In return they supplied the Greeks
with fish and corn. "The waters of the Don, the Oxus, the Caspian, and the
Wolga, opened a rare and laborious passage for the gems and spices of
India; and after three months march, the caravans of Carizme met the
Italian vessels in the harbours of the Crimea." These various branches of
trade were monopolized by the diligence and power of the Genoese; and their
rivals of Venice and Pisa were forcibly expelled. The Greek emperor,
alarmed at their power and encroachments, was at length engaged in a
maritime war with them; but though he was assisted by the Venetians, the
Genoese were victorious.
The Venetians, who were thus driven from a most lucrative commerce,
endeavoured to compensate for their loss by extending their power and
commerce in other quarters: they claimed and received a toll on all vessels
navigating the Adriatic, especially from those sailing between the
south-point of Istria and Venice. But their commerce and power on the
Adriatic could be of little avail, unless they regained at least a portion
of that traffic in Indian merchandize, which at this period formed the
grand source of wealth. Constantinople, and consequently the Black Sea, was
shut up from them: on the latter the Genoese were extending their traffic;
they had seized on Caffa from the Tartars, and made it the principal
station of their commerce.
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