54/200 These I believe to have been the extinction of commercial republics, the decay of free commonwealths, iniquitous systems of taxation, the insane display of wealth by unproductive princes, and the diversion of trade into foreign channels. Florence ceased to be the center of wool manufacture, Venice lost her hold upon the traffic between East and West.[242] Stagnation fell like night upon the land, and the population suffered from a general atrophy. 51-65.] [Footnote 241: Cantu's _Ragionamenti sulla Storia Lombarda del Secolo XVII._ Milano, 1832. The trial may also be read in Mutinelli, _Storm Arcana_, vol.iv.pp. |