pigafetta ’s voyage round the world. 289

Indian Sea, whence, by the Euphrates, and by the Indus and Oxus , the productions ofIndia were conveyed to the Cafpian, or the Black Sea , and thence into the Mediterra-nean, whither the Italians went to purchafe and tranfport them to all the fnores ofEurope , and even to the interior of the continent as far as to the frozen regions ofMufcovy and Norway where they had their factories *.

II. It will readily be inferred that the price of thefe commodities at firft hand, com-pared with the price at which they were ultimately retailed, mull have been very low *,the coll ,to the confumer being necelfarily much enhanced by the charge of tranfportand the great rifles run, whether in navigating the Red Sea , or in palling the deferts ;to which mull be added the profit exacted by the different individuals through whofebands they paffed. We are informed by one Barthelemi, a Florentine merchant, who,towards the clofe of the fifteenth century, had refided the fpace of four-and-twentyyears in India f, that they paffed through twelve different hands before they reachedthe confumer, and that the ultimate price of them was increafed tenfold from the firftc °ft this great increafe however was much affifted by monopoly. When the anti-focialArabs had perfe&Iy annihilated the commerce of the Red Sea , the Genoefe combined'with the fchifinatic Emperor of Conftantinople in eftablifhing an exclufive commerceby the way of the Black Sea , by Tatary [Samarcand], and Perfia ; and when the Sultan

Egypt, after fubduing the Arabs, re-opened to trade the channel by the Nile , hisa-Ilies the Venetians fupplanted the Genoefe, and exclufively fupplied the nations ofEurope with the rich merchandize of India ||. Finally, by one means.or other, theItalians fo perfe&ly engroffed the trade with India , as to render all other nations ofEurope their tributaries ; and the price for fpices, towards the middle of the fixteenth §century, from another circumftance, became farther enhanced: at this epoch theMoors rendered themfelves mafters of the illands which almoft exclufively producetbe valuable fpices ; and, better acquainted with the value they bore in Europe thanV’ei'e the natives, would no longer part with them without an increafe of price

III. The

Thi.

Jn T 13 ' S an error ’ the diftributors of the commodities of India to the north of Europe , (as may be feen1 yoke’s View of the Ruffian Empire, in Coxe’s Northern Tour, in Guthrie’s Travels to the Crimea ,c j. ln Pallas’s Southern Tour,) at the period of the eftablifnment of the Venetians at Conftantinople, and. | le Genoefe at Caffa, as is obferved in the preceding note, were the merchants of Novogord, ennneftedtl' ^ an ^ eat ’ c league. Their predeccffors in this lucrative commerce were the Golden Horde , and

th rs a 8 a,n the Permians, inhabitants of the country weft of the Ural mountains ; thefe people, even earlier? f he days of the great Alfred, maintained a profitable intercourfe with India . Eng. Tk.r Rather, perhaps, in Turkey, as Benedetto Dei in his chronicle, (extracts of which are before thelte r,) on noticing the different Hates with whom the Florentines traded direft at this time, does notth ft° n Benedetto Dei was contemporary with Barthelemi, had been deputed reprefentative of

renc atc °f Florence to the Sultan Ottoman, and in his chronicle throws great light on the trade of Flo-fho 6 aS - 83 Venice at this period, a period fo difnftrous to the Venetians , and at which Florencemerer.' tS 8 reate ^ ftRudor. Eng. Tr. from Della Decima e delle altre gravizze, della monita, e della+ a *" r . a drgh Fiorentini, tomo fecondo, Lifoona e Lucca, 1765.

Zj * a ' s a lf° is corroborated by the remarks on the map of the world of Behaim , of which I fliall fpeak1f> twelfth paragraph. French Tr.

"'itli 1 s ' s ‘ s not P erf eaiy the faft ; at the period alluded'to, the Genoefe continued to compete

M 0 j, a le Venetians , as did the Florentines by means of the port of Pifa. The treaty made die 6 menfisL U] ‘ ; rr 1 a ’, anno Egira 894 (an. Chr. 1474-G between the Florentine nation, by means of their ambafiadora dmit'i,r! ’ ^S 0010 <Mla Stufa, and the Sultan of Egypt Kaffim Aboo Elooazer, the Florentines werein t } le Cd to trade with Egypt, equally with the Venetians , had protedlion alfiired to fuch as chofe to refidederr,. t C |' Untr y, and were fecured in their rights and privileges in not only the fame, but even a more ampler-r* an Venetians. Eng. Tr. from Della Decima, &c. before quoted, tomo fecondo, p. zi 3.

J^iWhddk,

a< Ferts t °? ans . r ^ atc the fail of the invafion of the Moluccas by the Moors j and our author himfclfv° L ^ tae c > r <-'timftance in the following words, which are literally copied from the manufeript that the

p p reader

rn the

" A