CHAPTER III. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ITALIAN AND GERMAN CITIES IN THE No attempt will be made to recount the commercial history of European nations during the period indicated, but merely to present the chief features in the economic development of some of the leading commercial communities and to ascertain, if possible, the influences that shaped their commercial destiny-the causes of their prosperity and their decline. During those centuries known as the Dark Ages, all progress was completely arrested and a condition of savagery and barbarism prevailed throughout Western Europe. It was not until about the twelfth century that Western Europe began to rise from this debased condition and take on that national life which made progress possible. The industrial activity which made its appearance at this time in Italy and Flanders, and among the German cities of the North, marks an epoch of the greatest importance in the history of the world. It was not, however, until the seventeenth century that England, France, Germany, Switzerland and all of the countries of Europe turned their attention to those manufacturing pursuits which, in recent times and especially in the nineteenth century have increased their wealth and independence and added so much to the material welfare of their people. The slow but steady growth of this phase of European civilization is worthy of the attention of those who are seeking after the causes of the material prosperity of nations. The growth of this side of a nation's life is, in great part, an intellectual development, arising from the cultivation of skill and artistic taste. The manufacturing supremacy of a nation does not consist wholly in what is known as manual labor. The industrial proficiency of a people, the wares they make, the articles which enter into their trade and commerce, are among the surest means of attesting the degree of their civilization. There is no doubt that as these faculties and tastes develop in the parents, they are transmitted to the children, and that which is difficult for one generation to perform, becomes second nature to the next. It has been by centuries of education and training, that the people of Western Europe have produced the most skillful, apt and efficient artisans in the world. For two hundred years their fine fabrics have surpassed any that have been made in other countries. The skill and taste displayed in their new and beautiful patterns and designs, which appear every year in all markets, are not only the results of long years of cultivation, but also by the development of a special the Italian cities as commercial and industrial cen tres. genius taught in technical schools supported by their government. The one hundred and sixty millions of people now in Western Europe with the technical knowledge, genius and special aptitudes which they possess in all branches of production, their increased productive capacity by the use of labor-saving machinery, the accumulated capital of centuries, with their means of transportation and knowledge of business affairs, are undoubtedly able to supply the rest of the world with every conceivable article of manufacture. This position has not been attained in a day, but by centuries of most skillful and persistent direction of the energies of the people through powerful governments. The period between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries transformed the people from mere cultivators of the soil into artisans, tradesmen, shopkeepers, and developed every phase of industrial life. It stands between the Dark Ages and modern times. It was at the close of this period that the new world was discovered and the sea route to India was made known. The industrial activity which arose at this time, by increasing the independence of the people and giving them new means of employment, undoubtedly aided in their emancipation and the modification of tyrannical forms of government and unjust laws. During the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and a part of the seventeenth century, there were only two countries in Europe, namely, Italy and the Netherlands, which attained a sufficient degree of perfection and power in manufacturing and trade, to give them a standing among great commercial nations. During this period the cities of Italy. (first Venice and later Florence, Genoa, Pisa and Milan), engaged in The rise of manufacturing and also controlled the carrying trade of the Mediterranean Sea. The rise, development and progress of the industrial life of these cities mark a very interesting period in the commercial history of the world. It was the beginning of the movement of the people of the West toward manufacturing and the development of those domestic pursuits and resources which had been regarded as of little importance by the people of antiquity. The Italian cities imitated the industries of Asia and introduced the manufacture of silks, cotton, dye stuffs, fine pottery, glassware and other articles into Europe, thus making these towns the industrial centres which for centuries have supplied the world with the richest, most artistic and most beautiful wares and fabrics. They turned the people of Europe to a study of the arts and mysteries of manufacturing, and to a cultivation of a taste for that high degree of perfection in industrial pursuits, which during the nineteenth century has contributed so largely to the commercial power and greatness of the Continent. Venice compelled by her situation to derive her Fleeing from the savage hordes of barbarians, who invaded Italy under Attila the Hun in 452, the Venetian refugees found shelter and subsistence protection among the marshy islands on the north coast of the Adriatic Sea. They built habitations on piles driven into the ground. Their from the sea. only food for a time was the fish taken from the sea, cured with the salt extracted from its brine. Inhabiting a group of fishing villages, with no land fit to cultivate, they were compelled to look to the ocean for means of subsistence and naturally became mariners. For 250 years, that is to say for eight generations, the refugees on the islands of the Adriatic prolonged an obscure and squalid existence, fishing, salt manufacturing, damming out the waves with wattled vine branches, driving piles into the sand banks and thus gradually extending the area of their villages. Still these were but fishing villages, loosely confederated together, loosely governed, poor and insignificant. This seems to have been their condition, though perhaps gradually growing in commercial importance until at the beginning of the eighth century, the concentration of political authority in the hands of the first Doge and the recognition of the Rialto cluster of islands as the capital of the Confederacy started the republic on a career of success and victory.1 It was under these conditions that the Venetians became fishermen and skillful mariners. They gradually extended their voyages and enterprises along the coast of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean and finally became the most important and wealthy trading people of the Middle Ages. That they should have exerted their energies in this direction was most natural, it being the only outlet and means of building up their city and securing for themselves employment, wealth and independence. It was not a question of choice, but purely one of necessity. In the eleventh century when all Europe was ablaze with the religious enthusiasm of the crusaders, Venice became a central point from which troops and supplies were embarked for the East and a halting and recruiting station for the armies which poured over the Continent from England, Flanders and France, to the Holy Land. The Venetians, at this time, were the only people who, to any extent, could supply the crusaders with transports for the expeditions. To meet this emergency their ships and seamen were increased, and large profits were made from the enterprises. Feudal lords of Western Europe and of England, who embarked in these military crusades, in many instances mortgaged their estates to obtain funds with which to hire ships from the Italians for these voyages. Those who lived to return carried back ideas of an extravagant mode of living, which spread over Western Europe and created a new demand among the nobility for the luxuries and wares of the East; hence, an increased trade sprang up between the East and West. As soon as the prejudices of the wars between the Christian and Mohammedans subsided, the Venetians, quick to take advantage of the new conditions, entered upon this trade with great vigor and enterprise. The whole commerce between the East and West fell naturally into their hands. As trade expanded other Italian cities grew in importance; Genoa, Pisa and Florence all became great commercial cities during this period. The 1T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, Bk. 2, Ch. 4. Profits of Venice from the transporta tion of the crusaders. Italian monopoly monopoly of this trade by the Italians enabled them to concentrate a large of Eastern portion of the circulating wealth of the commercial world, in the hands. trade. Commercial greatness of Venice. of their merchants, shippers, manufacturers and bankers. The monopoly of this trade was so complete for many centuries that the natural accumulation of profits enabled the Italians to build magnificent cities, live in opulence and splendor, and enjoy a degree of prosperity which was almost unrivaled and which certainly, up to that time, had not been excelled by any people. The trade controlled embraced all of those exchanges carried on between England, Western Europe and the far East as well as the entire traffic between the cities bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. The luxuries of the East were exchanged for the coarser products and precious metals of the North and West. From Asia, Africa and the ports of the Black Sea they obtained spices, perfumes, precious stones, gum, oil, cotton, silks, velvets, saddlery and weapons of various kinds, especially the equipages for the knights and barons, the famous swords and saddlery of Damascus which at that time was a great centre for the manufacture of military accoutrements. These luxuries and comforts of the East were distributed throughout the cities of the Western coast of Europe and England. They were sent in ships to the British channel and conveyed by overland routes into the heart of Europe, and sold at the fairs and trading centres of the Continent. Gibbins says of the shipping of the Venetians at this time: Her ships generally went out in squadrons with some men-of-war as a convoy, and every year a number of these squadrons set out regularly for prescribed ports, following a strictly arranged route and sailing at definite periods. The most notable of these trading fleets were the Flanders fleet which traded with the ports of Spain, Portugal, west of France, England and finally Flanders; the Armenian fleet which sailed to Aros in the Gulf of Alexandrietta; the Black Sea fleet which visited Tana, Azof, the Crimea and Pontic coast generally, and the Egyptian fleet which went to Alexandria and Cairo, meeting the caravans from the far East. A considerable overland trade was also done with Germany via Vienna, Augsburg and the Rhine.1 At Alexandria the products of India, consisting of spices, cotton, fruits and ivory, were received and exchanged for gold and silver metals, and for iron, lead, copper, oil and timber. Ivory, gold-dust, dates and wool were obtained from the caravans of Africa. Raw wool and silk from the East were converted into fabrics by their artisans, and a system of diversified industries was carried on to an extent which rivaled, if not excelled, the commercial enterprise, prosperity and wealth of all the other peoples. In the latter part of the fourteenth century Venice became the greatest commercial and maritime city in the world. McCulloch says: Her marine commerce was probably not inferior to that of all the rest of Christendom combined and her vessels visited every port of the Mediterranean and the coast of Europe. Her exports by sea alone amounted to 10,000,000 ducats a year which History of the Commerce of Europe, p. 50. yielded profits and freights of 4,000,000 ducats to her merchants. Her shipping consisted of 3000 vessels of from 100 to 200 tons burden, manned by 17,000 sailors and 300 ships of Sooo sailors and 45 galleys, being vessels constructed for the combined purpose of war and commerce, each carrying fifty pieces of cannon and a crew of 600 men,1 Gibbins says that at this time there were at least 1000 nobles in the city whose incomes ranged from 4000 to 70,000 ducats each and that at a time when 3000 ducats would buy a palace. The Italian cities did not confine themselves wholly to the shipping and carrying trade, although they bought extensively in one foreign country to sell in another, and undoubtedly pushed this branch of trade with as much energy as possible; yet they early gave their attention to manufacturing, which opened a field for the investment of capital, the employment of labor and combined with their foreign trade, added immeasurably to their prosperity and wealth. The manufacturers of Venice were brought at once into direct competition with those of Asia Minor, Damascus and other cities of the East. They imitated the arts and industries of their foreign rivals in making silks, paper, jewelry, glass and glassware, woolen and cotton cloths, golden brocades, armor, swords and saddlery. The significant feature of this phase of their industrial life is the important lesson it teaches of the necessity in all ages, of meeting foreign competition and building up domestic industries against such rivals, by a policy of protection to native industry. Venice furnishes one of the earliest illustrations of the wisdom of this policy. M. Daru in his valuable "Histoire de la Republique de la Venise," quoting from the statutes of the republic, gives a most interesting account of the manner in which the imports of foreign manufactured articles for domestic consumption were forbidden. The whole system of domestic productions was regulated by law. The policy of the government favored the sale of Venetian wares instead of Oriental goods by their merchants. The statute law of Venice aimed also, to confine to the people of Venice, the results of their improvement, their discoveries and inventions in these industries, by making it practically impossible that the people of other countries should learn their mysteries and imitate their wares. The law of Venice reads as follows: If any workman or artisan carry his art to a foreign country to the prejudice of the republic, he shall be ordered to return; if he do not obey, his nearest relations shall be imprisoned that his regard for them may induce him to come back. If he return the past shall be forgiven and employment shall be provided for him in Venice. If in despite of the imprisonment of his relations he perseveres in his absence, an emissary shall be employed to dispatch him and after his death his relations shall be set at liberty. The trade guilds were also encouraged and they became so popular in Venice that distinguished citizens enrolled their names among their 1 McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary, Edition 1851, p. 1381. |