ROADS AND COMMERCE
We have now conducted the course of our inquiries through ancient
times and the Middle Ages up to the very eve of the great discoveries
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and we have roughly indicated
what men had learned about the earth during that long period, and,
how they learned it. But it still remains to consider by what means
they arrived at their knowledge, and why they sought for it. To some
extent we may have answered the latter question when dealing with
the progress of conquest, but men did not conquer merely for the
sake of conquest. We have still to consider the material advantages
attaching to warfare. Again when men go on their wars of discovery,
they have to progress, for the most part, along paths already beaten
for them by the natives of the country they intend to conquer; and
often when they have succeeded in warfare, they have to consolidate
their rule by creating new and more appropriate means of communication.
To put it shortly, we have still to discuss the roads of the ancient
and mediæval worlds, and the commerce for which those roads were
mainly used.
A road may be, for our purposes, most readily defined as the most
convenient means of communication between two towns; and this logically
implies that the towns existed before the roads were made; and in a
fuller investigation of any particular roads, it will be necessary
to start by investigating why men collect their dwellings at certain
definite spots. In the beginning, assemblies of men were made chiefly
or altogether for defensive purposes, and the earliest towns were
those which, from their natural position, like Athens or Jerusalem,
could be most easily defended. Then, again, religious motives often
had their influence in early times, and towns would grow round temples
or cloisters. But soon considerations of easy accessibility rule in
the choice of settlements, and for that purpose towns on rivers,
especially at fords of rivers, as Westminster, or in well-protected
harbours like Naples, or in the centre of a district, as Nuremberg
or Vienna, would form the most convenient places of meeting for
exchange of goods. Both on a river, or on the sea-shore, the best
means of communication would be by ships or boats; but once such
towns had been established, it would be necessary to connect them
with one another by land routes, and these would be determined
chiefly by the lie of the land. Where mountains interfered, a large
detour would have to be made--as, for example, round the Pyrenees;
if rivers intervened, fords would have to be sought for, and a new
town probably built at the most convenient place of passage. When
once a recognised way had been found between any two places, the
conservative instincts of man would keep it in existence, even
though a better route were afterwards found.
The influence of water communication is of paramount importance
in determining the situation of towns in early times. Towns in
the corners of bays, like Archangel, Riga, Venice, Genoa, Naples,
Tunis, Bassorah, Calcutta, would naturally be the centre-points
of the trade of the bay. On rivers a suitable spot would be where
the tides ended, like London, or at conspicuous bends of a stream,
or at junctures with affluents, as Coblentz or Khartoum. One nearly
always finds important towns at the two ends of a peninsula, like
Hamburg and Lubeck, Venice and Genoa; though for naval purposes
it is desirable to have a station at the head of the peninsula,
to command both arms of the sea, as at Cherbourg, Sevastopol, or
Gibraltar. Roads would then easily be formed across the base of
the peninsula, and to its extreme point.
At first the inhabitants of any single town would regard those
of all others as their enemies, but after a time they would find
it convenient to exchange some of their superfluities for those
of their neighbours, and in this way trade would begin. Markets
would become neutral ground, in which mutual animosities would
be, for a time, laid aside for the common advantage; and it would
often happen that localities on the border line of two states would
be chosen as places for the exchange of goods, ultimately giving
rise to the existence of a fresh town. As commercial intercourse
increased, the very inaccessibility of fortress towns on the heights
would cause them to be neglected for settlements in the valleys or
by the river sides, and, as a rule, roads pick out valleys or level
ground for their natural course. For military purposes, however, it
would sometimes be necessary to depart from the valley routes,
and, as we shall see, the Roman roads paid no regard to these
requirements.
The earliest communication between nations, as we have seen, was
that of the Phoenicians by sea. They founded factories, or neutral
grounds for trade, at appropriate spots all along the Mediterranean
coasts, and the Greeks soon followed their example in the Ægean
and Black Seas. But at an early date, as we know from the Bible,
caravan routes were established between Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia,
and later on these were extended into Farther Asia. But in Europe
the great road-builders were the Romans. Rome owed its importance
in the ancient world to its central position, at first in Italy,
and then in the whole of the Mediterranean. It combined almost
all the advantages necessary for a town: it was in the bend of
a river, yet accessible from the sea; its natural hills made it
easily defensible, as Hannibal found to his cost; while its central
position in the Latian Plain made it the natural resort of all
the Latin traders. The Romans soon found it necessary to utilise
their central position by rendering themselves accessible to the
rest of Italy, and they commenced building those marvellous roads,
which in most cases have remained, owing to their solid construction.
"Building" is the proper word to use, for a Roman road is really a
broad wall built in a deep ditch so as to come up above the level
of the surface. Scarcely any amount of traffic could wear this
solid substructure away, and to this day throughout Europe traces
can be found of the Roman roads built nearly two thousand years
ago. As the Roman Empire extended, these roads formed one of the
chief means by which the lords of the world were enabled to preserve
their conquests. By placing a legion in a central spot, where many
of these roads converged, they were enabled to strike quickly in
any direction and overawe the country. Stations were naturally
built along these roads, and to the present day many of the chief
highways of Europe follow the course of the old Roman roads. Our
modern civilisation is in a large measure the outcome of this network
of roads, and we can distinctly trace a difference in the culture of
a nation where such roads never existed--as in Russia and Hungary,
as contrasted with the west of Europe, where they formed the best
means of communication. It was only in the neighbourhood of these
highways that the fullest information was obtained of the position
of towns, and the divisions of peoples; and a sketch map like the
one already given, of the chief Roman roads of antiquity, gives
also, as it were, a skeleton of the geographical knowledge summed
up in the great work of Ptolemy.
But of more importance for the future development of geographical
knowledge were the great caravan routes of Asia, to which we must
now turn our attention. Asia is the continent of plateaux which
culminate in the Steppes of the Pamirs, appropriately called by
their inhabitants "the Roof of the World." To the east of these,
four great mountain ranges run, roughly, along the parallels of
latitude--the Himalayas to the south, the Kuen-Iun, Thian Shan,
and Altai to the north. Between the Himalayas and the Kuen-lun is
the great Plateau of Tibet, which runs into a sort of cul-de-sac
at its western end in Kashmir. Between the Kuen-lun and the Thian
Shan we have the Gobi Steppe of Mongolia, running west of Kashgar
and Yarkand; while between the Thian Shan and the Altai we have
the great Kirghiz Steppe. It is clear that only two routes are
possible between Eastern and Western Asia: that between the Kuen-lun
and the Thian Shan via Kashgar and Bokhara, and that south of the
Altai, skirting the north of the great lakes Balkash, Aral, and
Caspian, to the south of Russia. The former would lead to Bassorah
or Ormuz, and thence by sea, or overland, round Arabia to Alexandria;
the latter and longer route would reach Europe via Constantinople.
Communication between Southern Asia and Europe would mainly be
by sea, along the coast of the Indies, taking advantage of the
monsoons from Ceylon to Aden, and then by the Red Sea. Alexandria,
Bassorah, and Ormuz would thus naturally be the chief centres of
Eastern trade, while communication with the Mongols or with China
would go along the two routes above mentioned, which appear to have
existed during all historic time. It was by these latter routes
that the Polos and the other mediæval travellers to Cathay reached
that far-distant country. But, as we know from Marco Polo's travels,
China could also be reached by the sea voyage; and for all practical
purposes, in the late Middle Ages, when the Mongol empire broke
up, and traffic through mid Asia was not secure, communication
with the East was via Alexandria.
Now it is important for our present inquiry to realise how largely
Europe after the Crusades was dependent on the East for most of the
luxuries of life. Nothing produced by the looms of Europe could
equal the silk of China, the calico of India, the muslin of Mussul.
The chief gems which decorated the crowns of kings and nobles,
the emerald, the topaz, the ruby, the diamond, all came from the
East--mainly from India. The whole of mediæval medical science was
derived from the Arabs, who sought most of their drugs from Arabia
or India. Even for the incense which burned upon the innumerable
altars of Roman Catholic Europe, merchants had to seek the materials
in the Levant. For many of the more refined handicrafts, artists had
to seek their best material from Eastern traders: such as shellac
for varnish, or mastic for artists' colours (gamboge from Cambodia,
ultramarine from lapis lazuli); while it was often necessary, under
mediæval circumstances, to have resort to the musk or opopanax of
the East to counteract the odours resulting from the bad sanitary
habits of the West. But above all, for the condiments which were
almost necessary for health, and certainly desirable for seasoning
the salted food of winter and the salted fish of Lent. Europeans
were dependent upon the spices of the Asiatic islands. In Hakluyt's
great work on "English Voyages and Navigations," he gives in his
second volume a list, written out by an Aleppo merchant, William
Barrett, in 1584, of the places whence the chief staples of the
Eastern trade came, and it will be interesting to give a selection
from his long account.
Cloves from Maluco, Tarenate, Amboyna, by way of Java.
Nutmegs from Banda.
Maces from Banda, Java, and Malacca.
Pepper Common from Malabar.
Sinnamon from Seilan (Ceylon).
Spicknard from Zindi (Scinde) and Lahor.
Ginger Sorattin from Sorat (Surat) within Cambaia (Bay of Bengal).
Corall of Levant from Malabar.
Sal Ammoniacke from Zindi and Cambaia.
Camphora from Brimeo (Borneo) near to China.
Myrrha from Arabia Felix.
Borazo (Borax) from Cambaia and Lahor.
Ruvia to die withall, from Chalangi.
Allumme di Rocca (Rock Alum) from China and Constantinople.
Oppopanax from Persia.
Lignum Aloes from Cochin, China, and Malacca.
Laccha (Shell-lac) from Pegu and Balaguate.
Agaricum from Alemannia.
Bdellium from Arabia Felix.
Tamarinda from Balsara (Bassorah).
Safran (Saffron) from Balsara and Persia.
Thus from Secutra (Socotra).
Nux Vomica from Malabar.
Sanguis Draconis (Dragon's Blood) from Secutra.
Musk from Tartarie by way of China.
Indico (Indigo) from Zindi and Cambaia.
Silkes Fine from China.
Castorium (Castor Oil) from Almania.
Masticke from Sio.
Oppium from Pugia (Pegu) and Cambaia.
Dates from Arabia Felix and Alexandria.
Sena from Mecca.
Gumme Arabicke from Zaffo (Jaffa).
Ladanum (Laudanum) from Cyprus and Candia.
Lapis Lazzudis from Persia.
Auripigmentum (Gold Paint) from many places of Turkey.
Rubarbe from Persia and China.
These are only a few selections from Barrett's list, but will
sufficiently indicate what a large number of household luxuries,
and even necessities, were derived from Asia in the Middle Ages.
The Arabs had practically the monopoly of this trade, and as Europe
had scarcely anything to offer in exchange except its gold and
silver coins, there was a continuous drain of the precious metals
from West to East, rendering the Sultans and Caliphs continuously
richer, and culminating in the splendours of Solomon the Magnificent.
Alexandria was practically the centre of all this trade, and most
of the nations of Europe found it necessary to establish factories
in that city, to safeguard the interests of their merchants, who
all sought for Eastern luxuries in its port Benjamin of Tudela,
a Jew, who visited it about 1172, gives the following description
of it:--
"The city is very mercantile, and affords an excellent market to
all nations. People from all Christian kingdoms resort to Alexandria,
from Valencia, Tuscany, Lombardy, Apulia, Amalfi, Sicilia, Raguvia,
Catalonia, Spain, Roussillon, Germany, Saxony, Denmark, England,
Flandres, Hainault, Normandy, France, Poitou, Anjou, Burgundy,
Mediana, Provence, Genoa, Pisa, Gascony, Arragon, and Navarre.
From the West you meet Mohammedans from Andalusia, Algarve, Africa,
and Arabia, as well as from the countries towards India, Savila,
Abyssinia, Nubia, Yemen, Mesopotamia, and Syria, besides Greeks
and Turks. From India they import all sorts of spices, which are
bought by Christian merchants. The city is full of bustle, and
every nation has its own fonteccho (or hostelry) there."
Of all these nations, the Italians had the shortest voyage to make
before reaching Alexandria, and the Eastern trade practically fell
into their hands before the end of the thirteenth century. At first
Amalfi and Pisa were the chief ports, and, as we have seen, it
was at Amalfi that the mariner's compass was perfected; but soon
the two maritime towns at the heads of the two seas surrounding
Italy came to the front, owing to the advantages of their natural
position. Genoa and Venice for a long time competed with one another
for the monopoly of this trade, but the voyage from Venice was
more direct, and after a time Genoa had to content itself with
the trade with Constantinople and the northern overland route from
China. From Venice the spices, the jewels, the perfumes, and stuffs
of the East were transmitted north through Augsburg and Nürnberg
to Antwerp and Bruges and the Hanse Towns, receiving from them
the gold they had gained by their fisheries and textile goods.
England sent her wool to Italy, in order to tickle her palate and
her nose with the condiments and perfumes of the East.
The wealth and importance of Venice were due almost entirely to
this monopoly of the lucrative Eastern trade. By the fifteenth
century she had extended her dominions all along the lower valley
of the Po, into Dalmatia, parts of the Morea, and in Crete, till
at last, in 1489, she obtained possession of Cyprus, and thus had
stations all the way from Aleppo or Alexandria to the north of the
Adriatic. But just as she seemed to have reached the height of her
prosperity--when the Aldi were the chief printers in Europe, and
the Bellini were starting the great Venetian school of painting--a
formidable rival came to the front, who had been slowly preparing
a novel method of competition in the Eastern trade for nearly the
whole of the fifteenth century. With that method begins the great
epoch of modern geographical discovery.
[_Authorities:_ Heyd, _Commerce du Levant_, 2 vols., 1878.]