Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


The Eastern commerce furnished the first elements of that trading activity
which showed itself on the borders of the Mediterranean, and we find the
ancient towns of Provence and Languedoc springing up again by the aide of
the republics of Amalfi, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, which had become the
rich depots of all maritime trade.


At first, as we have already stated, the wares of India came to Europe
through the Greek port of Alexandria, or through Constantinople. The
Crusades, which had facilitated the relations with Eastern countries,
developed a taste in the West for their indigenous productions, gave a
fresh vigour to this foreign commerce, and rendered it more productive by
removing the stumbling blocks which had arrested its progress (Fig. 191).

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