526 Outlines of European History some of them adorned by the most distinguished of the Italian painters, and others filled with ancient statuary. As one visits Venice, Florence, and Rome to-day he may still see, almost perfectly preserved, many of the finest of the build- ings, paintings, and monuments which belong to the period we have been discussing. Section 91. Early Geographical Discoveries Medieval The business and commerce of the medieval towns was a small sile" ^^ what would sccm to US a rather small scale. There were no great factories, such as have grown up in recent times with the use of steam and machinery, and the ships which sailed the Mediterranean and the North Sea were small and held only a very light cargo compared with modem merchant vessels. The gradual growth of a world commerce began with the sea voyages of the fifteenth century, which led to the exploration by Europeans of the whole globe, most of which was entirely unknown to the Venetian merchants and those who carried on the trade of the Hanseatic League. The Greeks and Romans knew little about the world beyond southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, and much that they knew was for- gotten during the Middle Ages. The Crusades took many Europeans as far east as Egypt and Syria. About 1260 two Venetian merchants, the Polo brothers, visited China and were kindly received at Pekin by the emperor of the Mongols. On. Marco Polo a second journey they were accompanied by Marco Polo, the son of one of the brothers. When they got safely back to Venice in 1295, after a journey of twenty years, Marco gave an account of his experiences which filled his readers with wonder. Nothing stimulated the interest of the West more than his fabulous description of the abundance of gold in Zipangu (Japan) ^ and of the spice markets of the Moluccas and Ceylon, 1 See below, p. 530.
