ABSTRACT
THE overthrow of the Roman Empire in the fifth century completely destroyed all trade and commerce in the west of Europe. The new monarchies which sprang up from its ruins were founded in blood, and war was both work and pastime to their hardy sons. The necessaries of life were all they sought, luxuries, and even comforts being uncared. for or unknown. For a time the Eastern Empire retained a considerable amount of civilization, and in some of the countries under the sway of the Emperors manufactures were encouraged-that of Linen, as ha been shown, flourishing for ages in Greece, where the trade was not wholly extinct in the beginning of the ninth century. The enlightened policy of the Christian sovereigns of Byzantium had no influence on the warlike tribes in the west. There darkness the most complete reigned for centuries, and during that period there was no Linen manufacture to describe, no progress to record.
