Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/378

 36^ COMMEllCIAL DESCUIPTION OF year 1583, Linschoten informs us that pepper was to be had in the markets of Sunda Calapa, the modern Batavia, at from 4 Spanish dollars and 94 cents, to 5 93, and 6 91 cents, or an average of 5 dollars 93 cents per picul. Taking this as the rate in the markets of the Archipelago in the Portuguese times, we find the same pepper selling in the markets on the Caspian at 41 Spanish dol- lars and three cents, or an advance of 591 per cent, on the prime cost. This price must have been enhanced by the hostility of the Portuguese to- wards the Arabian and Turkish merchants ; and Edwards, agent to the Russian "Company, who gives the statement, says, " by the malice of the Turkish merchants.'* * Pepper was sold in Eng- land, towards the close of the Portuguese supre- macy in India, in 1592, at 4s. per pound, or 1 18^0^5 Spanish dollars per picul, 14>f per cent, beyond the price it bore before the discovery of the route by the Cape of Good Hope, so that thus far Europe was a loser rather than a gainer by that discovery. In the short time that the Dutch had a tempo- rary monopoly of the pepper trade, by their naval superiority over the Portuguese, and in conse- quence of the French and English not having yet interfered with them, they raised the prices in Eu-
 * Hakluyt, Vol. II. page 391.