The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c11.23

c11.23

from England as far as India,¹ and generally in the Middle Ages groceries came to Europe from Asia as now they come from the colonies and from America. Syria, Asia Minor, and Cyprus furnished sugar and wool, and India yielded her perfumes and spices, while rich tapestries for the courts and the wealthy burghers came from Persia and from China.² Even in the time of Justinian (*c.* 550) there seems to have been a silk trade with China, which country in turn carried on commerce with Ceylon,³ and reached out to Turkestan where other merchants transmitted the Eastern products westward. In the seventh century there was a well-defined commerce between Persia and India, as well as between Persia and Constantinople.⁴ The Byzantine *commerciarii* were stationed at the outposts not merely as customs officers but as government purchasing agents.⁵