alone were given in exchange.  The Normans appear to have traded very extensively in spiceries; but it is uncertain, whether they brought them directly from the Mediterranean:  they likewise traded to the east country or Baltic countries.  About a century afterwards, that is in 1453, France could boast of her wealthy merchant, as well as Florence and England.  His name was Jacques Coeur:  he is said to have employed 300 factors, and to have traded with the Turks and Persians; his exports were chiefly woollen cloth, linen, and paper; and his imports consisted of silks, spiceries, gold, silver, &c.

In all our preceding accounts of the trade of Europe, the Italian and Flemish merchants make a conspicuous figure.  Flanders was celebrated for its woollen manufactures, as well as for containing the central depots of the trade between the south and north of Europe.  Holland, which afterwards rose to such commercial importance, does not appear in the annals of commerce till the beginning of the fifteenth century.  At this period, many of the manufacturers of Brabant and Flanders settled in Holland; and about the same time the Hollanders engaged in maritime commerce; but there are no particulars respecting it, that fall within the limits of the present chapter.

It remains to notice Spain.  The commerce of Barcelona in its earliest stage has been already noticed.  The Catalans, in the thirteenth century, engaged very extensively in the commerce of the Mediterranean, to almost every port of which they traded.  The earliest navigation act known was passed by the count of Barcelona about this time; and laws were also framed, containing rules for the owners and commanders of vessels, and the clerks employed to keep their accounts; for loading and discharging the cargo; for the mutual assistance to be given by vessels, &c.  These laws, and others, to extend and improve commerce, were passed during the reign of James I., king of Arragon, who was also count of Barcelona.  The manufactures and commerce of this part of Spain continued to flourish from this time till the union of the crowns of Castile and Arragon, which event depressed the latter kingdom.  In 1380, a Catalan ship was wrecked on the coast of Somersetshire, on her voyage from Genoa to Sluys, the port of Bruges:  her cargo consisted of green ginger, cured ginger, raisins, sulphur, writing paper, white sugar, prunes, cinnamon, &c.  In 1401, a bank of exchange and deposit was established at Barcelona:  the accommodation it afforded was extended to foreign as well as native merchants.  The earliest bill of exchange of which we have any notice, is one dated 28th April, 1404, which was sold by a merchant of Lucca, residing in Bruges, to a merchant of Barcelona, also residing there, to be paid by a Florence merchant residing in Barcelona.  By the book of duties on imports and exports, compiled in 1413, it appears, that the Barcelonians were very liberal and enlightened in their commercial