THE EVOLUTION OF COMMERCE. 653 
From India science and literature were handed on to Europe, and 
from India has come the religion of more than half of the human race. 
For India the Spanish sailed westward; for India the Portuguese sailed 
eastward. Portugal was the first to reach the goal and obtain the 
prize. Greater riches have been drawn from India than from the gold 
and silver mines of America; since for all ages it has been the store- 
house from which treasures were derived. Portugal held India from 
about 1500 to 1600. Ships brought the silks and precious stones of 
India to Lisbon, where they were sold to the Dutch and distributed by 
them through Europe. Spain conquered Portugal, and to avenge her- 
self on Holland excluded her merchants from Lisbon. They then sailed 
directly for India, dispossessed the Portuguese, and the commerce of 
India was for the next hundred years controlled by Holland. 
Then for a short time India was divided between France and England, 
but under Lord Clive and Warren Hastings the possessions of France 
passed to the East India Company, and when their charter expired it 
was made a province of the Crown, and the Queen of England became 
Empress of India. 
Unlike Rome and Spain in their dealings with conquered nations, 
England gives a fair exchange for all she takes, and rules in India for 
India, giving a more stable and equitable government than India ever 
before enjoyed. 
To-day Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage are known only by their ruins; the 
glory of Greece and Rome, of Venice and Genoa, has passed; the power 
of Spain and Portugal has waned, while India is developing a social, 
moral, and political prosperity, with wealth and commerce unknown 
in any former period of her history. 
Suez Canal.—Much of the trade of India in ancient times passed 
through a canal connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, the 
remains of which still exist, and efforts to re-open it have been made at 
different times by Egypt without success. In 1856 De Lesseps obtained 
concessions from the Khedive for the Suez Canal, and commenced the 
work under the directions of the best engineers of Europe. De Les- 
seps applied to English capitalists for help, but they were deterred by 
Lord Palmerston, who said he “wouid oppose the work to the very 
end.” Myr. Stevenson, the engineer, supported Lord Palmerston, declar- 
ing that “the scheme was impracticable, except at an expense too great 
to warrant any expectation of returns.” The Emperor of France lent 
his name to the company, and large sums of money were raised in 
France; but the canal was constructed mainly by the money and labor- 
ers of Egypt. It was opened in 1869, and immediately English steamers 
began to sail through the canal, and the route around the Cape of Good 
Hope was almost abandoned. Other flags soon followed, and the com- 
merece with India and the East, so long lost to Venice and the ports of 
the Mediterranean, was revived, 
