In the share taken by them in the partition of the Eastern Empire the Venetians showed that common sense which is always found at the bottom of all their actions. They left to the crusaders the inland provinces and took for themselves the coast-towns and islands which promised the best commercial returns and were easiest to defend. In Constantinople itself they took a large part of the city, in which their podestat ruled almost as an independent sovereign. At places commanding the all-important sea route to the East, in the Peloponnesus or Morea, in Crete and in Eubœa, naval stations were established under the control of officers sent out by the home government. The strict rules by which these officers were governed gives an insight into the discipline which existed in the Venetian foreign service. In every place in which the Venetians founded a principality their capital was surrounded by Italian colonies; there where one found formerly only nests of pirates, the terror of Venetian commerce, one found now friendly ports, refuges fortified and secure, where Venetian captains and merchants, certain of a good reception, could ask asylum and protection. =102. Extent of Venetian commerce.=—Thanks to the colonial empire which they established the Venetians controlled the trade of the eastern Mediterranean more efficiently than Great Britain has controlled the world commerce of the nineteenth century; the field of operations was narrower, and “trade followed the flag” in those early times as it has never done since. Foreigners might trade if they would pay sufficiently for the privilege; without this recognition of their inferiority they were public enemies to be given short shrift. Venice established her colonies or trading factories not only along the shore of the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea; Venetian merchants penetrated deep into Russia, and into Central Asia through the Crimea. So bold were their enterprises that the home government, fearful for its interests, passed a law to limit their extent. “Dalmatia, Albania, Romania, Greece, Trebizond, Syria, Armenia, Egypt, Cyprus, Candia, Apulia, Sicily and other countries, kingdoms and islands were the fruitful gardens, the proud castles of our people, where they found again profit, pleasure, security.” The old chronicler names but one side of the equation of trade; the products from all these countries and from the far East behind them were brought to Venice to be exchanged for the products of the West. Martino da Canale says of an earlier period what must at any rate have been true of his own (thirteenth century): “The Venetians went about the sea here and there, and across the sea and in all places, and bought merchandise and brought it to Venice from every side. Then there came to Venice Germans and Bavarians, French and Lombards, Tuscans and Hungarians, and every people that lives by merchandise, and they took it to their countries.”