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.
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[1] 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
- ↑ Pardessus, ii. p. 66. Capmany, "Memorias," vol. ii.
