Though, However, The League Itself At
This Period Had Lost Its Influence And Commerce, Yet Some Cities, Which Had
Been From The First Members Of It, Still Retained A Lucrative Trade:
This
remark applies chiefly to Lubeck and Hamburgh; the former of these cities
possessed, about the middle of the
Seventeenth century, 600 ships, some of
which were very large; and the commerce by which Hamburgh is still
distinguished, is in some measure the result of what it enjoyed as a member
of the Hanseatic League.
We shall now turn our attention to the Italian states: Venice and Amalfi
were the first which directed their labours to the arts of domestic
industry, the forerunners and causes of commercial prosperity. New wants
and desires being created, and a taste for elegance and luxury formed,
foreign countries were visited. Muratori mentions several circumstances
which indicate a revival of a commercial spirit; and, as Dr. Robertson
remarks, from the close of the seventh century, an attentive observer may
discern faint traces of its progress. Indeed, towards the beginning of the
sixth century, the Venetians had become so expert at sea, that Cassiodorus
addressed a letter to the maritime tribunes of Venice, (which is still
extant,) in which he requests them to undertake the transporting of the
public stores of wine and oil from Istria to Ravenna. In this letter, a
curious but rather poetical account is given of the state of the city and
its inhabitants: all the houses were alike: all the citizens lived on the
same food, viz.
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