PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 565 
route that the first English commercial expedition to India, that of Newberie, 
Leedes, Story, and Fitch, went out in 1583, and by which Ralph Fitch, the sole 
survivor of that expedition, returned in 1591. By this route Venice got back 
some of her spice trade ; not perhaps with the same profit to herself as tormerly, 
but stilla trade of no slight importance not only to Venice, but also to Augsburg, 
Nuremberg, and some of the other cities of South Germany. 
But beyond doubt the bulk of the trade was now carried on by the sea route, 
and we are thereby enabled to get a better idea both of the amount and the 
nature of the trade. On both points we get information from the ‘ Narrative’ 
of the above-named Ralph Fitch, who tells us that ‘ the Fleete which commeth 
every yeere from Portugal, which be foure, five, or sixe great shippes, commeth 
first hither [to Goa]. And they come for the most part in September, and 
remaine there fortie or fiftie dayes; and then go to Cochin, where they lade 
their Pepper for Portugall.’' Now in 1583 a ship of 500 tons would certainly 
be called a great ship. In 1572 the largest vessel sailing from the port of 
London was of 240 tons,? and the largest of the first fleet of the East India 
Company was one of 600 tons. I could give more definite information as to the 
capacity of these fleets at that time if I knew exactly what a sa/ma was, for in 
a report on Portuguese trade sent to the Grand Duke Ferdinand I. of Tuscany 
(1587-1608) we are told that the fleet consisted of four or five carracks of the 
capacity of 5,000 or 6,000 salme.? But a salma is a term for which one some- 
times gets a very indefinite meaning, at other times definite but very diverse 
meanings, sometimes a weight of 25 lb., which is obviously too little, and 
again a weight of 1,000 lb., which is probably too much. The large dictionary 
of Tommaseo gives this latter weight with an example stating the capacity of a 
ship; but if that were the meaning then the carracks would be of a burden of 
from 2,250 to 2,700 tons, a much heavier tonnage than is elsewhere indicated, so 
far as | am aware, for vessels of the period. Probably 3,000 tons would be the 
outside limit of the aggregate cargoes annually brought to Portugal, for in any 
case much room in the ships was required for the large crews of those days with 
their armaments, for then the idea of carrying on commerce by sea without being 
in a position to defend your ship was out of the question. 
Of the commodities sent home from India, Fitch mentions in this place only 
pepper, and the correspondence of Albuquerque with the King of Portugal soon 
after the discovery of the sea way to India clearly reveals how all-important the 
pepper trade was; but it may be worth while to give the complete list of the 
commodities which Ralph Fitch enumerates at the end of his ‘ Narrative’ as 
coming from India and the country further eastward. The list is not a long one, 
It comprises pepper, ginger, cloves, nutmegs and mages, camphora (‘a precious 
thing among the Indians... solde dearer then golde’), lignum aloes, long 
pepper, muske, amber, rubies, saphires, and spinels, diamants, pearles, spodium, 
and many other kindes of drugs from Cambaia—all of them, it will be observed, 
having the character of being of high value in proportion to their bulk, so that 
a very great value of such goods might be carried in ships of small capacity. 
Fitch does not tell us what was sent in return, but information as to that is 
to be had from other sources and presents one or two points of interest. In 1513 
Albuquerque, after a long course of fighting, concluded a peace with the Zamorin 
of Calicut, in which it was agreed, among other things, that the Zamorin should 
supply the Portuguese with all the ‘spices and drugs’ his land produced, and 
that ‘ coral, silk stuffs, quicksilver, vermilion, copper, lead, saffron, alum, and all 
other merchandise from Portugal’ should be sold at Calicut as heretofore.* Coral 
comes first in this enumeration. To us at the present day this does not seem a 
very important article of commerce, but it was otherwise then. One Mafio di 
Priuli, writing from India in 1537 to the Magnifico M. Constantino di Priuli, 
says, ‘ At a great fair which is called that of Tremel I have seen buttons of coral 
1 Horton Ryley, Ralph Fitch, p. 61. 2 Tbid., p. 17. 
*’ Angelo de Gubernatis, Memoria intorno ai viaggiatori Italiani nelle Indie 
Orientali dal secolo XITI. a tuttoil X VI, p. 149. 
4 Danvers, The Portuguese in India, vol. i, p. 288. 
