Importance of their commerce in ancient times; and its decline during the Middle Ages.
A.D. 711.
A.D. 1340. of the Mediterranean. Notice has also been taken of the course adopted by the Romans to secure for themselves the commerce formerly in the hands of the Carthaginians, and of the great value of the trade which Rome ultimately carried on with Spain during the first four centuries of the Christian era. We have also endeavoured to show that when the Vandals wrested Spain from the Romans, the maritime trade of the Peninsula was grievously neglected, and that it did not improve under the semi-*barbarous rule of the Visigoths. Three hundred years afterwards, when the Saracens established themselves at Cordova, somewhat more attention was paid to mercantile pursuits; but, throughout the whole period of the Saracenic rule, the sea-borne commerce of Spain was insignificant when compared with that of the leading Italian republics. It is true that the invaders so long as they held Seville kept up some commercial relations with the East; but the native population of the country can hardly be said to have done anything worthy of note in maritime matters, till the alliance by marriage of Ferdinand II. of Aragon with Isabella of Castile brought nearly the whole Christian dominion of Spain under one monarchy, and gave renewed life and energy to its trade with other and distant nations.
Trade with the coasts of Africa. From the commencement of the fourteenth century,[1] the trade between the kingdom of Aragon and the
- ↑ Barcelona, in 1068, led the way by the creation of an al-fondech (Latin, fundicus), or exchange (Capmany v. i. 26). This was greatly aided by the privileges given to it by James, king of Aragon, in 1265, by Pedro III. in 1283, by Peter IV. in 1343, and by many protections from English sovereigns, such as Edward III. in 1353 (Rymer, "Fœd." V. v. p. 762).
