t commerce, their
commercial effects were both beneficial and permanent. The crusades were
especially favorable to the commercial pursuits of the Italian states.
The vast armies which marched from all parts of Europe toward Asia gave
encouragement to the shipping of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, which
sometimes transported them, and always supplied them with provisions and
military stores. Besides the immense sums which these states received on
this account, they obtained commercial privileges of great consequence
in the settlements which the crusaders made in the East. All the
commodities which they imported or exported were exempted from every
imposition, the property of entire suburbs in some of the maritime
towns, and of large streets in others, was vested in them, and all
questions arising among persons residing within their precincts, or who
traded under their protection, were decided by their own laws and by
judges of their own appointment. When the crusaders took Constantinople,
the Venetians did not neglect to secure to themselves many advantages
from that event. Nearly all the branches of commerce were in time
transferred from Constantinople to their city. At the end of the crusade
period Venice had monopolized nearly all the foreign trade of Europe.
She supplied the people of Italy, France and Germany with those
commodities with which the crusaders by their intercourse with more
refined nations had become acquainted. The possession of many Eastern
ports and the maintenance of a powerful navy made it possible for the
Venetians to retain their monopoly for several centuries.

The growth of commerce in Central Europe was but slow, owing to the
dangers to which it was exposed in those days of feudalism. The mountain
fastnesses of robber knights, which controlled every road and navigable
river, were so many toll-gates at which the wayfaring merchant was
stopped to pay tribute. In time this system of plunder grew to such an
extent that hundreds of feudal lords relied upon it for their support.
Such a tax upon commerce greatly enhanced the value of all commodities,
and this deplorable state of things lasted until the cities made their
power felt by forming alliances for mutual protection. One of these
alliances, the Rhenish League, comprised in time seventy towns, and the
ruins of the strong castles destroyed by its forces still exist along
the Rhine, picturesque memorials of these lawless times.

Perhaps the most power