(r) Tous les jours a la cour un sot de qualite Muratori has laboured to prove, that the French satirist did not mean to insinuate, that the work of Tasso was only tinsel; but merely to condemn the false taste of those, who would prefer that which was tinsel in the poem of Tasso to that which was gold in the poem of Virgil; and in this argument he has been followed by Ginguene, in his recent history of Italian literature. The analysis of the latter writer however sufficiently shows that the tinsel of Tasso is in considerable quantity, though he ranks the Gerusalemme Liberata next after the Eneid, excluding the Paradise Lost from the class of epic poems, while he acknowledges the superior sublimity of Milton. Hist. Litt. d'Italie, part. 2. ch. 15, 16. LECTURE XXV. Of the history of Commerce from the suppression of the western empire in the year 476 to the commencement of the fourteenth century. THE formation of the modern system of Europe has been so powerfully influenced by commerce, that a consideration of the encrease and diffusion of commercial industry in the several periods of its history is indispensably necessary to a due knowledge of its nature. Many of the facts indeed, which relate to the history of commerce in the period preceding the fourteenth century, have been already noticed; but it will be useful that all should be brought together in a single view, to enable the mind to comprehend the whole of the combinations, which have given so much of a commercial character to the governments of Europe. The ascendancy of the Roman power had * crushed the commerce of the ancient world. * Anderson's Hist. of Commerce, vel. 1. introd. p. 1. Lond. The decisive blow was given by the destruction of the two great cities of Carthage and Corinth, effected one hundred and forty-six years before the commencement of the Christian era, but chiefly by that of the former. Carthage had carried to its utmost perfection the commerce of the ancients, having not only traded more extensively by sea than any other ancient nation, but having also enjoyed a more considerable inland commerce in Africa than any other people ancient or modern. The influence of the ascendancy of Rome in discouraging maritime commerce appeared in the extraordinary prevalence of piracy throughout the mediterranean, which rendered it necessary, sixty-seven years before the commencement of the Christian era, to vest extraordinary powers in Pompey for reducing the enemies of industry. Some attention was indeed given by the Romans to the protection and encouragement of commerce, when their dominion had been firmly established over almost the whole of the countries which were then known. Augustus Cæsar † accordingly, having conquered Egypt thirty years before the commencement of the Christian era, established two fleets for the security of navigation, one of which was stationed in * Anderson's Hist. of Commerce, vol. 1. introd. p. xii. ↑ Ibid. p. 14. the more westerly parts of the mediterranean, the other in those which are now named the Levant. The same emperor also extended his commercial concern to the trade of India, reviving for this purpose the traffic, which had been formerly maintained with that country by the Nile, the Red Sea, and the Indian ocean; and this commerce was improved by him and his successors even until the overthrow of the western empire. It was not possible that a civilised people should become possessed of maritime countries without becoming in some degree sensible of the advantages of commerce, and endeavouring to procure them for themselves; but the spirit of the Roman government was military, not commercial, and the balance of wealth was supported in Italy by the pillage of conquered nations, or by the taxes levied in the provinces, rather than by the interchange of commodities and industry. The suppression of the western empire ruined the renewed commerce of the west, which was almost totally interrupted from the time of that event until the genius of Charlemagne, more than three centuries afterwards, laboured for its restoration. The barbarous nations. eager for conquest, and embarrassed by their mutual contentions, could not have leisure or inclination for the encouragement of trade; and the reduction of Egypt under the Saracens must have for a time obstructed to the Christians the most tempting of its speculations. Trade was however still cherished in the capital of the eastern empire, which by the peculiar advantages of its situation was almost necessitated to be commercial, and was at the same time sufficiently strong to defy the assaults of its barbarian enemies; and thus Constantinople, while it served to secure for modern times a knowledge of the literary refinement of Greece, served also to transmit to them those relations of industrious communication, which excite the activity of man, and cultivate and improve his genius. When the cities of Italy began to recover from the violences of a barbarian conquest, they opened a commerce with the ports of the Greek empire, and the trade which was formed with the assistance of this connection, was afterwards gradually extended from Italy through the more northern and western countries of Europe. The Italians indeed having been subdued by nations which had long maintained an intercourse with the empire, and had even resided for a considerable time within its limits, were by no means reduced to mere barbarism in consequence of this conquest; and † some of the greater cities had even retained their ancient * Anderson's Hist. of Commerce, vol. 1. introd. p. vii. + Ibid. vol. 1. p. 17. |