On The
Subversion Of The Roman Empire, The Commodities Of The East Were For A
Short Time In Little Request Among The Barbarians Who Subverted It:
As
soon, however, as they advanced from their ignorance and rudeness, these
commodities seem strongly to have attracted their notice, and they were
especially fond of spices and aromatics.
These were used very profusely in
their cookery, and formed the principal ingredients in their medicines. As,
however, the price of all Indian commodities was necessarily high, so long
as they were obliged to be brought to Europe by a circuitous route, and
loaded with accumulated profits, it was impossible that they could be
purchased, except by the more wealthy classes. The Portuguese, enabled to
sell them in greater abundance, and at a much cheaper rate, introduced them
into much more general use; and, as they every year extended their
knowledge of the East, and their commerce with it, the number of ships
fitted out at Lisbon every year, for India, became necessarily more
numerous, in order to supply the increased demand.
Commerce in this case, as in every other, while it is acted upon by an
extension of geographical knowledge, in its turn has an obvious tendency to
extend that knowledge; this was the case with respect to India. The
ancients had indeed made but small advances in their acquaintance with this
country, notwithstanding they were stimulated by the large profits they
derived from their eastern commerce; but this was owing to their
comparative ignorance of navigation and the sciences on which it depends.
As soon as the moderns had improved this art, especially by the use of the
compass, and the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, commerce gave the
stimulus, which in a very few years led the Portuguese from Calicut to the
furthest extremity of Asia.
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