Big Naval made a killing

Explanation: The Crusades were a series of ultimately futile expeditions from Catholic Europe to the Levant in an attempt to conquer the ‘Holy Land’ from the Muslim polities which held it. They had some short-lived success in established outpost ‘Crusader States’, but within 300 years had lost everything, at immense cost in blood and treasure to the Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Muslim polities involved.

… but two Catholic states made out like bandits, and not by plunder! Venice and Genoa were independent Italian city-states of the period with significant naval capacity - rather than engaging directly in warfare, they offered to ferry the Crusaders and their supplies to the Levant… but with a strict no non-payment policy. In God they trust - all others pay in silver!