Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/349

Medieval Life in Country and Town 255 luxuries of the East the rich fabrics, oriental carpets, precious stones, perfumes, drugs, silks, and porcelains from China, spices from India, and cotton from Egypt. Venice introduced the silk industry from the East and the manufacture of those glass articles which the traveler may still buy in the Venetian shops. The West learned how to make silk and velvet as well as light and gauzy cotton and linen fabrics. 418. Important Commercial Centers. The Northern mer- chants dealt mainly with Venice and brought their wares across the Brenner Pass and down the Rhine, or sent them by sea to be exchanged in Flanders (see map). By the thirteenth century important centers of trade had come into being, some of which are still among the great commercial towns of the world. Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen carried on active trade with the countries on the Baltic and with England. Bruges and Ghent sent their manu- factures everywhere. English commerce, however, was relatively unimportant as yet. 419. Obstacles to Business. For various reasons it was very hard to carry on business on a large scale in the Middle Ages. In the first place, as has been said, there was little money, and money greatly encourages buying and selling. Moreover, it was universally believed that everything had a "just" price, which was merely enough to cover the cost of the materials used in its manufacture and to remunerate the maker for the work he had put into it. It was considered outrageous to ask more than the just price, no matter how anxious the purchaser might be to obtain the article. Every manufacturer was required to keep a shop in which he offered at retail all that he made. Those who lived near a town were permitted to sell their products in the market place within the walls on condition that they sold directly to the consumers. They might not dispose of their whole stock to one dealer, for fear that if he had all there was of a commodity he might raise the price above the just one. These ideas made all wholesale trade very difficult. 420. Payment of Interest on Money Forbidden. Akin to these prejudices against wholesale business was that against taking