The Italians
At the revival of civilisation in Europe, no county was in sofavourable a position as Italy in respect to commerce and industry.
Barbarism had not been able entirely to eradicate the culture andcivilisation of ancient Rome.A genial climate and a fertile soil,notwithstanding an unskilful system of cultivation, yieldedabundant nourishment for a numerous population.The most necessaryarts and industries remained as little destroyed as the municipalinstitutions of ancient Rome.Prosperous coast fisheries servedeverywhere as nurseries for seamen, and navigation along Italy'sextensive sea-coasts abundantly compensated her lack of internalmeans of transport.Her proximity to Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt,and her maritime intercourse with them, secured for Italy specialadvantages in the trade with the East which had previously, thoughnot extensively, been carried on through Russia with the countriesof the North.By means of this commercial intercourse Italynecessarily acquired those branches of knowledge and those arts andmanufactures which Greece had preserved from the civilisation ofancient times.
From the period of the emancipation of the Italian cities byOtho the Great, they gave evidence of what history was testifiedalike in earlier and later times, namely, that freedom and industryare inseparable companions, even although not unfrequently the onehas come into existence before the other.If commerce and industryare flourishing anywhere, one may be certain that there freedom isnigh at hand: if anywhere Freedom was unfolded her banner, it is ascertain that sooner or later industry will there establish herself;for nothing is more natural than that when man has acquiredmaterial or mental wealth he should strive to obtain guarantees forthe transmission of his acquisitions to his successors, or thatwhen he has acquired freedom, he should devote all his energies toimprove his physical and intellectual condition.
For the first time since the downfall of the free states ofantiquity was the spectacle again presented to the world by thecities of Italy of free and rich communities.Cities andterritories reciprocally rose to a state of prosperity and receiveda powerful impulse in that direction from the Crusades.Thetransport of the Crusaders and their baggage and material of warnot only benefited Italy's navigation, it afforded also inducementsand opportunities for the conclusion of advantageous commercialrelations with the East for the introduction of new industries,inventions, and plants, and for acquaintance with new enjoyments.
On the other hand, the oppressions of feudal lordship were weakenedand diminished in manifold ways, owing to the same cause, tendingto the greater freedom of the cities and of the cultivation of thesoil.
Next after Venice and Genoa, Florence became especiallyconspicuous for her manufactures and her monetary exchangebusiness.Already, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, hersilk and woollen manufactures were very flourishing; the guilds ofthose trades took part in the government, and under their influencethe Republic was constituted.The woollen manufacture aloneemployed 200 manufactories, which produced annually 80,000 piecesof cloth, the raw material for which was imported from Spain.Inaddition to these, raw cloth to the amount of 300,000 gold guldenwas imported annually from Spain, France, Belgium, and Germany,which, after being finished at Florence, was exported to theLevant.Florence conducted the banking business of the whole ofItaly, and contained eighty banking establishments.(1*) The annualrevenue of her Government amounted to 300,000 gold gulden (fifteenmillion francs of our present money), considerably more than therevenue of the kingdoms of Naples and Aragon at that period, andmore than that of Great Britain and Ireland under QueenElizabeth.(2*)We thus see Italy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuriespossessing all the elements of national economical prosperity, andin respect of both commerce and industry far in advance of allother nations.Her agriculture and her manufactures served aspatterns and as motives for emulation to other countries.Her roadsand canals were the best in Europe.The civilised world is indebtedto her for banking institutions, the mariner's compass, improvednaval architecture, the system of exchanges, and a host of the mostuseful commercial customs and commercial laws, as well as for agreat part of its municipal and governmental institutions.Hercommercial, marine, and naval power were by far the most importantin the southern seas.She was in possession of the trade of theworld; for, with the exception of the unimportant portion of itcarried on over the northern seas, that trade was confined to theMediterranean and the Black Sea.She supplied all nations withmanufactures, with articles of luxury, and with tropical products,and was supplied by them with raw materials.One thing alone waswanting to Italy to enable her to become what England has become inour days, and because that one thing was wanting to her, everyother element of prosperity passed away from her; she lackednational union and the power which springs from it.The cities andruling powers of Italy did not act as members of one body, but madewar on and ravaged one another like independent powers and states.
While these wars raged externally, each commonwealth wassuccessively overthrown by the internal conflicts betweendemocracy, aristocracy, and autocracy.These conflicts, sodestructive to national prosperity, were stimulated and increasedby foreign powers and their invasions, and by the power of thepriesthood at home and its pernicious influence, whereby theseparate Italian communities were arrayed against one another intwo hostile factions.
