of its former size. The economic difficulties were com- pounded by exorbitant tax burdens. Such necessities as salt and sugar, as well as horses and boats, were heavily taxed. Some sultans monopolized certain commodities and manipulated prices to their advantage. Others debased the currency and contributed to the inflationary spiral. As the people became impoverished, the rulers waxed rich. With- out an abundance of wealth the sultans could not have erected the lavish architectural monuments which still adorn Egypt and Syria.
Some of the economic loss was offset by an increase in trade. The concessions offered by al-Adil and Baybars to Venetians and other European merchants stimulated ex- change of commodities. Syrian silk shared with perfumes and spices first place in the export trade. Glass and manu- factured articles stood next on the list. Damascus, Tripoli, Antioch and Tyre were among the leading centres of industry. In the bazaars of Aleppo, Damascus and Beirut one could buy ivories and metal- work, dyed cloth and carpets. The neighbourhood of Beirut produced olive oil and soap, as it does today. Syrians did not depend entirely on foreigners for their export trade. As early as Saladin's day their merchants took up residence in Constantinople, where the emperor built a mosque for them and their Egyptian col- leagues in reciprocation for privileges enjoyed by Byzantine merchants in Syria and Egypt. No other foreign merchants were permitted permanent residence in the Byzantine capital.
A German clergyman who sojourned in Syria from 1336 to 1341 was most favourably impressed by the signs of prosperity in Damascus and described Acre as 'exceeding neat, all the walls of the houses being of the same height and all alike built of hewn stone, wondrously adorned with glass windows and paintings, while all the palaces and houses in the city were not built merely to meet the needs of those who dwelt therein, but to minister to human luxury and
