But Before They Agreed To
Lend Their Fleets, They Bargained, That On The Reduction Of Any City
Favorable To Commerce, They Should Be Permitted To Trade There Without Duty
Or Molestation, And Be Favoured With Every Privilege And Protection Which
They Might Desire.
In consequence of this bargain, they obtained, in some
places, the exclusive right over whole streets, and the appointment of
judges to try all who lived in them, or traded under their protection.
A quarrel which took place between the Venetians and the Greek Emperor
Manuel, in 1171, is worthy of notice, as being connected with the origin of
the bank of Venice. The republic not being able to supply, from its own
sources, the means of carrying on the war, was obliged to raise money from
her citizens. To regulate this the chamber of loans was established: the
contributors to the loan were made creditors to the chamber, and an annual
interest of 4 per cent. was allotted to them. If this rate of interest was
not compulsive, it is a sure criterion of a most flourishing state of
trade, and of very great abundance of money; but there is every reason to
believe if was compulsive.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Constantinople was conquered by the
Venetians, and the leaders of the fourth crusade: this event enabled them
to supply Europe more abundantly with all the productions of the East. In
the partition of the Greek empire which followed this success, the
Venetians obtained part of the Peloponnesus, where, at that period, silk
was manufactured to a great extent.
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