continues to supply the saltless interior.[220] The Narenta salt-pans were monopolised by the Ragusans, who established a customs station at the river’s mouth, and those of the Bojana, although outside their territory, were also in their hands; their only rival was Cattaro, whence the innumerable quarrels with that city. Cloth was imported from Venice, Florence, Mantua, and later from the looms of Ragusa herself. The presents which the Ragusans gave to the Slave princes and nobles out of friendship or as blackmail and bribery often took the form of rich gold brocades, silks, and satins, which greatly delighted the splendour-loving barbarians. We can well imagine the semi-civilised and proud vojvods and župans gloating over a consignment of the choicest products of Florentine industry, and being thereby induced to concede almost any commercial or political privilege to the patient and cunning envoys from the Republic of St. Blaize. To this day the Slaves of Servia, Dalmatia, and Bosnia, even the very poorest, love to deck themselves out in the most gorgeous costumes and the brightest ornaments, which adds not a little to the picturesqueness of that country. A large part of Ragusan territory, both on the mainland and on the islands, was covered with vineyards; wine was, in fact, the chief agricultural product of the country. No wine could be imported from abroad save by a special licence, occasionally granted to the Count, foreign ambassadors, or eminent ecclesiastics. The land trade was carried on entirely by means of caravans. There were no carriage roads since the decay of those built by the Romans, and all goods travelled by caravan and were carried on the backs of pack-animals, chiefly horses. Each caravan, which was formerly called a _turma_, a word still used in Montenegro, consisted of 200 to 300 pack-animals under the charge of Vlach drovers. These Vlachs or Rumans of Dalmatia were nearly all shepherds or horse- and cattle-drovers, and had markedly nomadic habits. At an early date they became identified with the Slaves, but, as I have said, they were probably of Latin origin.[221] In the Middle Ages they were usually the subjects of the feudal chiefs and monasteries. The leader of the caravan, also a Vlach, provided an adequate armed escort, and undertook to protect his charge against the brigands. Most of the traders were Ragusans or natives of the other coast towns, but Slavonic merchants also took part in this trade, especially those who were settled at Ragusa, where some of them became naturalised so as to enjoy the same exemptions and privileges as the citizens. Even noble feudatories and kings did not disdain this kind of traffic, and employed their own Vlachs for the purpose. The journey was by slow stages, as the paths were steep and rocky, and many precautions were necessary. In Bosnia and the Herzegovina, in spite of the roads and railways, much of the traffic is still carried on on