century, thrown almost entirely into their hands. The Crusades formed a grand epoch in the history of commerce, by the introduction of silk and sugar into the west of Europe. Five hundred years before, in 551, silk-worms had been brought from China into Greece, and were successfully reared in the Morea.

In the fourteenth century, the Genoese traded with India through the Black Sea; as did the Venetians through Egypt and Syria. The circumnavigation of Africa proved as fatal to the commerce of Venice as did the fall of Constan tinople to her great rival. So long as the Mediterranean was the medium of commercial intercourse, Venice, situated nearly in the centre of the civilised world, possessed the whole trade of the East; and such were her resources derived from the traffic, that five millions of gold crowns were expended in opposing the memorable league of Cambray, 1508. The maritime communica tion opened by the Portuguese with India in 1497, deprived the republic of the wealth of the East; while the discovery of America directed the attention of Western Europe to a wider field of mercantile and naval enterprise. Another extraordinary event again changed the course of commerce: an inundation of the sea formed a connexion between the ocean and a lake since called the Zuyder Zee, and thus Amsterdam became a maritime port in the fifteenth century. The Hanseatic league, which, in 1241, facilitated the progress of the interior trade of Europe, began to decline from 1370.

The grand commercial route was the Rhine, the Danube, and the various passages of the Alps, particularly across the Tyrol and by the St. Gothard. The second line proceeded from Greece to Russia, passing by Vienna and Ratisbon. A third road extended from the coasts of the Mediterranean, by Marseilles, to the Atlantic. The merchandise brought by these channels was distributed at the several fairs of Aix-la-Chapelle, where all goods were exempt from toll, and of Champagne, where might be seen merchants from the most distant parts of the known world. Spain furnished arms, silk, and Cordovan leather; while Germany, in return for the wines of France and spices of the East, exported beer, cloth, and metals.

In England the charter of John, 1215, declared a uniformity of weights_and measures; and in 1331, Edward III. endeavoured to bring from the Low Countries a number of the discontented weavers. In the thirty-seventh year of his reign, it was enacted that every merchant or artificer worth £500 in goods and chattels might dress like a squire of £100 a-year, and so on in a rising scale. In 1348, Spanish horses of Arabian breed were exchanged for sheep; a barter which created new sources of wealth in both countries. Agriculture especially flourished in England; and it is to this triple combination of commerce, manufactures, and rural economy that she is indebted for her splendour and power.

Woollen Trade. The introduction into England of the important manufacture of woollen cloth was the work of Edward III. Flanders had previously been the great centre of the trade, whence, by the institution of yearly fairs, 960, all continental Europe was supplied. English wool had long been exported to the Netherlands, but principally by German and Italian merchants. Henry I. had endeavoured to establish manufactures of fine wool in 1111, by a settlement of Flemings at Ross in Pembrokeshire. The abuses of monopoly, and the tumults to which they gave rise, drove many workmen from Holland and Flanders into this kingdom, 1331, where they obtained such privileges as encouraged them to resume their occupations. The serges of Ireland were much esteemed in Italy in the fourteenth century, before which period the woollen trade of Catalonia had been firmly established.

Fisheries.-The earliest authentic account of the herring-fishery on the coast of Norway extends as far back as to 978. At the beginning of the fifteenth century the Netherlands rivalled the Hanse Towns, not only in their woollen manufactures, but in their method of pickling herrings, a superiority which they attained about the time of the removal of the great shoal from the southern shores of the Baltic, first to those of Denmark and Norway, and, in 1394, to that of Britain.

Naval Code. The first maritime code was that of Rhodes, which was revived

in that of Amalfi. Richard I. of England is supposed to have drawn up the laws of Oleron, 1194; but the code of Barcelona, 1255, became the fundamental law of commerce. Some such regulations were necessary to prevent piracy and the barbarous custom of reprisals.

Banks, &c.-The silver mines of Misnia, discovered in 698, afforded a more convenient means of trading than by barter. The modern funding system dates from 1175, when a forced loan was raised at Venice. General letters of credit are mentioned about 1200; bills of exchange were known in 1255; and the first bank of exchange and deposit was established at Barcelona, 1401. In 1236, an attempt was made in China to introduce a paper currency for the relief of the government, but it failed from the want of public confidence.

Gunpowder. The manufacture of gunpowder was known to the Chinese about A. D. 85; but no traces of it are discoverable in Europe before the middle of the thirteenth century, when it is said to have been used by the Spanish Moors in defence of the city of Niebla, 1249. Cannon appear to have been first employed by the King of Granada, when he besieged Baza in 1312; and by Edward III. at Cressy, 1346. Muskets were introduced about 1411, and bombs in 1450.

Printing-The art of printing with moveable types was invented about the middle of the fifteenth century; but its origin is involved in much uncertainty, no less than fifteen cities and a greater number of individuals laying claim to the honour. The taking of impressions from engraved blocks or plates is very ancient, and was known to the Babylonians and Romans. The Chinese are supposed to have made much progress in this art before the tenth century. Guttenburg of Strasburg, Faust, and Schaeffer, however their pretensions may be confused, consummated this valuable discovery. The first printed book was a Latin Bible, 1450-1455, known as the "Mazarin Bible," from a copy having been discovered at Paris in the library of the Cardinal Mazarin. The first work printed in England was executed at Oxford, 1468, three years before Caxton began to print in Westminster Abbey.

The Great Plague.-An extraordinary continuance of heavy rain-storms in the winter of 1345 and the following spring, by causing the almost entire failure of the harvests in Europe, produced a severe famine, which rendered the population very susceptible of contagion. The great plague raged in every country of Europe, carrying off nearly three-fifths of the inhabitants. It began in the Levant about 1346, and thence extended to Sicily, Pisa, and Genoa: the sufferings of Florence gave occasion to the Decameron of Boccaccio. In 1348, it spread over France and Spain, reaching Britain the next year. In 1350, it coasted Germany and other northern states, continuing generally about five months in each country.

Gipsies. In the year 1417, the gipsies first appeared in Moldavia, Wallachia, and Hungary. It is extremely probable that the terror spread by Tamerlane's invasion of India, 1408, drove out many of the inhabitants, and that these are the Zingari (Wanderers), known as Bohemians in France, and 'Gipsies (i. e. Egyptians) in England.

Revival of the Arts and Learning.-The revival of the fine arts illumined the close of the Middle Ages. The church of St. Mark at Venice was completed in 1071; Notre Dame in Paris was founded 1163, and occupied 100 years in building; Westminster Chapel was rebuilt by Henry III. in 1220; the dome or cathedral of Pisa was the first model of the Tuscan order; Cimabue, born at Florence 1240, was the restorer of oil-painting; while his pupil Giotto intro duced rules and added dignity to the art. The gardens of Lorenzo de Medici, filled with the precious remains of antiquity, were the nursery of men of genius, and particularly of Michael Angelo, who attained the highest eminence in painting, sculpture, and architecture. Finiguerra, in 1460, or rather Baldini, invented the art of engraving;* and by 1600, the sublime and graceful produc tions of Raphael were accurately transferred to paper.

*This is doubtful, as plates are to be found in the different cabinets of Europe of as early a date as 1440. Wood-engraving made great progress in Germany about the

From the fall of Rome to the time of Charlemagne there was a long period of violence and ignorance; during which the islands of Britain and Ireland claim the honour of sheltering the exiled learning of Europe. Situated beyond the limits of the barbarian ravages, they afforded an asylum, from which the students were again expelled by the maritime ravages of the Danes and Northmen, to diffuse their knowledge over the Empire of the West. The conventual schools, established by Charlemagne, became the means of arresting the utter decay of learning.

The dialects of France, Italy, and Portugal, are derived from one common source; for "Rome imposed not only her yoke but her language upon conquered nations." The progressive corruption of the Latin language by the adoption of foreign words, and by the loss of many works of standard authority, conduced to the formation and peculiarities of its several derivatives. Still it did not cease to be spoken in France until the eighth century; but in 813, we' find the Romance tongue completely established. In Italy, the change appears to have taken place earlier.

With the disuse of Latin all the learned pursuits were abandoned, and the establishment of Christianity alone preserved the remains of ancient literature, which found refuge in the monastic institutions. The first great step towards a revival of letters appeared in the foundation of universities. Paris, in 1100, became famous by the teaching of William of Champeaux, and of his rival Abelard. Oxford was a flourishing school about 1200, and Cambridge was incorporated in 1231. Bologna claims a higher antiquity. These seats of the muses owed their reputation to the "scholastic philosophy"—an intri cate web of logical and metaphysical subtleties, founded on he dialetics of Aristotle.

In the twelfth century the Romance language separated into the Langue d'Oc and the Langue d'Oil, Provençal and Northern French. The celebrated Troubadours now appeared; and the Floral games of Toulouse and the Courts of Love attracted the chivalry of Europe. French, properly so called, began to be spoken prior to 1100, and England was the earliest school of its literature, and the resort of the Norman trouveurs.

The English language was formed at a later period than either of the abovementioned dialects; the earliest tolerable writer was the author of Piers Plowman's Vision. Wickliffe first displayed the copiousness and energy of the language; and Geoffrey Chaucer, born in 1328, is justly esteemed the father of English poetry.

The oldest Italian poet is not earlier than the year 1193. Dante, the first great one of modern Italy, was born 1265; his noble poem, the Divine Comedy, was written in exile. He died in the year 1321. Petrarch followed at an interval of eighty-three years, 1304, and gave a polish to the language which the other had formed. He was among the first to urge the study of Greek literature, and was successful in recovering many of the treasures of the ancient classics. Boccaccio, born 1313, kindled his poetic ardour at the tomb of Virgil; but he is more justly famous as the father of Italian prose composi tion. About this period the French commenced turning their old metrical romances into prose-an evidence that the prosaic genius of their dialect began to be felt. The language and poetry of Spain were not developed before the sixteenth century.

The arrival of Barlaan, a Calabrian monk, at Avignon was an epoch in literary history. He read Plato and Homer with Petrarch, whose example attracted the attention of Italy. Cosmo de Medici established an academy at Florence about 1450, solely for the study of Plato: Nicholas V., on the contrary, favoured the philosophy of Aristotle. The progress of learning was facilitated by the invention of linen paper in the thirteenth century, and public libraries were soon afterwards formed. To Poggio we are indebted for the

end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries under Albert Durer and

his masters.

1

discovery of Quintilian, Lucretius, twelve comedies of Plautus, and other works. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 contributed greatly to the spread of Greek literature in the West, by the dispersion of its learned men. A professorship of Greek was established at Oxford under Henry VII., and another at Paris in 1458. The cause of learning was supported by Laurentius Valla, Leonardo Aretino, Politian, and the learned printer Manutius Aldus.

Domestic Manners, &c. The increasing wealth and foreign commerce of Europe naturally led to greater refinements in domestic life. When other and more direct testimony is wanting, we may, in certain respects, judge of the progress of society by the sumptuary laws, the chief part of which, extending both to the table and the wardrobe, were enacted in the fourteenth century. In France these provisions were continued down to 1700. The history of civil architecture gives a striking insight into the advancement of social comforts. The high gloomy keeps, with their narrow loopholes, gradually yielded to the castle and the palace, in which the large arched windows are evidences at once of internal quiet and magnificence. The houses of the gentry were usually built of wood or of stones rough from the quarry. Brick buildings first appear in the fourteenth century. The ordinary mansion-houses were small and inconvenient; a passage extended through the house, with a hall and parlour on one side, and on the other the kitchen and offices, with one or two chambers above. In France, traces of fortified castles (chateaux) remain; while in Italy, although in several towns the houses were covered with thatch, there was a greater degree of elegance in the buildings. Chimneys did not come into general use before the middle of the fourteenth century; and in France, not before the middle of the seventeenth. They were not introduced into the Cheshire farm-houses until the early part of Elizabeth's reign, the fire being in the middle of the house against a hob of clay, and the oxen lived under the same roof with the family. Neither in France nor in England was windowglass introduced before the fourteenth century, and during the middle ages glazed windows appear to have been an article of moveable furniture. Beds were extremely rare; the walls of the rooms were naked; there were no libraries or pictures; silver cups and spoons were almost the only articles of plate. Chairs and looking-glasses were scarcely known; window-shutters and curtains were great luxuries even in 1539.

The condition of agriculture in England had been gradually improving since the Norman conquest. During the long reign of the Plantagenets, woods were cleared, marshes drained, and parochial enclosures made, so that, under Edward III., there was a great extent of land cultivated; the northern and western parts, however, being the most backward. The culture of the arable soil was very imperfect, nine or ten bushels of wheat being a fair average crop to an acre. Such land was rented at about sixpence an acre, though meadow. ground was double or triple that sum. To augment their revenues, the landlords procured a repeal of the act forbidding the exportation of corn, 15th Henry VI., so long as wheat did not exceed 6s. 8d. a-quarter, and barley 3s. Under Edward IV. the usual price of land was ten years' purchase. But to form precise notions on this subject, we must be acquainted with the relative value of money. Before the debasement of the coin in 1301, the ordinary price of a quarter of wheat was about 4s., that of barley and oats being in proportion. A sheep was dear at one shilling, and an ox at ten or twelve. By a comparative table of English money, drawn up by Sir F. Eden, it appears that the value of a pound sterling of our present coinage was worth at the Conquest £2, 18s. 1 d., whence it gradually decreased until it reached 4s. 7 d. in 1551; but the next year it rose to £1, Os. 6d. With few variations, until the 43d of Elizabeth, it continued as at present. Sir John Fortescue speaks of £5 a year a fair living for a yeoman;" in 1514, the expense of a scholar at the university was but £5 a-year, or about £60 of our money; and earlier, in 1476, we find fourpence (our five shillings) given as a fee to a barrister for his dinner. Here we must consider the change in manners and the usual mode of living. Little wine was drunk; there were no foreign luxuries; male servants were kept chiefly for husbandry; and landed estates were nearly exempt from

as

taxation. The condition of the labouring classes, in the reign of Edward III. or Henry VI., was better than at present. In the fourteenth century a harvestman had fourpence a-day, thus enabling him in a week to buy a coom of wheat, which, at the average of the last twenty years, would now cost about 28s. In 1350, reapers' wages were fixed by law at threepence a-day, without food, equal to 5s. at present; in 1424, at fivepence, equal to 6s. 8d.; those of ordinary workmen being somewhat less. In 1444, a head-shepherd had £1, 4s. a year, equivalent to about £20, and in their ordinary diet labourers used a good deal of animal food.

Consult: Hallam, Middle Ages, ch. ix. pp. 1 and 2; and Millar's Lectures on the Philosophy of History, vol. iv. lect. 38-40.

END OF PART II.-MIDDLE AGES.