734 EEPORT- 1888. 



fifteenth century tbe carrying trade of the Mediterranean was wholly in the hands 

 of the Venetians, and Venice had become the distributing centre for all Europe. 

 Venetian fleets, well guarded by war galleys, sailed at stated times for Constanti- 

 nople and the Black Sea ; for SjTia and Egypt ; for France ; for Spain and Por- 

 tugal, and for Holland. From the ports in those countries, as well as from Venice 

 herself, the products of the East were carried inland over well-defined trade routes, 

 and cities such as Pavia, Niiruberg, and Bruges, the emporium of the Hanseatic 

 League, rose to importance as entrepots of Eastern commerce. 



The victorious advance of the Turks, the fall of Constantinople, the piracy in 

 the Mediterranean, and the termination of all intercourse with China on the decline 

 of the Mongol dynasty in the fourteenth century, combined with other circum- 

 stances to turn men's minds towards the discovery of a more convenient way to 

 the East. India was the dream of the fifteenth-century merchant, and how to 

 reach it by a direct sea voyage was the problem of the day. The problem was 

 solved when Vasco de Gama reached the shores of India on May 20, 1498 ; and its 

 solution was due to the wise policy of a great-grandson of Edward III., Prince 

 Henry of Portugal, ' the Navigator,' who unfortunately died before success was 

 attained. The discovery of the Cape route was no mere accident, but the result of 

 scientific training, deep study, careful preparation, and indomitable perseverance. 

 Prince Henry having determined to find a direct sea route to India, invited the 

 most eminent men of science to instruct a number of young men who were 

 educated under his own eye, and in a few vears he made the Portuguese the most 

 scientific navigators in Europe. The successful voyage of Vasco de Gama soon 

 produced important results ; the saving in freight by the direct sea route was 

 enormous, and when it became generally known that the products of the East 

 could be obtained much cheaper in Lisbon than anywhere else, that city became 

 the resort of traders from every part of Europe. From Lisbon Indian commodities 

 were carried to Antwerp, which soon became the emporium of Northern Europe. 

 By these changes the trade of Venice was almost annihilated, and Lisbon became 

 the richest commercial city in Europe. The Venetians had endeavoured to confine 

 commerce within its existing limits, and to keep to the trade routes then in use. 

 They had never made any attempt to enlarge the sphere of nautical and commer- 

 cial enterprise, and the consequence was that their ablest seamen, imbued with the 

 spirit of adventure, took service in the Western States. AVhen the Cape route 

 was discovered, instead of attempting to secure a share in the direct sea trade, they 

 entered into an alliance with the Sultan of Egypt to crush the Portuguese, and 

 built a fleet for him at Suez, which was defeated by Almeida in 1508. After this 

 defeat the trade of Venice soon passed away. 



Since the discovery of the Cape route there has been one long struggle for the 

 possession of the commerce of India ; who should be the carriers and distributors 

 of Indian commodities was for more than two and a half centuries a much 

 contested point amongst the maritime nations of the West. At first there seems 

 to have been a general acquiescence in the claim of the Spaniards and Portuguese 

 to a monopoly of the southern sea-routes, and this led to those heroic efforts to 

 find a north-east or north-west passage to India which have so greatly added to 

 our geographical knowledge. Failure in this direction was followed by attempts 

 to reach India by the Cape in the face of the hostile attitude of Spain and Portugal. 

 The mighty events which in turn transferred wealth and commerce from Lisbon 

 to Antwerp, Amsterdam, and the banks of the Thames are matter of history, and 

 it is scarcely necessary to say that at the close of the Napoleonic wars England 

 remained undisputed mistress of the sea, and had become not only the carrier of 

 all ocean-borne traffic, but the distributing centre of Indian goods to the whole 

 world. A period of keen competition for a share in the commerce of India has 

 again commenced amongst the states of Europe, and symptoms of a coming 

 change in the carrying and distributing trade have been increasingly apparent 

 since Africa was separated from Asia, nearly twenty years ago, by the genius of 

 M. de Lesseps. 



The opening of the Suez Canal, by diverting trade from the Cape route to the 

 Mediterranean, has produced and is still producing changes in the intercourse 



