Page:The influence of commerce on civilization (IA influenceofcomme00ellerich).pdf/21

15 tep in the variations in commerce and the centre of finance is the shifting of the venue to Antwerp. The drawback to Venice inasmuch as her commerce was restricted by the limited volume of exchanoes due to its beino- undertaken on an overland route from Asia, was the opportunity of the Netherlands and Portugal. These two countries opened up trade and commerce with the coast of Africa and extended it to India, thereby initiatino- the era of sea-borne commerce to the East round the Cape of Good Hope, which has since assumed such vast and preponderating dimensions under the Union Jack, the flag of our great British Empire. The Dutch ships and the great Portuguese navigators, Vasco da Gama, and others, sailed to the East and founded colonies, which remain to this day. Traces of the navigators of these countries are found in Australia to-day, by the names affixed to parts of our coastland. Though sadly shorn of her former glory, the Portuguese colony of Macao, founded in the sixteenth century, still remains; and here, as a result of commerce, the literature of Portugal survives in the beautiful poem, the "Os Lusiados", of Camoens, who was born at Macao. The Portuguese here exemplified their Phoenician descent. This trading with India and the East by the Dutch and Portuguese retained the centre of the foreign exchanges in Antwerp, regulated the flow of silver to the East, and retained gold as London does now to-day. This is what Venice could not do from the raison d'etre of her commerce. But Spain was not idle in the meantime, and with the discovery of America by Columbus, albeit a Genoese, a new era arose over the commerce of Europe. The fabulous wealth of Mexico and Peru in precious metals paralysed Europe, and in Spain especially, promoted an effete luxury, which, aided by a malignant sacerdotalism, gradually overthrew the civilization and finally the commerce of Spain. The stories recorded by Prescott of Pizarro, in Peru, shoeing his horses with silver and releasing the tortured Incas on promises to fill their cells with gold, reached the ears of other nations. In Spain at this time the horrors of the Inquisition raged supreme. No horrors of ancient Rome ever surpassed the tortures of the