CHAPTER  THE NINETEENTH
COMMERCIAL   INTERCOURSE

AND

FOREIGN PROTECTION

THE influence of the commercial instinct of the Moors
has left its traces on all their dealings with Europe.*
In the thirteenth century we find the trade between
Marseilles and Ceuta regulated by statute,^ and already
wine was one of the imports. At the same
Early Exports. time Vcnice and'Flanders were supplied with
sugar from Motocco, the best being from the province
of Sus. In a list of merchandise for sale in Flanders
at this period,^ among the imports from Morocco
there figure also wax, skins and cummin, and from
Sajilmasa (now Tafilalt) dates, a list which might have
been excerpted from any present-day market report.f The
only noteworthy object is sugar, the cultivation, though

* The disapproval by the Muslim theologians of the increasing commerce
with "infidels" has been rather directed against the evil habits introduced
thereby than against the trade, though many have desired complete isolation as
the sole method of maintaining their standard of life. It is a mistake therefore
to represent them as opposed to commerce itself. En - Nasiri discusses
this question in vol. iv., pp. 266-270 All Bey heard a sermon on the subject
in the chief mosque of Tangier.^

t In the tenth century Ibn Haukal* gives as the produce of Morocco black
and white slaves, saddle-mules, coarse cloth, coral, ambergris, gold, honey,
silk and goat-skins.

1 In 1228.    Mas Latrie's Traites, pt. ii., p. 89.        2 Ibid., p. 99.

3 Sp. Ed., vol. i., p. 62.                                                   4 Trans., Ouseley, i8co, p. 16.

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