[Illustration: Fig. 190.--Transport of Merchandise on the Backs of
Camels.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle," of
Thevet: folio, 1575.]
The Frank kings on several occasions evinced a desire that communications
favourable to trade should be re-established in their dominions. We find,
for instance, Chilperic making treaties with Eastern emperors in favour
of the merchants of Agde and Marseilles, Queen Brunehaut making viaducts
worthy of the Romans, and which still bear her name, and Dagobert opening
at St. Denis free fairs--that is to say, free, or nearly so, from all
tolls and taxes--to which goods, both agricultural and manufactured, were
sent from every corner of Europe and the known world, to be afterwards
distributed through the towns and provinces by the enterprise of internal
commerce.
|