HOW COMMERCE CIVILIZED MANKIND
The history of western civilization is so closely connected with the
development of the great routes of travel and the growth of commerce
that one cannot possibly separate them. Commerce cannot exist without
the intercourse of peoples, and peoples cannot be in mutual
communication unless each learns from the other.
=Feudalism.=--When the Roman Empire fell civilization in western Europe
was not on a high plane; indeed, the feudalism that followed was not
much above barbarism. The people were living in a manner that was not
very much unlike the communal system under which the serfs of Russia
lived only a few years ago. Each centre of population was a sort of
military camp governed by a feudal lord. The followers and retainers
were scarcely better off than slaves; indeed, many of them were slaves.
There was no ownership of the land except by the feudal lords, and the
latter were responsible for their acts to the king only.
But very few people cared to be absolutely free, because they had but
little chance to protect themselves; so it was the common custom to
attach one's self to a feudal lord in order to have his protection; even
a sort of peonage or slavery under him was better than no protection at
all. A few of the people were engaged in trade and manufacture of some
kind or other, and they were the only ones through whom the feudal lord
could supply himself with the commodities needed for his retainers and
the luxuries necessary to himself.
Each feudal estate, therefore, became a sort of industrial centre by
itself, producing its own food-stuffs and much of the coarser
manufactures. It was not a very high condition of enlightenment, but it
was much better than the one which preceded it, for at least it offered
protection. It encouraged a certain amount of trade and commerce,
because the feudal lord had many wants, and he was usually willing to
protect the merchant who supplied them.
=The Crusades and Commerce.=--The Crusades, or wars by which the
Christians sought to recover the Holy Land from the Turk, resulted in a
trade between Europe and India that grew to wonderful proportions. Silk
fabrics, cotton cloth, precious stones, ostrich plumes, ivory, spices,
and drugs--all of which were practically unknown in Europe--were eagerly
sought by the nobility and their dependencies. In return, linen and
woollen fabrics, leather goods, glassware, blacklead, and steel
implements were carried to the far East.
Milan, Florence, Venice and Genoa, Constantinople and a number of less
important towns along the Mediterranean basin became important trade
centres, but Venice and Genoa grew to be world powers in commerce. Not
only were they great receiving and distributing depots of trade, but
they were great manufacturing centres as well.
The routes over which this enormous commerce was carried were few in
number. For the greater part, the Venetian trade went to Alexandria, and
thence by the Red Sea to India. Genoese merchants sent their goods to
Constantinople and Trebizond, thence down the Tigris River to the
Persian Gulf and to India. There was also another route that had been
used by the Phoenicians. It extended from Tyre through Damascus and
Palmyra[2] to the head of the Persian Gulf; this gradually fell into
disuse after the founding of Alexandria.
The general effects of this trade were very far-reaching. To the greater
number of the people of Europe, the countries of India, China, and Japan
were mythical. According to tradition they were infested with dragons
and gryphons, and peopled by dog-headed folk or by one-eyed Arimaspians.
About the first real information of them to be spread over Europe was
brought by Marco Polo, whose father and uncle had travelled all through
these countries during the latter part of the thirteenth century.[3]
Marco Polo's writings were very widely read, and influenced a great many
people who could not be reached through the ordinary channels of
commerce. So between the wars of the Crusades on the one hand, and the
growth of commerce on the other, a new and a better civilization began
to spread over Europe.
=The Turkish Invasions.=--But the magnificent trade that had thus grown up
was checked for a time by an unforeseen factor. The half-savage
Turkomans living southeast of Russia had become converted to the
religion of Islam, and in their zeal for the new belief, determined to
destroy the commerce which seemed to be connected with Christianity. So
they moved in upon the borderland between Europe and Asia, and one after
another the trade routes were tightly closed. Then they captured
Constantinople, and the routes between Genoa and the Orient were
hermetically sealed. Moslem power also spread over Syria and Egypt, and
so, little by little, the trade of Venice was throttled.
[Illustration: ROUTES TO INDIA--THE TURK CHANGES THE COMMERCE OF THE
WORLD]
Now a commerce that involved not only many millions of dollars, but the
employment of thousands of people as well, is not likely to be given up
without a struggle. So the energy that had been devoted to this great
trade was turned in a new direction, and there began a search for a new
route to India--one that the Turks could not blockade.
=The Search for an All-Water Route to India.=--Overland routes were out of
the question; there were none that could be made available, and so the
search was made for a sea-route. Rather singularly the Venetians and
Genoese, who had hitherto controlled this trade, took no part in the
search; it was conducted by the Spanish and the Portuguese.
The Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, fitted out an
expedition under Christopher Columbus, a master-mariner and
cartographer, the funds being provided by Isabella, who pledged her
private property as security for the cost of the expedition. This
expedition resulted in the discovery, October 10-21, 1492, of the West
India Islands. In a subsequent voyage, Columbus discovered the mainland
of South America.
Even before the voyage of Columbus, the Portuguese had been trying to
find a way around Africa to India, and Pope Eugenius IV. had conferred
on Portugal "all heathen lands from Cape Bojador eastward even to the
Indies." Little by little, therefore, Portuguese navigators were pushing
southward until, in 1487, Bartholomew Dias sighted the Cape of Good
Hope, and got about as far as Algoa Bay. Then he unwillingly turned back
because of the threats of his crew. It was a most remarkable voyage, and
one of the shipmates of Dias was Bartholomew Columbus, a brother of the
discoverer of the New World.
Ten years later, or five years after the voyage of Columbus, Vasco da
Gama sailed from Lisbon for the Cape of Good Hope. As he passed the Cape
he was terribly storm-tossed, but the storms carried him in a fortunate
direction. And when at last he got his reckonings, he was off the coast
of India; he therefore kept along the coast until in sight of a port.
The port was the well-known city of Calicut. Two years later he returned
to Europe by the same route, his ships laden with spices, precious
stones, beautiful tapestries and brocades, ivory and bronzes. The
long-sought sea-route to India had been discovered.
[Illustration: A HANSE CITY--HAMBURG, ALONG THE WATER-FRONT]
=Commerce in Western Europe.=--After the discovery of the new route,
Venice and Genoa were scarcely heard of in relation to commerce; they
lost everything and gained nothing. The great commerce with the Orient
was to have a new western terminus, and the latter was to be on the
shores of the North and Baltic Seas.
The commerce between Europe and India stimulated trade in western Europe
as well. As early as the twelfth century the manufacture of linen and
woollen cloth had grown to be a very important industry that had
resulted in the rapid growth of population. The older cities grew
rapidly, and new ones sprang up wherever the commodities of trade were
gathered, manufactured, or distributed.
These centres of trade had two hostile elements against them. The feudal
lords used to pillage them legally by extorting heavy taxes and forced
loans whenever their treasuries were empty. The portionless brothers and
relatives of the feudal lords, to whom no employments save war,
adventure, and piracy were open, pillaged them illegally. Along the
coasts especially, piracy was considered not only a legitimate, but a
genteel, profession. So in order to protect themselves, the cities began
to join themselves into leagues.
=The Hanse League.=--About the beginning of the thirteenth century[4]
Hamburg and Lübeck formed an alliance afterward called a _hansa_; at the
beginning of the fourteenth century it embraced seventy cities, having
the capital at Lübeck. At the time of its greatest power the League
embraced all the principal cities of western Europe nearly as far south
as the Danube. Large agencies, called "factories," were established in
London, Bruges, Novgorod, Bergen, and Wisby. The influence of the League
practically controlled western Europe.
The Hanse League performed a wonderful work. It stopped piracy on the
seas and robbery on the land. Industrially, it encouraged
self-government and obedience to constitutional authority. Shipbuilding
and navigation so greatly improved that the ocean traffic resulting from
the discovery of the cape route to India quickly fell into the hands of
Hanse sailors and master-mariners. The League not only encouraged and
protected all sorts of manufactures, but its schools trained thousands
of operatives. The mines were worked and the idle land cultivated. It
was the greatest industrial movement that ever occurred.
[Illustration: HANSE ROUTES--THE HANSE LEAGUE REORGANIZES THE TRADE OF
THE WORLD]
Socially, the Hanse League brought the wealth that gave those comforts
and conveniences before unknown. The standards of social life,
education, art, and science were raised from a condition scarcely
better than barbarism to a high plane of civilization. Indeed, the
civilization of western Europe was the most important result of it.
It forced the rights of individual freedom, as well as municipal
independence, from more than one monarch, and punished severely the
kings who sought to betray it. It crushed the power of those who opposed
it,[5] and rewarded those who were faithful to it. Its most important
mission, however, was the overthrow of feudalism and the gradual
substitution of popular government in its place.
Having accomplished the regeneration of Europe, the Hanse League died
partly by its own hand, because of its arrogance, but mainly from the
fact that, having educated western Europe to self-government and
commercial independence, there was no longer need for its existence.
Independent cities grew rapidly into importance, and these got along
very well without the protection of the League. The great industrial
progress was at times temporarily checked by wars, but it never took a
backward step. Indeed the progress of commerce has always been a contest
between brains and brute force, and in such a struggle there is never
any doubt about the final outcome.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What were some of the effects of Cæsar's invasion of Germanic Europe so
far as commerce is concerned?
What were some of the effects on commerce of the breaking up of the
Roman Empire?
How did the invasion of England by William of Normandy affect the
commerce of the English people?
Who was Henry the Navigator, and what did he accomplish?
How did the blockade of the routes between Europe and India bring about
the discovery of America?
What was the result of the great voyage of the Cabots?
Was the overthrow of feudalism in Europe a gain or a loss to commerce?
Why are not commercial leagues, such as the Hanse, necessary at the
present time?
Why did Spain's commerce decline as Portugal's thrived?
COLLATERAL READING[6]
Gibbins's History of Commerce--Chapters IV-V.
Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. 1--Chapters IV-V.