ABSTRACT
The opportunity to contribute from the United States an essay in honor of a great Italian scholar tempts us to appeal to both American and European historians to turn to the universal history of European colonization, from the tenth to the nineteenth century. The thirteenth century saw the loss of some holdings, especially in Palestine, but those were more than offset by the new colonies opened up in Crete, the Aegean and Ionian islands, on the Balkan peninsula, and in the Crimea. The mechanical technology and abstract natural science of Europeans have been steadily advancing for at least a thousand years. Much of the advance has been influentual upon or influenced by overseas enterprise. While the development of the English trading company is probably continuous from the guild merchant through the regulated company, certain Italian features are to be found in the English companies that were the prototypes of the trading companies that were to carry on English colonization.
