the early history of the trade of Barcelona[1] 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.
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.
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
- ↑ 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.
