=83. Medieval seaports; contrast with modern.=—Vessels were so small that they needed no great depth of water in their harbors, and could ascend rivers for a considerable distance. So the English town of Bawtry, lying on the little river Idle, which flows into the Trent, which flows into the Humber, which flows into the North Sea, was called in an official document “the port of Bawtry”; and the town of York, situated on the river Ouse, another branch of the Humber, claimed the right to share in wrecks at sea, as though it were on the seaboard. Ports of this kind were actually preferred to those on the coast which form the great harbors of modern times, for they gave access to the interior markets without the expense of land transportation, and they offered better security not only against tempests but also against pirates. Towns like Rouen on the Seine, Nantes on the Loire, Bordeaux on the Garonne, Narbonne and Aigues Mortes (“Dead waters”), on lagoons of the Mediterranean coast, were the great French ports of the early period. =84. Decline of medieval seaports in later times.=—Occasionally a medieval port would keep its importance later; from the list above we can select Bordeaux, and there are a number of other examples in Europe—London, Antwerp, and Hamburg, for instance. Often, however, the port was superseded by another on the same river but nearer the sea; the trade of Rouen went to Havre; the trade of the Humber river system has gone to Hull; the commerce of Bremen has gone to Bremerhafen. The town of Bruges, in Flanders (modern Belgium), once the most important port in Europe, is situated at a distance of seven miles from the sea, and this might be seven hundred as far as its present oceanic commerce is concerned. Its trade has been taken by seaports giving easy access to large vessels; in the same way the trade of Narbonne and Aigues Mortes has passed to Marseilles. =85. Development of maritime commerce; persistence of medieval ideas.=—After about 1300 the distances covered by sea voyages grew much greater. Galleys were sailed and rowed from Venice all the way to Bruges, and met there vessels from the far North and East of Europe; English sailors traded regularly with southern France, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries. The expense of transportation by sea, however, was still great. The price of spices was in Bruges two or three fold what it was in Venice; and English wool transported to Florence sold there for two to twelve times as much as it brought at home. It is hard for us, in modern times, to realize such facts, but the student should note them carefully, for they go far toward explaining the slight development of commerce even in the latter part of the Middle Ages.