Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/35

Rh for in 1580 all the strength and soul of Portuguese enterprise were crushed out of her by annexation to Spain. The Spaniards threw away their opportunity; they found it easier to mine the precious metals in America than to make long voyages to India; and instead of using their treasure they tried to hoard it.

CONSTANTINOPLE AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

From the days of the Romans up to our own time, the Indian trade has drained the gold and silver of Europe; but the Spaniards were under the delusion, so long prevalent in Europe, that to export bullion is to exhaust a country's wealth; so that their commerce with Asia was fatally hampered by strict prohibitions against sending the precious metals abroad. This false mercantile theory must have materially retarded the expansion of the foreign trade of Europe; for we find the East India Company in the seventeenth century constantly accused of impoverishing England by their despatches of bullion. It was indeed long before any but the maritime trading classes, to whom the needs and practice of distant commerce brought real experi-