irteenth century the towns of Italy had consular
agents in France; and Marseilles had them in Savoy, in Arles, and in
Genoa. Thus traders of each country were always sure of finding justice,
assistance, and protection in all the centres of European commerce.

Numerous facilities for barter were added to these advantages. Merchants,
who at first travelled with their merchandise, and who afterwards merely
sent a factor as their representative, finally consigned it to foreign
agents. Communication by correspondence in this way became more general,
and paper replaced parchment as being less rare and less expensive. The
introduction of Arabic figures, which were more convenient than the Roman
numerals for making calculations, the establishment of banks, of which the
most ancient was in operation in Venice as early as the twelfth century,
the invention of bills of exchange, attributed to the Jews, and generally
in use in the thirteenth century, the establishment of insurance against
the risks and perils of sea and land, and lastly, the formation of trading
companies, or what are now called partnerships, all tended to give
expansion and activity to commerce, whereby public and private wealth was
increased in spite of obstacles which routine, envy, and ill-will
persistently raised against great commercial enterprises.

For a long time the French, through indolence or antipathy--for it was
more to their liking to be occupied with arms and chivalry than with
matters of interest and profit--took but a feeble part in the trade which
was carried on so successfully on their own territory. The nobles were
ashamed to mix in commerce, considering it unworthy of them, and the
bourgeois, for want of liberal feeling and expansiveness in their ideas,
were satisfied with appropriating merely local trade. Foreign commerce,
even of the most lucrative description, was handed over to foreigners, and
especially to Jews, who were often banished from the kingdom and as
frequently ransomed, though universally despised and hated.
Notwithstanding this, they succeeded in rising to wealth under the stigma
of shame and infamy, and the immense gains which they realised by means of
usury reconciled them to, and consoled them for, the ill-treatment to
which they were subjected.

[Illustration: Fig. 199.--Discovery of America, 12th of May,
1492.--Columbus erects the Cross and baptizes the Isle of Guanahani (now
Cat Island, one of the Bahamas) by the Christi