Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/130

cxii INTRODUCTION. iNTROD. from every nation, became a principal emporium in the Mediterranean for the spices, drugs, perfumes, and other rich commodities of the east, whence they were diffused over the interior of Spain and the European continent." Her consuls, and her commercial factories, were established in every con- siderable port in the Mediterranean and in the north of Europe.'^ The natural products of her soil, and her various domestic fabrics, supplied her with abundant articles of export. Fine wool was imported by her in considerable quantities from England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and returned there manufactured into cloth ; an exchange of commodities the reverse of that exist- ing between the two nations at the present day.'^ Barcelona claims the merit of having established the first bank of exchange and deposit in Europe, in 1401 ; it was devoted to the accommodation of foreigners as well as of her own citizens. She '1 Navarrete,Discurso Historico, they protected the trade of their apud Mem. de la Acad, de Hist., own nation with these ports ; and torn. V. pp. 81, 82, 112, 113. — were employed in adjusting com- Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, mercial relations, treaties, &;c. In tom. i. part. 1, cap. 1, pp. 4, 8, short, they filled in some sort the 10, 11. post of a modern ambassador, or 72 Mem. de Barcelona, part. 1, resident minister, at a period when cap. 2, 3. — Capmany has given a this functionary was only employed register of the consuls and of the on extraordinary occasions, numerous stations, at which they "'s Macpherson, Annals of Com- were established throughout Africa merce, (London, 1825,) vol. i. p. and Europe, in the fourteenth and G55. — The woollen manufacture fifteenth centuries, (tom. ii. Apend. constituted the principal staple of no. 23.) These officers during Barcelona, (Capmany, Mem. de the Middle Ages discharged much Barcelona, tom. i. p. 241.) The more important duties than at the English sovereigns encouraged the present day, if we except those few Catalan traders by considerable residing with the Barbary powers, immunities to frequent their ports They settled the disputes arising during the fourteenth century, between their countrymen, in the Macpherson, ubi supra, pp. 502, ports where they were established ; 551, 588.