” i. p. 72.
[657] Though much has been written on the subject, no satisfactory
derivation has been given for this remarkable name.
[658] Smedley, “Sketches of Venetian History,” p. 74.
[659] History of Charles V. i. p. 94.
[660] Sanuto mentions, so early as A.D. 1171, the establishment of a
bank at Venice. On this occasion, the Doge Vitale enforced a loan from
the wealthiest citizens, and for this purpose established a “Chamber of
Loans” (Camera degl’ imprestiti). The contributors to the loan were to
receive interest at four per cent. (Vita de’ Duchi, p. 502.)
[661] This remarkable oration, necessarily condensed in the text, is
given at great length in Daru. Hist. de la Rép. de Venise, ii. pp.
293-308; cf. also Sanuto, Vita de’ Duchi. Ap. Muratori, Antiq. xx.
Rendered into English money (reckoning the ducat at 9_s._ 6_d._), the
following amounts are (for the year)—
Ducats.
1. From the northern towns 1,794,000 = 852,150 }
2. Imports of cloth 900,000 = 427,500 } Pounds
3. Spices, &c. 1,871,000 = 888,725 } sterling.
4. From all sources 28,800,000 = 13,680,000 }
5. Debt due by Milan 1,600,000 = 850,000 }
These amounts, however, do not represent the exact sums which flowed
into the Venetian exchequer, as we are ignorant of the relative value
of gold and silver at the period.
[662] M. Jal has given, in his work on Naval Architecture, a drawing of
one of these galleys, but of a much later period—A.D. 1620.
[663] It is stated by Cinnamis (p. 165) in his life of Manuel Comnenus,
that this vessel was built by a private Venetian noble, then sold by
the builder to his own republic, and then presented to Manuel. Nicetas
adds, that this vessel was in the arsenal at Constantinople in 1172,
when the emperor tried to imprison all the Venetians there; and that
they took it and made their escape in it, in spite of the fire-ships
immediately sent after it. M. Jal (ii. pp. 142-152) has given very
interesting extracts on the subject of this great vessel from the
treatises of Marino and Filiasi. Smedley shows that the Venetians had
owned another enormous ship at the siege of Ancona in 1157, which was
called from its magnitude “Il Mondo”—“The World.”—Sketches of Venet.
Hist. pp. 63, 64.
[664] Dandolo. Chron. Venet.
[665] Cinnam. Vit. Manuel Comnen.
[666] St. Louis returned from the Holy Land in a “Nef,” which carried
eight hundred persons. See M. Jal, “Mémoire sur les vaisseaux ronds de
Saint Louis,” ii. pp. 347-446, where all the passages are collected
which bear on this subject.
[667] Statut. Marseill. i. c. xxxiv.
[668] Ville-Hardouin, p. 154 (ed. 1657).
[669] Jal, ii. p. 377.
[670] See, also, “The Ship: its origin and progress,” 4to, 1849, by F.
Steinitz, p. 94, wherein the engravings and measurements of M. Jal are
reproduced.
[671] This name occurs spelt in various different ways. It is the same
as the English “Cog,” first noticed in the reign of King John (Spelman
_in voce_). Sir H. Nicolas, “Hist. Royal Navy,” i. p. 128.
[672] Admiral W. H. Smyth describes the galliot as a small Dutch or
Flemish merchant vessel.—Sailors’ Word-book, p. 332.
[673] These and the following vessels appear under various spellings,
the most correct form of which it is now scarcely possible to
determine. Smedley, in his excellent “Sketches of Venetian History,”
i. p. 87, adopts Palander. _Uissier_, from _Uis_, a door, was a
flat-bottomed vessel. Cf. also Gibbon, c. lx. A.D. 1203. For further
details of the names of vessels during the Middle Ages, see the works
of Mr. Steinitz, M. Jal, and of Sir H. Nicolas.
[674] Napier gives the names of most of these vessels, with some
remarks on their proportions and uses.—Hist. of Florence, iv. pp. 36-38.
[675] The words Nefs and Nés occur in many of the Norman descriptions
of the marine of those days. “La Blanche Nef” was the name of the ship
in which Prince William, the son of Henry I., was drowned, in Nov. A.D.
1120, while crossing from Normandy to England.
[676] An Italian who, in 1758, wrote a small book on certain arts in
use amongst the ancient Venetians, which was republished in 1841.
[677] A practice somewhat similar was adopted in later times by the
East India Company.
[678] A similar custom is mentioned at Florence, sub an. 1422. See
Napier’s “Flor. Hist.” iii. p. 56.
[679] MS. quoted by Filiasi, Memorie Storiche de Venet.
[680] The whole history of these consuls, with their duties, &c., has
been published by Pardessus, ii. pp. 49-420, under the title of “Droit
maritime connu sur le nom de Consulat de la Mer.” Capmany has published
the same as “Codigo de las costumbras maritimas.”
[681] Commentators have not settled where the “paradise” cabins were
situated, but they, no doubt, occupied the best part of what is known
as the poop in modern vessels.
[682] It is not possible now to determine how much these sums amount to
in present English money, the more so that the denier is sometimes used
for gold coin. The denier tournois was one-fourth less than the denier
Parisis.—Le Blanc, “Monnoies de France,” d. 1690. See also Fabre,
“Hist. de Marseille,” vol. i.
[683] Chronicles of the Crusades, p. 391, Bohn’s edition.
[684] The actual laws of the states were founded on a remembrance of
the codex of Justinian, previously to its re-discovery at Amalfi. This
codex embodied much of the previous Roman law, and with this whatever
the Roman jurists had borrowed from the Rhodians. The whole of this
question has been fully and carefully examined by Pardessus.