Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1894 — Trade in Crusading Times. [ARTICLE]

Trade in Crusading Times.

The trade and manufactures of the Christian realm in Palestine were regulated. Moslem caravans were protected by treaty, and merchants of Mosul were established in Acre. The imposts on every kind of merchandise were fixed, and custom houses and toll bars were established along the roads or at the city gates. There was also an excellent law that none might carry arms in the streets, which must have prevented many violent outbreaks. In the bazaars of Aleppo and Damascus were to be found the carpets of Bagdad and Persia, with glass from Irak, and Chinese porcelain, ivory, and perfumes, sandalwood, musk, and aloes, civet and spices, silks^velvets, satin, cloth, including camlets of camel-hair, tyrlan from Tyre, qnd cotton. Many precious drugs were sold, such a» opium and

rhubarb, tamarind, cantharides, cardamons, scammony, and senna. A great trade with Northern Rus sla, having its port at the mouth of the Don, brought from the “land of darkness” rich furs of the ermine, the Siberian squirrel, the red and white fox, the marten, beaver, otter, and wildcat. The Latins were very fond of fur for dress and for the “mantle” of scarlet, fur lined, in which they slepL The furriers had a street in Jerusalem, and the Moslems also, especially in the North, were equally accustomed to the use of precious furs. The trading stations of the Jews, the Genoese, and the Venetians extended far into Turkestan, north of the Oxus, and at Aden the Arab traders of the Red Sea met Chinese junks and brought the wealth of India and of the far East to the Italian markets in Alexandria. Moslem laws allowed the pilgrim to Mecca to trade on his journey.—The Edinburgh Review.