Produce Imported to England | British History Online

Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 1, 1202-1509. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1864.

Citation:

'Produce Imported to England', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 1, 1202-1509, ed. Rawdon Brown( London, 1864), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/venice/vol1/cxxxv-cxxxix [accessed 28 November 2024].

TABLE No. 5.

Produce and Manufactures conveyed to England by the Venetians in the Flanders Galleys, during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.


Name of Produce or Manufacture.	Site of the Article's Growth or Manufacture.	Where procured by the Venetians.	Remarks.

Spun cotton	India Cyprus Egypt	Damascus. Cyprus, Messina.
Raw cotton, or Maltese cotton	Patras-Arta	Messina.
Cloths of silk	Venice	Venice	The Venetian silk manufactures dated from the year 1240. See Marin, History of Venetian Commerce, vol. 5, p. 252.
Bawdekins of gold and silk	Venice	Venice	The word in Venetian is “Baldacchini,” from Baldacca sive Bagdad sive Babylon (see Menagio: Le origini della lingua Italiana. Ginevra, 1685); and this material being used for “Canopies” they were called in Italian “Baldacchini.”
Damasks and satins, mostly black	Venice	Venice.
Camlets—mostly black and fine; and some violet-coloured	Angora and Cyprus	Cyprus.
Dyed silks, yellow, blue and light green	Persia Turkey. Sicily. Greece. Italy.	Aleppo. Damascus. Sicily. Greece.	These silks were dyed in Venice.
Raw silk	Messina Calabria. Almeria. Malaga.	Messina. Almeria. Malaga.	The raw silks sold well in England, and two Venetian lbs., silk-weight, were equal to 1 lb. English.
Double-twisted wimple silks	Venice	Venice	In the original, this manufacture is styled “Zendalli torti dopi.” The Venetian Zendalle closely resembled the English wimple, and the “zendada” silk is mentioned by Marin as having been first manufactured in the year 1240. “Cendallum,” Sandali, a fine silk stuff. See Webb's Glossary. Household Roll of Bishop Swinfield.
Lamb-skins	Puglia	Messina	These lamb-skins were of the sort now called “Astrachan”
“Marchiani”			What “Marchiani” may have been I am unable to ascertain.

In the Fifteenth Century the following Articles figured in the Venetian “Price Currents” as Spices.



Gingers	Malabar	Alexandria Damascus.	Ginger, in the 14th and 15th centuries, was taken as a stimulant, and supposed to be anti-scorbutic.
Cinnamon	Ceylon	Damascus. Alexandria.
Pepper	Hindostan	Damascus. Alexandria.
Cloves	Ternate	Damascus. Alexandria.
Clove stems	Ternate	”	This spice, termed by Paxi “Fusti de garofoli” may possibly have been pimenta.
Nutmegs	Malacca	”
Cassia in the reed	East Indies Egypt. Alexandria.	Alexandria.
Red sandal wood	Tanasarim Coromandel.	”	Red sandal-wood was considered an astringent and tonic; and taken internally to purify the blood and allay sickness.
“Verzin,” sive Phytolacca Scosandra	East Indies	”	The flowers of this tree were purgative and it also furnishes a purple dye.
Wormwood	Persia	Constantinople Damascus. Alexandria. Aleppo.	Vermifuge and stimulant to menstruation.
Saffron	Aquila Sulmona. Romagna. Tuscany. Cremona. Lombardy. Puglia. Bari.	Venice.	By the laws of the Grand Council, date 21 August 1288, it may be inferred that the general use of saffron, in Europe, commenced at that period. It was considered a cordial, a pectoral, an anodyne, an aperient, and an antidote to poison and hysterics. It was also employed for culinary purposes. Saffron is supposed to have been first cultivated in England A. D. 1582.
Mastic	Scio	Scio Alexandria.	Astringent—anodyne, tonic.
Galangal	East Indies	Damascus	Tonic, diuretic, stimulant to menstruation.
Spikenard	East Indies	Alexandria Damascus.	Supposed to be a remedy for stone: diuretic, stimulant to menstruation; antidote to poison, &c.
Galbanum	East Indies Syria and Arabia.	Aleppo Alexandria.	A remedy mentioned by Dioscorides, and much in use with women.
Sal ammoniac	Egypt	Damascus	Sudorific and aperient.
Sagapen sive Gum Seraphic	Persia	Aleppo Alexandria.	Sudorific and aperient.—Remedy in use with women.
Opopanax (gum)	Macedonia	Aleppo	Tonic—remedy for hysteria.
Gum Dragon	East Indies Southern Arabia.	Alexandria	Astringent—styptic. For an account of the Dracæna Draco see Wellsted's Travels in Arabia, vol. 2, p. 448, 449.
Gum Arabic	Arabia	Alexandria.
Borax	Persia	Alexandria	Used for glandular affections, to encourage menstruation, and for diseases of the spleen.
Camphor	Borneo	”	Used as an anti-scorbutic, for hysterical affections, &c.

The foregoing articles of Eastern produce were styled by the Venetians “Grossspice” (Speciegrosse, whence the terms Grocer and Epicier). The Drugs or “small spice” (Specie menude) with which they supplied England were of the following kinds:


Name of Produce or Manufacture.	Site of the Article's Growth or Manufacture.	Where procured by the Venetians.	Remarks.

Refined scammony	Aleppo	Aleppo	Strong purgative. Botanical names: convolvulus Syriacus, scammonia Syriaca.
Rhubarb	Persia	Constantinople	Gentle purgative.
Manna	Persia Syria.	Aleppo Damascus.	Slightly purgative.
Aloes	Socotra	Alexandria Damascus. Aleppo.	” ”
Refined turbith	Ceylon Surat. Goa.	Damascus Alexandria.	Purgative. Botanical name:. convolvulus Indicus.
Terebenthina	Isle of Scio	Isle of Scio	A liquid rosin or gluey liquid, procured by incision from several trees. It was strongly aperient, and administered in doses varying from half a drachm to one drachm, for ulcers in the kidneys and bladder, for gonorrhoea, and also as a diuretic.
Seed-pearls for pounding.	Persian Gulf	Damascus Aleppo. Alexandria.	Oriental pearls were used in the 14th and 15th centuries for medicinal purposes, and those of smallest size took the name of seed pearls from their shape. Being alkaline, they corrected acidity, and were also supposed to be an antidote to poison and an invigorating cordial, which may account for the dissolved pearl presented by Cleopatra to Marc Anthony. Dose from six grains to half a drachm.
Ambergris	Shores of the Indian Ocean.	Alexandria Aleppo. Damascus. Constantinople.	Tonic, and an exhilarating cordial, an antidote to poison, and a strong stimulant. It was supposed to render women hysterical, to cure men of melancholy. The dose varied from half a grain to four.
Musk	Asia and where-ever the gazelle is found.	Alexandria Damascus. Aleppo. Constantinople.	A tonic and cordial, an antidote to poison &c. &c. Dose from half a grain to four grains.
Belzoe, sive Belzoim, sive Belzuinum.	East Indies Siam. Sumatra.	Alexandria	A very strong-smelling resinous gum, supposed to take effect on ulcerated lungs, to cure asthma, to be an antidote to poison, &c. &c.
Civet	East Indies and wherever the hyaena is found.	Aleppo Constantinople. Alexandria.	An anodyne, supposed to cure children of the cholic.
Tignames, sire Elichrysum.	—	Alexandria	Plant of flower said to be vermifuge, and to facilitate menstruation, &c. &c.
Calamus verus, seu amarus. in Italian, “Calamita.”	East Indies	Alexandria Damascus.	A reed whose pulp was very bitter, and supposed to aid menstruation, to be an antidote to poison, and an aperient, &c. &c.
Storax	Syria	Alexandria Damascus. Aleppo.	A gum supposed to be a tonic and emollient, &c. &c.
Auripigmentum, seu Orpiment.	Persia Natolia.	Constantinople. Damascus.	—
Elephants' teeth or tusks.	—	—	At so many gold pennies (fn. 1) (grossi) per lb.
Green gingers	—	—	—
Preserved myrabolans	—	—	An Indian plum, resembling the damson. They were considered purgative and astringent in the same degree as rhubarb.
Brown sugar	Palermo.	—	—
Syruped fruits, and White comfits.	Palermo.	—	—
Currants	Patras	—	Of good quality, and sold well.
Dried prunes	Naples. Sicily.	—	—
Dates, coral, and coral buttons or beads.	Messina	—	Of large size and good colour. They were called “Pater nostri” from their resemblance to the five large beads in the Roman Catholic chaplet.
Gall-nuts	Puglia,	—	—
Malmsies	Candia	—	Of good quality.
Wine	Tyre	—	By an Act, 1 Richard III. (1433–4), it it is seen that the Venetians were charged, with every butt of malmsey and every butt of Tyre, to import ten bow staves, under penalty of 135. 4d.
Bow staves.	—	—	—
Books, manuscript and printed, and illuminated works.	—	—	See an Act, 1 Richard III. (1483–4), concerning “lympners, bynders, and imprynters.”
Paper	—	—	See Commission to Bartolomeo Minio, captain of the Flanders galleys, A.D. 1485.
Earthenware and glass	—	—	See sate conducts from. Richard II., date September 17, 1399, and from Henry IV., December 3,1400, Commemoriale, No. ix., p. 3 and p. 152.

Exports from Sicily conveyed by the Flanders Galleys to England.



Refined sugar. Brown sugar. Molasses. White comfits. Syruped confections. Dried prunes. Large coral beads or buttons, or “Pater nosters.” Spun cottons. Maltese cottons. Raw silk, or silk yarn, from Messina. Saltpetre.	The dates assigned to the discovery of Madeira vary, in printed works.
	In Marin Sanuto's MS. diaries it is stated, date August 1496, that the discovery was made in 1450; that thenceforth the sugars of Cyprus, Alexandria, Syria, Damietta, Sicily, Valentia, and other parts fell to a very low price; and that, commencing with the year 1486, there arrived annually at Venice five or six ships, caravels, or barks, of from two to five hundred butts each, freighted with Madeira sugar.
	By the foregoing list of Venetian exports it appears, that down to the year 1503 the sugars of Sicily were preferred, in England, to those of the Levant or of Madeira.