Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/229

 EUROPEAN NATIONS. 213 rj' of a new world and that of the maritime route to India, which last, in effect, laid open another new world, richer and more interesting than America. The delusion respecting the value of spices bears some resemblance to that which has prevailed re- specting gold. Elegant and costly aromatics, for which men expressed so universal a taste, that, at a time when no other luxuries were in request, they were purchased at any price, — which necessa- rily gave rise to a degree of industry and wealth in those engaged in the distribution of them, and from which the sovereigns through whose territories they passed derived a revenue, — great at least for such rude times, were, by a natural prejudice, consider- ed intrinsically valuable in themselves. That this erroneous opinion should be entertained in the fif- teenth and sixteenth centuries is sufficiently natu- ral, but that such a chimera should continue to haunt the imaginations of the politicians of the present age, and be acted upon by one of the most polished nations of Europe, in the country which gave birth to the science of political economy, is strange enough ; and had we not many otlier ex- amples of the unwillingness of men to redress most flagrant abuses of a similar character, might be thought unaccountable. The Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English, are the three European nations whose conduct has chiefly influenced the commercial destinies of the