CHAPTER IX
TRADE AND INTERNAL CONDITIONS DURING THE HUNGARIAN PERIOD
IN spite of Ottoman raids, piracy, plagues, and earthquakes, the Republic prospered exceedingly in every direction. According to Palladius Fuscus, there were three hundred Ragusan merchantmen on the sea, visiting every port. Ragusa was the starting-point for journeys into Turkey, and the ambassadors of foreign Powers passed through the city on their way to Constantinople. Its traders were to be found in every part of the Mediterranean. At the end of the period of Venetian domination, in 1358, we have seen that “ mari-neritia Rhacusii erat amissa.” But after the proclamation of independence it revived and increased to a far greater degree than ever before, and to this the permission granted by the Popes to trade with the Infidel contributed not a little. In 1434 the Bull Cosna Domini, based on the decrees of the Council of Bale, was issued as follows :—
  “To the city of Ragusa, situated on a hard rock, on the coast of the sea and therefore exposed to its ire, and in a most sterile land, wholly devoted to the Church of Rome and ever obedient to her, constantly faithful to the King of Hungary ... is granted permission to navigate with its ships even unto the Holy Land and to
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