Majorca had an excellent climate and a fertile soil which fitted it for agricultural wealth, and the Moslems had furthered this by their use of irrigation. They had also engaged considerably in manufacturing, and had an already well-developed trade at the time of the conquest. Under Christian domination Majorca soon attained to an extraordinary commercial importance, trading in all parts of the Mediterranean and in Flanders, and having consuls and commercial exchanges in nearly all European countries. In the fourteenth century more than thirty thousand sailors resided in Palma, and many foreign merchants dwelt there. The wealthy trader was the veritable great lord in the island, with his palaces, country estates, and his display of luxury. The decline set in about the middle of the fourteenth century, due in part to the annexation of Majorca to the kingdom of Aragon. Other causes hastened the fall: disastrous plagues, earthquakes, and floods; the advance of the Turks into Europe, cutting off a rich commercial field; the increased importance of the Italian cities in the eastern Mediterranean trade; the raids of pirates; the expensive wars of Aragon; and the persistent social and political strife in Majorca itself. Nevertheless, a considerable trade remained until the middle of the fifteenth century, when a new series of misfortunes,--such as the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the prohibition of the entry of Majorcan cloths into Naples, the competition of Rhodes and Portugal in the east, and hostilities with the Moslem states of northern Africa (thus cutting off that avenue of trade),--added to the continuing effect of some of the already-named evils, brought about the complete downfall of the Majorcan mercantile power. One advantage resulted, though not great enough to offset the commercial loss: a beginning was made of a more intensive cultivation of the agricultural wealth which the island was so well able to produce. _Navarre_ [Sidenote: Backwardness of Navarre.]