Marco michael kors handbags sale uk polo washingtonpost Michael kors bag discount uk Chapter one The Merchants of venice Then all The charm is broken all That phantom world so fair vanishes,Anda Thousand circlets spread.She hid from her enemies amid a seductive array of islands, 118 in all.Damp, dark, cloistered,Andcrowded, she perched on rocksAndsilt.FortificationsAndspectacular residences rose on foundations of pinewood pilesAndistrian stone.In marco polo's venice, few edifices wiTh The exception of one huge byzantine basilicaAndoTher large churches stood entirely straight;Most structures seemed to rise uncertainly from The water.Marco polo came of age in a city of night edging toward dawn;It was opaque, secretive,Andrife wiTh transgressionsAndsuperstitions.Even Those who had lived Their entire lives in venice became disoriented as They wandered down blind alleys That turned wiThout warning from familiar to sinister.The whispers of conspiracyAndThe laughter of intimacy echoed Through narrow passageways from invisible sources;Behind dim windows, candlesAndtorches flickered discreetly.In The evening, cobwebs of mist arose from The canals, imposing silenceAndisolation, obscuring The lanterns in The streets or in windows overlooking The gently heaving canals.Rats were everywhere emerging from The canals, scurrying along The wharvesAndstreets, gnawing at The city's fragile infrastructure, bringing The plague wiTh Them.The narrow streetsAndpassageways, some barely shoulder widTh, took bewildering twistsAndturns until, wiThout warning, They opened to The broad expanse of The grand canal, which divided one half of The city from The oTher before running into The lagoon and, beyond That, The expanses of The adriatic sea.In winter, The city hosted carnival(Literally, The playful"Bidding farewell to meat"Before lent).Carnival became The occasion for orgies taking place just out of sight behind high courtyard wallsAndopaque curtains.Rumors of foul play ran rife amid The gaietyAndsensuality of The republic.Venetians bent on evil preferred quiet means of imposing deaTh, such as poisoning or strangulation,AndThey usually got away wiTh it.In an uncertain world, ThirteenTh century venetians could feel certain of a few Things.Two hundred years before copernicusAndThree hundred before galileo,It wasan article of faiTh That The sun revolved around The earTh, That The heavenly spheres were perfectly smooTh,AndThat creation occurred exactly 4, 484 years before rome was founded.Jerusalem was considered"The navel of The world. "Entrances to heavenAndhell existed, somewhere.The day, for most people, was subdivided into times for prayer:Matins at midnight, lauds Three hours later, prime at daybreak, terce at midmorning, sext at noon, none at midafternoon, vespers at sunset, and, at bedtime, compline.In The age of faiTh, science consisted largely but not entirely of spurious pursuits such as alchemy The effort to transmute so called base metals into goldAndastrology, which went hand in hand wiTh astronomy.People depended on wind, water,Andanimals for power.In western europe, coal had yet to be exploited as an energy source;Paper moneyAndThe printing press also lay two hundred years in The future.The most advanced technology consisted of ships considered a marvel of transport, Though very dangerousAnddevices capable of sawing wood, pressing olives,Andtanning hides.Throughout europe, travel was exceedingly slowAndhazardous.Crossing The english channel was a dreaded undertaking;Those who completed The ordeal would claim That The effort had impaired Their healTh.Over land, people moved no faster Than a horse could take Them;The average land journey covered eight to ten miles a day, or under special circumstances, for brief durations, fifteen to twenty miles.Superstition led Those who undertook such journeys to seek shelter at nightfall in primitive inns, infested wiTh vermin, where two or Three sojourners shared a single bed.It took five harrowing weeks to ride by cart from paris to venice.But in venice, conditions were very different.Tiny in size, yet global in outlook, venice was entering The late middle ages, a period of economic expansion, cultural achievement,AndThe lowering of barriers to commercial activity.Travel was not The exception,It wasThe norm.Everyone in venice, it seemed, was a travelerAnda Merchant, or aspired to be.Across europe, political power, formerly scattered among disorganizedAndcrumbling empires reaching back to roman times, had coalesced in well armedAndwell organized city states, such as venice.The growTh in commerce among european city states contributed to rapid advances in art, technology, exploration,Andfinance.The compassAndclock, windmillAndwatermill all vital to The smooTh functioning of european economies came into being,Andgreat universities That survive to This day were being founded.As a result of all These advances, venice indeed, all of europe as we know it began to emerge.Venice seductive, byzantine,Andwater bound was among The most important centers of commerceAndculture in ThirteenTh century europe, a flourishing city state That lived by trade.Her economy Thrived Thanks to her aggressive navy, which vigorously defended The city from repeated onslaughts by rapacious genoese rivalsAndarab marauders.Unlike oTher medieval cities, venice had no walls or gates.They were not necessary.The lagoonAndswamps protected venice from invaders by land or by sea.As The gateway to The riches of The east, venice gave rise to a sophisticated Merchant aristocracy, including The polo family, known for frequent journeys to The east, especially constantinople, in search of jewels, silks,Andspices.Venice was highly structured, fiercely independentAndcommercial,Andbased on a unique combination of feudal obligation,Andglobal outlook.Because venice was compact, hemmed in by The lagoonAndby its enemies, The sense of common cause among its inhabitants was strong. "By virtually confining The venetians to so restricted a space,"Says The historian john julius norwich,"It had created in Them a unique spirit of cohesionAndcooperation.Not only at times of national crisis but also,Andstill more impressively, in The day to day handling of Their affairs.Among venice's rich Merchant aristocracy everyone knew everyone else,Andclose acquaintance led to mutual trust of a kind That in oTher cities seldom extended far outside The family circle. "As a result, venetians developed a reputation for efficientAndThorough business administration The most advanced in europe. "A trading venture,"Norwich says,"Even one That involved immense initial outlay, several years' duration,Andconsiderable risk, could be arranged on The rialto in a matter of hours.It might take The form of a simple partnership between two Merchants, or That of a large corporation of The kind needed to finance a full sized fleet or trans asiatic caravan. "EiTher way, norwich concludes,"It would be founded on trust,Andit would be inviolable. "The contractual underpinnings of a journey such as The one undertaken by The polo family to china were a bit more formal Than a mere handshake or oaTh.Marco polo came of age in a city teeming wiTh commerce.Venetian Merchants had developed all sorts of strategies for dealing wiTh The vagaries of Their livelihood, global trade.In The absence of standard exchange rates, The many types of coins in use created a nightmare of conversion.The byzantine empire had its bezants, arabic lands Their drachmas, florence its florins.Venice, relying on The ratio of gold to silver in a given coin to determine its true value, tried to accommodate Them all.Merchants such as The polos sought to circumvent The vexed system of coins, wiTh its inevitable confusionAnddebasement, by trading in gems such as rubiesAndsapphires,Andin pearls.To meet These sophisticatedAndexotic financial needs, venice developed The most advanced banking system in western europe.Banks of deposit on The continent originated There.In 1156, The republic of venice became The first state since antiquity to raise a public loan.It also passed The first banking laws in europe to regulate The nascent banking industry.As a result of These innovations, venice offered The most advanced business practices in europe.Venice adapted roman contracts to The needs of Merchants trading wiTh The east.Sophisticated sea loanAndsea exchange contracts spelled out obligations between shipownersAndMerchants,Andeven offered insurance mandatory in venice beginning in 1253.The most widespread type of agreement among Merchants was The commenda, or, in venetian dialect, The collegantia, a contract based on ancient models.Loosely translated, The term meant"Business venture,"And it reflected prevailing customs of The trade raTher Than a set of consistent legal principles.AlThough These twelfThAndThirteenTh century contracts seem antiquated, They are startlingly modern in Their calls for precise accounting.Contracts like These reflectedAndsustained a rudimentary form of capitalism long before The concept came into existence.For venetians, The world was startlingly modern in anoTher way:It was"Flat,"That is to say, globally connected across boundariesAndborders, boTh naturalAndartificial.They saw The world as a network of endlessly changing trade routesAndopportunities extending over landAndsea.By ship or caravan, venetian Merchants traveled to The four corners of The world in search of valuable spices, gems,Andfabrics.Through Their enterprise, minerals, salt, wax, drugs, camphor, gum arabic, myrrh, sandalwood, cinnamon, nutmeg, grapes, figs, pomegranates, fabrics(Especially silk), hides, weapons, ivory, wool, ostrichAndparrot feaThers, pearls, iron, copper, gold dust, gold bars, silver bars,AndAsian slaves all poured into Venice via complex trade routes from Africa, The Middle East,AndWestern Europe.Even more exotic items flowed into The city aboard foreign galleys.Huge marble columns, pedestals, panels,Andblocks piled up on The docks, having been taken from some ruined temple or civic edifice in constantinopole, or anoTher greek or egyptian city.These remnants of antiquity, The very headstones of dead or moribund civilizations, would wind up in an obscure corner of The piazza san marco, or on The fade of some ostentatious palazzo inhabited by a duke or a wealThy Merchant of venice.The variety of goods moved shakespeare to observe, Through The character antonio in The Merchant of venice, That"The tradeAndprofit of The city / consisteTh of all nations. "Venetian trade was synonymous wiTh globalization anoTher embryonic concept of The era.To extend Their reach, venetians formed partnerships wiTh distant governmentsAndMerchants That cut across racialAndreligious divisions.Arabs, jews, turks, greeks,Andeventually The mongols became trading partners wiTh venice even when They seemed to be political enemies.The polos were not The first Merchants to travel from venice to asia, but Thanks to marco polo's exploits, They became The most celebrated.Wherever venetians went, They announced Themselves wiTh Their distinctive accentAnddialect, veneto.This tongue, like oTher romance languages, was based on latin,Andit incorporated vocabulary, syntax,Andpronunciation from oTher languages some germanAndspanish(In The form of The castilian s, pronounced"Th"),Andsome Croatian.There was even a little french thrown into the mix.There are lots of x'sAndz's in veneto, but almost no l's.Lord byron, who claimed to have enjoyed two hundred women in venice in as many consecutive evenings, called veneto a"Sweet bastard latin. "To further complicate matters, veneto had numerous variants.The polos of venice would have strained to understand the dialect spoken elsewhere in the area by the inhabitants of padua, treviso, or verona.Some distinctive words in marco polo's cheapest michael kors bags world have leapt from veneto to english.Venetians of polo's day bade each other ciao or, to be more precise, s ciavo or s ciao vostro which means, literally,"I am your slave. " (The word came into the venetian language from croatian. )Gondola is another venetian word, although it is not clear when the long, elegant, black vessel itself came into use.It is likely that in marco polo's day, a wide variety of small craft, including sailboats, rowboats,Andgalleys, jostled one another in the city's winding canals.And"Arsenal," or a place where weapons are manufacturedAndstored, entered The Venetian language by way of The Arabic term dar al sina'ah, meaning "Workshop. "When europeans of marco polo's era employed this word, they meant the arsenal in venice, renowned as a center of shipbuilding. Here shipwrights operated an early assembly line devoted to turning out galleys at a furious rate from standardized, prefabricated components such as keelsAndmasts.A spanish visitor named pero tafur described the precisely choreographed activity devoted to launching the galleys: "out came a galley towed by a boat,Andfrom The windows They came out to Them, from one The cordage, from anoTher The bread, from anoTher The arms,Andfrom anoTher The ballistasAndmortars,Andso from all sides everyThing That was required.Andwhen The galley had reached The end of The street all The men required were on board, togeTher wiTh The complement of oars,Andshe was equipped from end to end. "Tafur counted the launching of ten"Fully armed"Galleys within a six hour span:One new warship every thirty six minutes.No wonder that the speed with which the arsenal of venice could turn a bare keel into fully rigged craft was admired throughout europe.Andcommanders could have Their galleys in any color They wanted as long asIt wasblack. The Venetian manner, Then as now, was correspondingly brusque, efficient,Andcommercial. It took a Venetian to possess The practical knowledge, The sophistication,AndThe confidence to finance large expeditions or caravans to The East, to deal profitably wiTh MuslimAndOrThodox Christian adversaries,Andto manage complex partnerships.Venetian laws enforced the smooth operation of business. A Merchant returning to Venice was legally required to present his partners wiTh his accounts wiThin one monTh,Andto divide The profits forThwiTh. As a furTher incentive to trade, taxation in Venice was among The lowest in Europe,AndMerchants kept nearly all The profit They made.Just about everyone in venice engaged in commerce. WidowsAndorphans invested in Merchant activity,Andany young man wiThout means could describe himself as a "Merchant"Simply by launching himself in business. AlThough The risks were great, riches beyond imagining lured The adventurous, The willing,AndThe foolish. Fortunes were madeAndlost overnight,AndVenetian family fortunes were built on The success of a single trade expedition to Constantinople.Excerpted by permission.

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