Geschichie des Levantehandels im Mittelalter (1879) Band I. Vorwort, page vi. Rogers : History of Prices, I. p. 147 ; Cunningham : The Growth of English Industry and Commerce, I. p. 184. 2 Schanz : Englische Handelspolitik, I. pp. 111-130. 2 THE EARLY HISTORY OF were sufficiently numerous to be under the government of their own Consul.' The chief intercourse between England and Venice was carried on by a small fleet of trading vessels called the ** Flanders Galleys."* These galleys brought a variety of merchandise to England^which may be classed under two heads. First, there were the costly spices, and secondly, the more general articles of Eastern product and Venetian industry. The Italians distinguished between spices proper or " gross-spice " and the drugs or " small-spice." ® Gross-spice included gingers, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmegs, red sandal-wood, camphor and many other drugs ; while under small-spice such things as rhubarb from Persia, aloes, dates, sugar, currants, prunes, malmsies and Tyrian wine were understood. The whole of the spice trade was enormously lucrative, though 3 V. S. P. I. Preface, p. 59. * For an account of these Galleys and the regulations which were made concerning them, see Venetian State Papers, I. Preface, p. 61 ff. 5 V. S. P. I. Preface 135 ff. and Rogers : History of Prices, iv. chapter 23. « F. 5. P. I. Preface, p. 137. ' Compare Statutes of the Realm, y°Hen. VII, chapter 7, preamble. 8 y°Henry VH, cap. 7.
