Before the discovery of the passage to the Indias, by the Cape of Good Hope, the Venetians enjoyed a monopoly of the lucrative trade of the east, by means of the Mamelukes of Egypt, with whom they were leagued by policy and interest, which diffused opulence and wealth throughout Italy. This extensive commerce created and gave circulation to bills of exchange, the credit and currency of which were universally acknowledged when they bore the signature of the banks of Italy, and for several centuries there were no other establishments of the kind in Europe.