.1832.] 
COMMERCIAL RIVALRY. 
367 
CHAPTER XX. 
European rivalry in the east — Formation of the East India Company — Its conquests 
in India — First American vessel sails from New- York, and visits Canton — Inter- 
esting correspondence — Tabular view of our trade — Expiration of the company's 
charter — New state of things opening^ in the east — Increased vigilance necessary on 
the part of our government — Free trade with China. 
For a century after Vasco de Gama had reflected so much glory 
upon his nation, by discovering the passage aroi^nd the Cape of 
Good Hope, the Portuguese had enjoyed, as vs^ell as greatly 
abused, the advantages of superior knowledge and art, amid a 
feeble and half-civihzed people. They explored the Indian Ocean 
as far as Japan ; visited islands rich in some of the favourite pro- 
ductions of nature ; had achieved the most brilliant conquests ; 
and, by their commerce, poured into Europe, in unexampled pro- 
fusion, those rare commodities of the east, on which the nations 
of the old vworld, at that time, set an extraordinary value. 
These new sources of wealth could not fail to attract the atten- 
tion of the other powers of Europe. For even when confined 
to the narrow limits which a carriage by land had prescribed, this 
trade was supposed to have elevated feeble states into powerful 
ones. History bears abundant proof that it contributed largely 
to the support of the Grecian monarchies, both in Syria and in 
Egypt ; for a long succession of years retarded the downfall of 
Constantinople ; and raised the otherwise obscure republic of 
Venice to the rank and influence of the most potent of kingdoms. 
No wonder, therefore, that the new channel opened by the Portu- 
guese to the east, should have aroused the cupidity of all the 
maritime powers of Europe. 
England had shared largely in the improvements of Europe at 
that period ; and that active spirit of commerce, which was des- 
tined to encompass the whole globe, had gone boldly forth ; while 
the felicitous reign of Elizabeth was highly favourable to the 
accumulation of capital, and all of those projects on which the 
life of commerce depends. 
