edict of Alexander Ill. in 124., which forbade Scots merchants to

export any goods in their vessels, because "some of them had been captured by pirates, and othem lost 1,y shipwreck and by seizure in foreign ports." Matthew, of Westminster, in his doleful laments on the decline of England in the fourteenth century, speaks of English ships as in the past, "carrying aromatics and all precious mehandize through the four climates of the world." This probably a poetic exaggeration, as no record relnains of such voyages.

Scothind, as far as can be judged from fragmentary alhtsions, had as much commerce as England in these times. Invel'less ships were in high repute in France, and Matthew Paris notes a wonder- ful vessel which was lmilt for the Earl of B!ois in 1249. In 12sl there was au active fishery on both sides of Scotland; in Betwick was so flourishing that it is compared with a "second Alexandria," and we are told "that the sea is its wealth, the water its walls." In 1271 an Englishman, Adam de Bedford, who had formed one of a Scots gang of pirates, was executed at Berwick. But during the fourteenth century Scots trade appears to have declined.

At the clo. of the thirteenth century, Marco Polo's travels attracted some attention, md stilnulated the interest in gcography. They were followed, late in the fourtnth centre T, by the p-tended voyages and travels of Sir John Maudeville, who protbssed in the year 1322 to have goue oversea to Asia Minor, and thence to Armenia, Turkey, Persia, Syria, E'pt, Chaldea, and India. His "voyages," however, were ahnost entirely accomplished on land; though, as the critics have long since abandoned all belief iu their credibility, there is no need to discuss them.

In 1304, there is a comphfiut made by Edward to Erik of Denmark about his treatment of an English ship loaded with wine, which had apl;arently been seized by the Danish king. a Erik replied that he would cause restitution to be made. the Venetian, who, in 13, published a work upon the trade of Em'ope, does not say anything about English connnerce in the Mediterranean, though as he also omits to mention the Catalans, who were undoubtedly traders and travellers of great enterprise, this does not necessarily prove anything. a He alludes to the Danish,

Mat. Paris, 7. a Fo.dem,' ii.

M:n.l,her,n. Annals of f'ommerce,' i.