The spices and other
productions of India were brought to Europe with vast trouble and at
great expence, so
That they were necessarily sold at very high prices.
The cloves of the Moluccas, the nutmegs and mace of Banda, the
sandal-wood of Timor, the camphor of Borneo, the gold and silver of
Luconia, with all the other and various rich commodities, spices, gums,
perfumes, and curiosities of China, Japan, Siam, and other kingdoms of
the continent and islands of India, were carried to the great mart of
Malacca, a city in the peninsula of that name, which is supposed to have
been the Aurea Chersonesus of the ancients. From that place the
inhabitants of the more western countries between Malacca and the Red
Sea procured all these commodities, dealing by way of barter, no money
being used in this trade, as silver and gold were in much less request
in these eastern parts of India than foreign commodities. By this trade,
Calicut, Cambaya, Ormuz, Aden, and other cities were much enriched. The
merchants of these cities, besides what they procured at Malacca as
before mentioned, brought rubies from Pegu, rich stuffs from Bengal,
pearls from Calicare[67], diamonds from Narsinga[68], cinnamon and
rich rubies from Ceylon, pepper, ginger, and other spices, from the
coast of Malabar and other places where these are produced. From Ormuz
these commodities were conveyed up the Persian gulf to Basorah at the
mouth of the Euphrates, and were thence distributed by caravans through
Armenia, Trebisond, Tartary, Aleppo, and Damascus; and from these latter
cities, by means of the port of Barat in Syria, the Venetians, Genoese,
and Catalonians carried them to their respective countries, and to other
parts of Europe.
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