Page:The Galaxy, Volume 6.djvu/76

64 them by the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and the latter were forced to depend on the inland intercourse through Tartary for their limited supply of Eastern goods. This traffic was slow and toilsome, and the journey through Persia, AffghanistanAfghanistan [sic] and Hindostan sometimes occupied several years for going and returning.

At the commencement of the tenth century, the free city of Venice manifested a remarkable spirit of commercial enterprise, and her merchants by their talents and earnestness obtained almost the entire trade of India through the Mohammedan countries. Commercial intercourse tended to soften the feelings of alienation between Christians and Mohammedans, the ancient channel between Egypt and India was once more laid open, and, under the auspices of the Venetian merchants, the trade of the Indies diffused its beneficial influence over all Europe. It was not until the decline of the Caliphs and the irruptions of the Turks into Palestine and Syria that this trade was once more, for a time, lost to Europe.

The inconvenience to Europeans caused by the suspension of this lucrative trade opened the eyes of the sovereigns of the West to the wealth to be gained by the commerce of the Indies, and they left no means untried to lay the foundation of that mercantile prosperity which western Europe has never since lost. Venice became the most powerful and wealthy of the maritime nations, and maintained that position as long as she succeeded in holding the trade of India. Genoa, Pisa and Florence also owed their prosperity in a great degree to their trade with India. As the Venetians had extended their territory in the Greek Archipelago, at the commencement of the twelfth century, they gained essential advantages over their rivals, the Genoese, who, anxious not to be outdone in the India trade, and jealous of the increasing power of Venice, waged incessant war upon her, and drove her merchants from Constantinople. The entire commerce of the Black Sea and the inland trade with India then fell into the hands of Genoa. The inland commerce which the Genoese thus obtained was carried on through Georgia, Persia, Afghanistan and Hindostan.

The Venetians, not disposed to give up the advantages of the India trade, procured a dispensation from the Pope, which authorized them to open a free trade with the infidels, and, by the settlement of their merchants at the different marts of Egypt and Syria, established their intercourse with India on a more solid basis than ever. They finally succeeded in getting the Genoese expelled from Constantinople, after the fall of the Greek empire, through their favorable treaties with the Sultans of the Mamelukes; and through the ports of Syria and Egypt they then held the entire trade of Europe with the East until the close of the fifteenth century.

During this time, Venice attained her highest pitch of power and wealth.

At this period, the grand turning point of geographical discovery, occurred a most memorable event—the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco de Gama, which struck a fatal blow at the commercial supremacy of the Venetian Republic, by opening the trade of the Indies to the Portuguese. In the beginning of the sixteenth century the trade with India was entirely monopolized by the Portuguese, who soon extended their commerce over Asia, and, by the middle of the century, regulated the markets of Europe and India at their pleasure.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Portuguese had to contend with a powerful rival in the Dutch, a nation of hardy seamen, who then made an attempt to share in the vast wealth of the India trade. The sanguinary war