THE VENETIANS. 105 or state, so also she remains the one city of Europe where the impress of the New Home's civilization lias left deep traces. From the time that the lagoons had become the seat of the Venetian government the trade with Constantinople had been one of her greatest interests. The amount of commerce between the two cities was very great. The Bosphorus was the chief highway between Persia, Central Asia, Eussia, and eastern Europe to the w^est. The good government and the security for life and property which existed under the rule of Constantinople was an additional inducement for the trader to try his ventures with the imperial city. The islands of the Archipelago were charged with the furnishing and equipment of ships for keeping order on the seas and preventing piracy. The arrangements made by treaties with the Venetians for the administration of justice show the existence of a higher degree of civilization than prevailed elsewhere in Europe. The standard of gold coinage created by the empire remained the same until the capture of the city, and its fixedness of value gave great confidence to merchants. Though two or three emperors, notably Nicephoras (963-976), were guilty of tam- pering with the money in circulation throughout the empire, yet so long as the gold coinage remained undebased the Vene- tians, in common with other foreigners, were no more affected by the change than foreign merchants have been by the issue of paper money, and the many similar forms of public rob- bery by which the Turkish government in our own time has deprived its own subjects of many millions of pounds. More- over, the outcry which was made when the emperors tampered with the coinage shows the importance which was attached by the people to a measure so injurious to trade, and is in favor- able contrast with the acquiescence which was made in similar attempts at public robbery in the West and in subsequent times. These advantages made the Venetians estimate at a high value their connection with Constantinople, and had caused them, even as early as the time of Charles the Great, and in spite of his threats, to remain faithful to the Emperor of the New Eome.
