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.Glass, of superior workmanship to anything known in Europe, came from Damascus,Samarcand, and Kadesia, near Bagdad.Objects of fine porcelain came from China, and finally became knownby the name of that country.A great variety of fabrics of silk and cotton, as well as those fibres in their rawstate, came from Asia to Europe.Dozens of names of Eastern origin still remain to describe the silk, cotton,hair, and mixed fabrics which came to Europe from China, India, Cashmere, and the cities of Persia, Arabia,Syria, and Asia Minor.Brocade, damask, taffeta, sendal, satin, camelot, buckram, muslin, and many varietiesof carpets, rugs, and hangings, which were woven in various parts of those lands, have always since retainedthe names of the places which early became famous for their manufacture.The metal- work of the East wasscarcely less characteristic or less highly valued in the West, though its varieties have not left such specificnames.[Footnote: Heyd, Geschtchte des Levantehandels, II., App., 543-699.] Europe could feed herself withunspiced food, she could clothe herself with plain clothing, but for luxuries, adornments, refinements, whetherin food, in personal ornament, or in furnishing her palaces, her manor- houses, her churches, or her wealthymerchants' dwellings, she must, in the fifteenth century, still look to Asia, as she had always done.It is truethat in the later Middle Ages many articles of beauty and ornament were produced in the more advancedWestern countries; but not spices nor drugs, nor precious stones, nor any great variety of dyes.Oriental rugsare even yet superior to any like productions of the West; and a vast number of other articles of Eastern originthen held, and indeed still hold, the markets.In return for the goods which Europe brought from Asia a few commodities could be shipped eastward.European woollen fabrics seem to have been almost as much valued in certain countries of Asia as Easterncotton and silk goods were in Italy, France, Germany, and England.Certain Western metals and minerals werehighly valued in the East, especially arsenic, antimony, quicksilver, tin, copper, and lead.[Footnote:Birdwood, Hand-book to the Indian Collection (Paris Universal Exhibition, 1878), Appendix to catalogue ofthe British Colonies, pp.1-110.] The coral of the Mediterranean was much admired and sought after in Persiaand India, and even in countries still farther east.Nevertheless the balance of trade was permanently in favorof the East, and quantities of gold and silver coin and bullion were used by European merchants to buy thefiner wares in Asiatic markets.There was much general trading in Eastern marts.Numbers of Oriental CHAPTER II 18merchants, like Sindbad the Sailor and his company, "passed by island after island and from sea to sea andfrom land to land; and in every place by which we passed we sold and bought and exchanged merchandise."The articles enumerated above were almost without exception in demand throughout the whole East, and werebought by merchants in one place and sold in another.Marco Polo, in describing the Chinese city of Zayton,says: "And I assure you that for one shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere destined forChristendom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven of Zayton." [Footnote: Marco Polo(Yule's ed), book II., chap.lxxxii] Even as late as 1515, Giovanni D'Empoli, writing about China, says: "Shipscarry spices thither from these parts.Every year there go thither from Sumatra 60,000 cantars of pepper and15,000 or 20,000 from Cochin and Malabar--besides ginger, mace, nutmegs, incense, aloes, velvet, Europeangold-wire, coral, woollens, etc." [Footnote: Quoted in ibid, book II., 188.] Nevertheless the attraction of theWest was clearly felt in the East.Extensive as were the local purchase and sale of articles of luxury and use bymerchants throughout India, Persia, Arabia, Central Asia, and China, yet the export of goods from thosecountries to the westward was a form of trade of great importance, and one which had its roots deep inantiquity.A story of the early days tells how the jealous brothers of Joseph, when they were considering whatdisposition to make of him, "lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a travelling company of Ishmeelitescame from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt."[Footnote: Genesis, xxxvii.25.] When the prophet cries, "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with garmentsdyed red from Bozrah?" he is using two of the most familiar names on the lines of west Asiatic trade.Solomon gave proof of his wisdom and made his kingdom great by seizing the lines of the trade-routes fromTadmor in the desert and Damascus in the north to the upper waters of the Red Sea on the south [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Glass, of superior workmanship to anything known in Europe, came from Damascus,Samarcand, and Kadesia, near Bagdad.Objects of fine porcelain came from China, and finally became knownby the name of that country.A great variety of fabrics of silk and cotton, as well as those fibres in their rawstate, came from Asia to Europe.Dozens of names of Eastern origin still remain to describe the silk, cotton,hair, and mixed fabrics which came to Europe from China, India, Cashmere, and the cities of Persia, Arabia,Syria, and Asia Minor.Brocade, damask, taffeta, sendal, satin, camelot, buckram, muslin, and many varietiesof carpets, rugs, and hangings, which were woven in various parts of those lands, have always since retainedthe names of the places which early became famous for their manufacture.The metal- work of the East wasscarcely less characteristic or less highly valued in the West, though its varieties have not left such specificnames.[Footnote: Heyd, Geschtchte des Levantehandels, II., App., 543-699.] Europe could feed herself withunspiced food, she could clothe herself with plain clothing, but for luxuries, adornments, refinements, whetherin food, in personal ornament, or in furnishing her palaces, her manor- houses, her churches, or her wealthymerchants' dwellings, she must, in the fifteenth century, still look to Asia, as she had always done.It is truethat in the later Middle Ages many articles of beauty and ornament were produced in the more advancedWestern countries; but not spices nor drugs, nor precious stones, nor any great variety of dyes.Oriental rugsare even yet superior to any like productions of the West; and a vast number of other articles of Eastern originthen held, and indeed still hold, the markets.In return for the goods which Europe brought from Asia a few commodities could be shipped eastward.European woollen fabrics seem to have been almost as much valued in certain countries of Asia as Easterncotton and silk goods were in Italy, France, Germany, and England.Certain Western metals and minerals werehighly valued in the East, especially arsenic, antimony, quicksilver, tin, copper, and lead.[Footnote:Birdwood, Hand-book to the Indian Collection (Paris Universal Exhibition, 1878), Appendix to catalogue ofthe British Colonies, pp.1-110.] The coral of the Mediterranean was much admired and sought after in Persiaand India, and even in countries still farther east.Nevertheless the balance of trade was permanently in favorof the East, and quantities of gold and silver coin and bullion were used by European merchants to buy thefiner wares in Asiatic markets.There was much general trading in Eastern marts.Numbers of Oriental CHAPTER II 18merchants, like Sindbad the Sailor and his company, "passed by island after island and from sea to sea andfrom land to land; and in every place by which we passed we sold and bought and exchanged merchandise."The articles enumerated above were almost without exception in demand throughout the whole East, and werebought by merchants in one place and sold in another.Marco Polo, in describing the Chinese city of Zayton,says: "And I assure you that for one shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere destined forChristendom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven of Zayton." [Footnote: Marco Polo(Yule's ed), book II., chap.lxxxii] Even as late as 1515, Giovanni D'Empoli, writing about China, says: "Shipscarry spices thither from these parts.Every year there go thither from Sumatra 60,000 cantars of pepper and15,000 or 20,000 from Cochin and Malabar--besides ginger, mace, nutmegs, incense, aloes, velvet, Europeangold-wire, coral, woollens, etc." [Footnote: Quoted in ibid, book II., 188.] Nevertheless the attraction of theWest was clearly felt in the East.Extensive as were the local purchase and sale of articles of luxury and use bymerchants throughout India, Persia, Arabia, Central Asia, and China, yet the export of goods from thosecountries to the westward was a form of trade of great importance, and one which had its roots deep inantiquity.A story of the early days tells how the jealous brothers of Joseph, when they were considering whatdisposition to make of him, "lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a travelling company of Ishmeelitescame from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt."[Footnote: Genesis, xxxvii.25.] When the prophet cries, "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with garmentsdyed red from Bozrah?" he is using two of the most familiar names on the lines of west Asiatic trade.Solomon gave proof of his wisdom and made his kingdom great by seizing the lines of the trade-routes fromTadmor in the desert and Damascus in the north to the upper waters of the Red Sea on the south [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]