---

{38} This is exactly one of the charges brought against the

Carthaginians in the last Punic war.

-=-

[end of page #40]

them, which was not an act of the will, must have been occasioned by

some cause inherent in their situation, which had gradually changed.

In searching for this cause we shall be very much assisted, and the

conclusion will be rendered more certain, by observing in what

particular circumstances, they resembled other nations who had

undergone a similar changes. =sic=

In doing this, we find the inquiry wonderfully abridged indeed, and

the conclusion reduced nearly to a mathematical certainty, by

observing that the change of maxims, that is to say, the change in

ways of thinking, whenever it has taken place, has followed soon after

the introduction of wealth and refinement, which change manners, and

consequently maxims.

Wealth, acquired by conquest, was incompatible with that austere

virtue and independent principle which form the basis of republican

prosperity.

As all public employments were obtained by the favour of the people;

and as all wealth and power were obtained by the channels of public

employment; bribery and corruption, which cannot take place in a

poor republic, became very common in this wealthy one; so that this

republican government, so constituted, lost all those advantages it

possessed while it was poor.

Had the murderers of Julius Caesar, either understood the real

corruption of the commonwealth, or foreseen that a new master would

rise up, they would never have destroyed that admirable man. Had

Rome not been ready to receive a master, Julius Caesar, with all his

ambition, would never have grasped at the crown.

In nations that obtain wealth by commerce, manufactures, or any other

means than by conquests, the corruption of the state is not naturally so

great. The wealth originates in the people, and not in the state; and,

besides that they are more difficult to purchase, there is less means of

doing so, and less inducement; neither can they, being the sources of

wealth themselves, become so idle and corrupted. {39}

---

{39} The wild and ungovernable direction that the French revolution

took originated chiefly in the creation of assignats, which not only

exempted the people from taxes at first, but had the effect of

producing an artificial and temporary degree of wealth, that [end of

page #41] enabled vast numbers, either in the pay of others, or at their

own expense, to make cabals and politics their whole study. Rome

never was in such a licentious state, because, before the citizens got

into that situation, the military power was established.

-=-

In the ancient nations that fell one after another, we have seen the

young and vigorous subdue the more wealthy and luxurious; or we

have seen superior art and skill get the better of valour and ignorance;

but, in the fall of the Roman empire, the art and skill were all on the

side of those who fell, and the vigour of those who conquered was not

so powerful an agent as the very low and degraded state into which

the masters of the world had themselves fallen.

It is by no means consistent with the plan of this work, nor is it any

way necessary for the inquiry, to enter into the particular details of the

degraded and miserable state to which the Romans were reduced;

insomuch, that those who emigrated previously to its fall, and settled

amongst barbarous nations, found themselves more happy than they

had been, being freed from taxation and a variety of oppressions.

Though the Roman people are, of all others, those whose rise and fall

are the most distinctly known; yet, in some circumstances, their case

does not apply to nations in general. Had they cultivated commerce

and the arts, with the same success that they pursued conquest, they

must have become wealthy at a much earlier period, and they would

not have found themselves in possession of an almost boundless

empire, composed of different nations, subdued by force, and

requiring force to be preserved.

The decline of nations, who become rich by means of industry, may

be natural; but, the fall of a nation, owing its greatness to the

subjugation of others, must be necessary. Human affairs are too

complicated and varied to admit of perfect equality, and the relative

situations of mankind are always changing; yet, in some instances,

perhaps, changes might be obviated, or protracted, by timely

preventives. But there is no possibility of keeping them long in so

unnatural a situation, as that of a nation of wealthy and idle people,

ruling over and keeping in subjection others who are more hardy,

poorer, and more virtuous, than themselves.

Before the western empire fell, the following causes of its weakness

were arrived at a great height. [end of page #42]

Manners were corrupted to the highest degree; there was neither

public nor private virtue; intrigue, cabal, and money, did every thing.

Property was all in the hands of a few; the great mass of the people

were wretchedly poor, mutinous, and idle.

Italy was unable to supply its inhabitants with food. The lands were in

the possession of men, who, by rapacity in the provinces, had acquired

large incomes, and to whom cultivation was no object; the country

was either laid out in pleasure grounds, or neglected.

The revenues of the state were wasted on the soldiers; in shews to

keep the people occupied, and on the purchase of corn, brought to

Rome from a distance.

The load of taxes was so great, that the Roman citizens envied the

barbarians, and thought they could not be worse than they were,

should they fall under a foreign yoke. All attachment to their country

was gone; and every motive to public spirit had entirely ceased to

operate.

The old noble families, who alone preserved a sense of their ancient

dignity, were neglected in times of quiet, and persecuted in times of

trouble. They still preserved an attachment to their country, but they

had neither wealth, power, nor authority.

The vile populace, having lost every species of military valour, were

unable to recruit the armies; the defence, against the provinces which

rebelled, was in the hands of foreign mercenaries; and Rome paid

tribute to obtain peace from some of those she had insulted in the hour

of her prosperity and insolence.

Gold corrupted all the courts of justice; there were no laws for the

rich, who committed crimes with impunity; while the poor did the

same through want, wretchedness, and despair.

In this miserable state of things, the poor, for the sake of protection,

became a sort of partizans or retainers of the rich, whom they were

ready to serve on all occasions: so that, except in a few forms, there

was no trace left of the institutions that had raised the Romans above

all other nations. [end of page #43]

CHAP. V.

_Of the Cities and Nations that rose to Wealth and Power in the

middle Ages, after the Fall of the Western Empire, and previously to

the Discovery of the Passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good

Hope, and of America.--Different Effects of Wealth on Nations in cold

and in warm Climates, and of the Fall of the Eastern Empire_.

After the fall of the western empire, the Italian states were the first

that revived commerce in the west of Europe, which they may indeed

be said alone to have kept alive, with the single exception of the city

of Marseilles.

Venice had begun to flourish when the barbarians took Rome; and

Florence afforded a refuge for those of the nobility who escaped from

their terrible grasp: but, for four centuries after, till the time of

Charlemagne, there was, indeed, nothing that had either the semblance

of power, wealth, or greatness, in Europe. The Saracens, as early as

the seventh century, had got possession of Egypt, and had extended

their ravages in Asia, to the borders of the Black Sea, having in vain

endeavoured to take the city of Constantinople, and make themselves

masters of the eastern empire, as their rivals, the Goths, had conquered

that in the west.

The momentary greatness which shone forth in the reign of

Charlemagne was, in many respects, like that during the reign of

Alexander the Great. The power of each depended on the individual

character of the man, and their empires, extended by their courage and

skill, fell to pieces immediately after they were no more.

As the only permanent change that Alexander had effected was that of

removing the chief seat of commerce from Phoenicia to the southern

border of the Mediterranean Sea; so, the only permanent effect of the

reign of Charles the Great was, his extending Christianity, and some

degree of civilization, to the north of the Danube; {40} thus bring-

---

{40} The people to the north of the Danube had never been subdued

by the Romans. In the time of Charlemagne they were Pagans, and in

a most rude state of barbarism.

-=-

[end of page #44]

ing the borders of the Baltic Sea within the limits of the civilized

world.

Charlemagne paved the way for the greatness of the Flemings, the

Saxons, and the Hans Towns, which began to flourish a few centuries

after his time; but his own country was never in a more abject

situation than soon after his decease.

The Danes took and burned the city of Paris, and they conquered,

settled, and gave its name to the present country of Normandy. {41}

It would throw no light on the subject of the present inquiry to notice

the quarrels, the feuds, and revolutions, that took place during the dark

ages, and the reign of the feudal system, previously to the time of the

crusades; when a wild romantic spirit extended civilization a little

more widely than before, and laid the foundation for a new order of

things, and a new species of wealth and power, different from those of

the ancient world, the extent of which was bounded by the fertile

regions of the south.

The first holy war took place in the eleventh century, and commerce

and industry were introduced into the north of Europe very soon after.

The Danes, who alone had power by sea in those times, exercised it by

piracies and seizing all merchant vessels; particularly such as passed

the Sound, from the Baltic to the North Sea. This rendered it necessary

for the cities that had commerce to carry on to associate for the sake of

protection, as the Arabian merchants had formerly done by land, and

do to this day, to prevent being robbed by those who live by hunting

and depredation.

This gave rise to the famous Hanseatic League, which began to

become formidable towards the end of the twelfth century. {42}

As men living in northern countries have many wants unknown to

those of the south, so the industry that began on the borders of the

---

{41} They were equally successful in England, but that country was

not then to be considered as making any part of that world, with the

revolutions of which this inquiry is connected.

{42} There is a dispute relative to this: but, as no writers give it a

later date, and some give it an earlier one, it is certain that it must

have existed at that time. Many disputes never ascertain the point

intended, yet clear up something else that is equally useful.

-=-

[end of page #45]

Baltic was very different from that which had flourished in ancient

times on those of the Mediterranean Sea.

In this new order of things, Flanders, for its fertility, might be

compared to Egypt, and Holland to Phoenicia, from its want of

territory: but clothing of a more substantial sort, and conveniences and

pleasures of a different nature being necessary, industry took a

different turn. Besides this, the nature of the governments, where men

were more nearly upon an equality, made it necessary to provide for

their wants in a very different way.

Instead of building pyramids for the tombs of kings, industry was

employed in procuring comfort for those who inhabited the country;

and instead of the greatest art being employed on the fabrication of

fine linen, and dying of purple, making vessels of gold and silver, and

every thing for the use of courts, the art of making warm clothing of

wool, and of fishing and salting fish, occupied the attention of this

new race of men.

The Flemish had three sources of wealth at one time: they possessed

the depots of Indian produce, and dispersed it over the north of

Europe; they were the first who excelled in the art of weaving, and in

that of curing fish.

The towns of Flanders and Brabant were associated in the Hanseatic

League, and continued rising from the twelfth to the middle of the

sixteenth century, when several circumstances operated in bringing on

their decline.

The Hanseatic association was one arising from the circumstances of

the times and from necessity. It was an artificial connection or

alliance, where towns, subject to different governments, acted as

independent states, entering into a society which treated on a footing

of equality with kings, and made war and peace like any single

sovereign. It was not to be expected that such a sort of alliance could

greatly outlive the cause of its formation. But neither did the

destruction of the league or federation, of necessity, draw along with it

that of the towns of which it was composed. We shall see, however,

that the general prosperity, and that of the individual members of the

league, disappeared for the most part nearly together. [end of page

#46]

The Dutch were far inferior to the Flemings for natural advantages;

but they acted under the influence of necessity, which spurred on their

industry; and no nation ever shewed so well how powerful its

operation is: so that, though they were at first behind the Flemings in

commerce and manufactures, they got the better, and became more

rich and powerful. While the persecution of Philip, who was King of

Spain, while his brother Ferdinand, Emperor of Germany, was at the

head of the Austrian dominions there, and was a dependant of the

Spanish monarchs.

--While the persecution of Philip, uniting the authority of the

hereditary dominions of Austria with that of Spain, compelled many

of the most industrious artisans, of that portion of the Low Countries

that has since been distinguished by the title of the Austrian

Netherlands, to leave their country, the Dutch provinces were making

preparations to throw off the yoke of Spain.

[Transcriber's note: possible partly duplicated section, here reproduced

as-is from the original.]

Not only did the Dutch become more wealthy than their neighbours,

but they became also more tenacious of their liberty, more patriotic

and free; for the situation of their country required economy, union,

and patriotic exertion, even for the preservation of its existence.

After Holland had already made considerable advances towards

wealth, it obtained great superiority by a fortunate improvement on

the art of curing herrings. Though herrings had been barrelled for

exportation, for more than two hundred years, it was only towards the

end of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century, that the

present method of curing them was invented by the Dutch, which gave

them a decided superiority in that article. {43} This prepared the way

for the downfal =sic= of Flanders; to which its pride, and the mutinous

spirit of the manufacturers in the towns did not a little contribute.

The decline of the Austrian Low Countries was brought on entirely by

three causes; the oppression of the government, the Dutch excelling

and supplanting them in arts and industry, and their own pride and

insolence. At one time, Bruges, at another time, Antwerp, took on

them to act as sovereigns, and as if independent, while, at the same

time, the people were almost constantly disobedient to their

magistrates. They had first become industrious under the influence of

---

{43} It was discovered in 1397, or soon after.

-=-

[end of page #47]

necessity; but that was gone, and they could not continue in the same

course, when in full enjoyment of wealth, and of every thing they

wanted.

The Hanseatic Towns, from at first merely defending their trade

against the Danes, became their conquerors at sea, and, in the years

1361 and 1369, they took and burnt Copenhagen, the capital, twice.

Crowned heads became desirous of their alliance, and no power, at

sea, was equal to oppose them; but their insolence to the Dutch, their

oppressions of the English, of Spain, and other powers, laid the

foundation for their decline in less than half a century afterwards.

{44}

As the first three centuries of this extraordinary and unexampled

association, were employed in protecting commerce and protecting

trade, all those concerned in its success were ambitious of being

admitted members, or received as friends: but when they began to

assume the pride and dignity of sovereigns, and to meddle in political

quarrels, to become irascible and unjust, their numbers diminished;

and of those members that remained, the wealth and prosperity

gradually began to fall.

The Dutch, by great industry, by a strict attention to their interest, and

by keeping down pride, continued to increase in wealth, while the

Hans Towns and Flanders were considerably advanced in their

decline.

While this was happening on the northern shores of the continent of

Europe; to which and to Italy trade had been nearly confined, Spain

and Portugal, France and England, began to see the advantages of

manufactures and commerce, and to encourage them. If money was

wanted to be borrowed, it was either in Italy or Flanders, or in some of

the Hans Towns, that it could alone be found; so, that though the

monarchs of those days rather despised commerce, yet, as a means

merely of procuring what they found so indispensably necessary, they

began to think of encouraging it.

Spain had taken possession of the Canary Islands, and Portugal had

made conquests on the coast of Africa, and seized the island of

---

{44} In 1411 they were compelled, by Henry IV. of England, to give

him satisfaction for some of the injuries done.

-=-

[end of page #48]

Madeira in the early part of the fifteenth century, and by an attention

to naval affairs, and setting a value on possessions beyond seas, laid a

foundation for those new discoveries which have totally changed the

face of the world.

In Europe then, at the end of the fifteenth century, the nations were

nearly in the following state. The Italians, possessed of the whole

trade to India, were wealthy but feeble. They had more art, policy, and

money, than other nations; but they had of themselves scarcely any

effective power, except a little exercised by the Venetians and

Genoese at sea.

The Hanse Towns, extending over the northern part of Europe and

Flanders, which had become wealthy and powerful by their own

industry, and a participation of the trade to India with the Italians,

(though at second hand,) were on the decline, through pride and

luxury.

Holland alone was advancing fast towards wealth, by industry, and an

attention to commerce and economy. Spain and Portugal had turned

their attention to new discoveries; and France and England were

endeavouring to follow, though at a great distance, those who, in this

career, had gone before them.

Of the places that enjoyed wealth, all were declining in power from

the abuse of it; and Spain, which alone had possessed much power

without wealth, was abusing it, by banishing industry from Flanders,

and the Moors from their own country. In one case, there was wealth

without power; in the other, there was power without wealth; and, in

both, mistaken views and unwise conduct had laid the foundation for

decline.

The other nations that had not yet either wealth or power were all

seeking with great energy to acquire them; and they were successful in

their attempts. Even Spain, which had unwisely banished the Moors,

and thereby laid a foundation for its own decline and fall, found that

event retarded for a century, by a most unexpected discovery: in

consequence of which discovery it fell from a greater height at a later

period. {45}

---

{45} It would not be to the purpose to speak at present either of

Poland, Sweden, or Russia, or of the German empire, in which many

of the Hanse Towns were situated. [end of page #49] The history of

the Hanse Towns is very curious, and well worth attention: perhaps, next

to that of Rome, it is the best calculated to illustrate the subject of

this inquiry; but it is too long to be entered on.

-=-

As for the eastern empire; held up by a participation of the commerce

of India, and retaining still some of the civilization of the ancient

world, it had sustained the irregular, though fierce attacks of the

barbarians till the middle of this century; when, having very

imprudently made a display of the riches of the city, and the beauty of

the women, the envy of the Mahomedan barbarians was raised to a

pitch of frenzy, that it would, in any situation, have been difficult to

resist, but for which the enervated emperors of the east were totally

unequal.

This added one instance more of a poor triumphing over an enervated

and rich people. Nothing could exceed the poverty of the Turks,

unless it was the ugliness of their women. But the case was not the

same here as when the Goths and Vandals, from violence and revenge,

attacked Rome merely to plunder and destroy. The Turks were,

comparatively, from a southern climate themselves; though poor, they

had been living amongst the wreck of ancient greatness, and they

conquered with an intention to occupy and enjoy.

Thus was extinguished the last remains of ancient grandeur, in the

middle of the fifteenth century. About fifty years before, many new

sources of wealth were discovered, and the old ones were entirely

converted into a channel that was new also. Thus, those who had,

from the earliest ages, been in possession of wealth were preparing the

way for enriching poor nations, that, from their geographical situation

and other circumstances, never could otherwise have participated in it.

[end of page #50]

CHAP. VI.

_Digression concerning the Commerce with India.--This the only one

that raised ancient Nations to Wealth.--Its continual Variations.--

The Envy it excited, and Revolutions it produced_.

Before there are any authentic records, Syria and Egypt were

populous; and the monarchs that ruled in those extensive countries had

established their governments upon the plan that has more or less been

adopted by all countries. There were different ranks of people. The

same offices did not fall indifferently upon all. Wealth was unequally

divided; and, of course, a foundation was laid for that commerce

which consists in supplying the affluent with articles of taste and

luxury, which are only produced in some countries; whereas, articles

of necessity are produced in every country that is inhabited.

Commerce appears at first to have been entirely confined to the

productions of the eastern and middle parts of Asia, which have, from

the earliest periods, been sought after with great avidity by the people

of other countries.

All that is most grateful to the taste, the eye, or the smell, is found in

peculiar excellence in India. It is not to be wondered at then, if such

objects of the desires of men were an abundant source of riches to

those nations who had the means of obtaining them.

Egypt and Syria lay immediately in the road for this commerce. They

were rivals, and many contests and vicissitudes were the consequence:

for no commerce has ever created so much envy and jealousy. None

has ever raised those who carried it on so high, or, on forsaking them,

left them so low, as that which has been carried on with India.

Though at a very early period Egypt had a share of this lucrative

commerce, yet the greatest part was carried on through Syria and

Arabia, between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea; that part

now called the Levant, where Tyre and Sidon once stood. [end of page

#51]

We shall examine briefly the changes of this commerce; the only one

almost existing, in early times, or at least which gave rise to nearly all

that did exist. {46}

As the common necessaries of life are found in greater or less

abundance in every country, and as the population is in some degree

regulated by their quantity, they made no objects of trade, except in

the cases of famine. The precious metals, spices, jewels, and

aromatics, rare in their production, universally desirable and easily

transported, were long the chief objects of commerce; and the changes

which this commerce has undergone and produced, amongst those

who possessed it, greatly elucidate the subject of this inquiry.

The distance from Babylon to the Persian gulf, down the Euphrates, to

where Bussora now stands, was not great, and across the country to

Tyre there was little interruption; the Assyrian empire extending to the

sea-coast, and its monarchs being too powerful to have any thing to

fear.

There was, however, at a very early period, another channel, by which

the Tyrians obtained the productions of the East, namely, by sailing up

the Red Sea, or Arabian Gulf, and across Arabia Petrea to

Rhinocolura. {47}

The Egyptians, at that time, obtained the same sorts of merchandize,

by sailing likewise up the Red Sea, and landing at the western

extremity; from whence they were distributed through Lower Egypt.

Commerce was carried on in this manner, and was nearly all

engrossed by Tyre, when Alexander the Great, bred up under his

father, who had been educated at Athens, and travelled through

Greece,

---

{46} To carry on trade, capital is necessary; that is to say, there must

be some means of getting an article before it can be carried away and

sold. Spices, precious stones, and the other produce of the East, cost

little or almost nothing amongst those who had more than they could

use; and, as they produced an immense profit to merchants, they laid a

foundation for those capitals that afterwards were employed in other

sorts of business.

{47} Rhinocolura was merely a sort of sea port for embarking the

merchandizes that had been brought across the desert from the Red

Sea, It was situated at the south-east extremity or corner of the

Mediterranean Sea, and till Alexandria was built was the nearest port

to the Red Sea.

-=-

[end of page #52]

turned his arms against those countries in which there was the most to

be got by conquest, and from whom there was the least danger of

defeat.

Before this took place, the pride and insolence of the inhabitants of

Tyre and Sidon had displayed itself on more than one occasion. After

having been on friendly terms with the Jews, under David and

Solomon, they became their enemies, and excited the King of Babylon

to take Jerusalem; by that means destroying a neighbouring and

dangerous rival. The wealth of these two cities had afterwards induced

the Babylonians to attack them also. Sidon was taken and destroyed;

and that part of the city of Tyre fell, which was upon the main land;

but the Tyre that was the place of real trade, escaped the rage of the

Assyrian monarchs.

Alexander seems to have determined on destroying Tyre, in order to

found Alexandria, which he placed indeed in a better situation for the

eastern trade. His romantic expedition to India had in view the getting

possession of the countries which had produced those gems and

aromatics that were so much sought after in the other parts of the

world.

Had Alexander lived, perhaps he would not have found it in his

interest to depress Syria; but the division of his conquests amongst his

generals gave to Egypt and Syria two different masters. They were

rivals, and then every advantage that nature gave to Alexandria was

improved to the highest pitch under the Ptolemys.

The river Nile, much more navigable than the Euphrates, was also

better adapted for this trade, because, in coming from India, it was

necessary to ascend the latter, while the other was descended. Besides

this, the flat country of the Delta was cut into canals, which greatly

facilitated this channel of commerce. {48}

This was the first great revolution in eastern commerce. It was brought

on first by the envy of Alexander and the pride of the in-

---

{48} It does not appear what returns were made to the Indians for

their produce, therefore it must have been money. The trade then

consisted in bringing from thence goods, comparatively weighty, and

returning, as it were, empty. The current of the rivers being in

different directions was then an object of importance.

-=-

[end of page #53]

habitants of Tyre, and gave a very great superiority to Egypt, which

was increased by the canals dug in that country, and the discovery of

the regular monsoon, (a periodical wind,) which, at a certain time of

the year, carried navigators straight from the mouth of the Red Sea to

the Malabar coast. {49}

Under these disadvantages, flowing from superior prerogatives of

Egypt, the commerce of Syria fell off almost to nothing, till, by

another of those changes to which this commerce seems peculiarly

liable, the Roman empire, which had swallowed up the whole of the

civilized world, was itself divided into two, and one of the capitals

fixed at Constantinople.

The channel through Syria obtained then a preference for all the

eastern part of the empire; and owing to some change, either in the

politics or religion of the Persians, when conquered by the Parthians,

they became willing to permit them the navigation of the Euphrates,

which had long been shut up.

This continued to be the state of matters, particularly after the fall of

the western empire, when barbarians got possession of all that part of

Europe that used to be supplied with East India produce by the way of

Alexandria. It continued till the middle of the seventh century of the

Christian aera, when the Mahometan religion was established from the

westernmost part of Africa to the confines of the Chinese empire; and

as the followers of that religion were unfriendly to commerce, and

none could be carried on with India that did not pass through their

country, it was nearly annihilated, and was almost wholly confined to

the caravans of pilgrims, who, going to visit Jerusalem and Mecca,

under the cloak of religious zeal, exchanged the various articles of

traffic which they had collected in their different countries and on

their journey.

---

{49} This passage, from the straits of Babelmandel to the point of the

peninsula of India, saved a very long and dangerous navigation by the

coast. It is almost due east, and with the advantage of being much

shorter, and having a fair wind, was next to the discovery of the

passage of the Cape of Good Hope, the greatest discovery for

shortening the route to India. This was discovered during the time that

Egypt was a Roman province.

-=-

[end of page #54]

Such were the vicissitudes, changes, and variations of this commerce

in early periods, and during the middle ages; and, when we come to

treat of the same within the last two centuries, we shall find it equally

liable to alteration.

Of all the spots on the face of the earth that have undergone revolution

and ruin, they that are now the most completely sunk below their

natural level, are those which were formerly the highest above it.

We have left uninterrupted the detail of the commercial greatness of

those places, in order not to break the narrative; but as cities cannot be

great without connection, it is necessary to notice, that Marseilles in

France, and Carthagena, and some other places on the coast of Spain,

were those, by which eastern luxuries came into Europe from

Alexandria and Tyre. The Carthaginians, a Tyrian colony, had the

produce from Tyre, and from Rhinocolura, and supplied Spain and the

western portion of Africa; but when Alexandria arose, Carthage began

to fall. Alexandria, situated near to it on the same coast, was a rival,

not a friend, as Tyre had been, and the first Punic war, in which the

pride of that republic had involved it with Rome, following soon after,

hastened its decline. {50}

The nations of Greece, which had risen to power and wealth, owed

these more to their superiority in mind, in learning, and the fine arts,

than to any attention they ever paid to commerce; they had begun by

being the most barbarous of all the people in that part of the globe,

and got their first knowledge from the Egyptians, whom they long

considered as their superiors in science, as the Romans afterwards did

the Greeks; but when the barbarians broke down the western empire,

learning as well as commerce was very soon extinguished.

It was the share of Indian commerce, settled at Constantinople, that

tended more than any other circumstance to preserve that empire so

long. To that, and to the barbarians having other occupation, rather

---

{50} Marseilles was founded soon after the city of Rome, but it was a

government of itself, and made no part of ancient Gaul. The Gauls

were warlike barbarians. The inhabitants of Marseilles were polished,

like the inhabitants of other towns that enjoyed commercial wealth.

They were always allies, and steady friends to the Romans, whom

they never abandoned.

-=-

[end of page #55]

than to any intrinsic strength of its own, did the eastern empire owe its

long preservation.

A new channel for this varying commerce of the East, was opened, as

civilization extended to the north of Europe, and this chiefly on

account of the very small supply that was obtained through the

Mahomedan countries.

Goods were transported by land from Hindostan and China, to

Esterhabad, situated on the south-east corner of the Caspian Sea; from

whence they were carried in vessels to the north-east corner of the

same sea, and from thence by the Wolga and the Don; two rivers

which rise in Russia, and, after nearly meeting together, fall into the

Caspian Sea, and the Black Sea. By ascending the Wolga a short

distance, and descending the Don, with only a few miles of land-

carriage, the produce of India arrived at the Black Sea, and

Constantinople became the emporium of the Indian trade. This was a

great stroke to Venice and Genoa, {51} which rivalled each other in

bringing the Asiatic commodities, for the supply of Europe, through

the old channels. This jealousy of each other, and of Constantinople,

was at its height when the crusades carried most of the princes and

nobles of Europe to Venice and Constantinople. The Venetians,

merely a mercantile people, with little territory or power, neither gave

nor received umbrage from those warlike chiefs; but it was not so with

Constantinople, the seat of a great empire; so that the crusaders and

Venetians united against that power, and the eastern emperors were

compelled to divide their city into four parts: the sovereignty of one

part fell to the lot of the Venetians, who, for more than half a century,

had by this means a decided superiority over both its rivals, and

engrossed nearly the whole commerce of the East. The Genoese and

Greek emperors now found

--

{51} In the chart which I have given, Venice and Genoa are put

together, as if one, though they were rivals, and the prosperity of the

one injured the other; but as nearly situated the same, and neither

being considered as a nation, but merely as an abode of commerce, I

did not think it necessary to distinguish them in the general history

more than the variations that take place between the different cities of

the same country. If, however, I should do the chart on a large scale, I

should certainly separate them, and shew their rises and falls minutely.

-=-

[end of page #56]

it their interest to unite against Venice, and the Genoese, by

supporting their ally with money, expelled the Venetians from

Constantinople. The imperial family was reinstated, and the Genoese

had the suburbs of Pera as a reward for their assistance. This quarter

of the city the Genoese fortified, and the Venetians were compelled to

return to their old channels by Egypt and Syria. {52}

During those contests, Florence arose, and became a rival both to

Venice and Genoa; and some degree of civilization, or, at least, a taste

for the luxuries and produce of the East was brought into the north of

Europe by those who returned from the crusades. The consumption of

Asiatic produce in the North, occasioned depots to be established, and

Bruges and Antwerp became to the north, what Venice and Genoa

were to the south of Europe. The Hans Towns rose to wealth and

opulence just about that period; but the effects of wealth acquired by

commerce in the north were found to be different from what they had

been in southern climates. Italy was going to decay, while three of its

cities were increasing in splendour; but, in the north, the riches

acquired by the cities set industry at work: manufactures were

improved, and affluence and the comforts of life became more

generally diffused than they had ever before been, or than they are in

the southern countries even at the present day.

While Constantinople was thus rivalling the cities of Italy, a new

revolution took place there, which overturned the Greek empire, and

established that of the Ottomans.

When Mahomet II. mounted the throne, the Genoese were expelled

from Pera, {53} and Venice regained the preponderance in eastern

---

{52} The depot of India commerce being in the Crimea, which is near

the mouth of the Wolga, is a strong reason for believing the trade was

carried on through the Caspian Sea; but it has been asserted, that the

chief route was directly by land from the Tigris to the Black Sea. This

seems a very good way; but, in that case, why cross the Black Sea to

go to the Crimea? Any one who looks at the map will be able to judge

that as being very unlikely. Doctor Robertson, however, has taken no

notice of this difficulty. Two things are certain: that the depot was in

the Crimea, and that merchants never go out of their road without

having some cause for doing it. The reader must then determine for

himself.

{53} Before the Genoese were expelled, their insolence and avarice

had time to display themselves in their full extent; about the year

thirteen hundred and forty, says an eye-witness, [end of page #57]

(Nicepho[r/i]as [illeg.] Gregoras,) they dreamed that they had acquired

the dominion of the sea, and claimed an exclusive right to the trade of

the Euxine, prohibiting the Greeks to sail to the Chersonesus, or any

part beyond the mouth of the Danube, without a licence from them.

The Venetians were not excepted, and the arrogance of the Genoese

went so far as to form a scheme for imposing a toll on every vessel

passing through the Bosphorous.

-=-

commerce, which she maintained, till the discovery of the passage by

the Cape of Good Hope, which opened a new channel, more certain,

much less expensive, and not so liable to interruption from the

revolutions that nations are liable to. It is deserving of observation,

that whatever alterations took place in the channel through which the

India trade was carried on, whatever were the vicissitudes or the

difficulties, the trade itself never was suspended; so great was the

propensity of those who were affluent in the West, to enjoy the

productions of the East. {54}

The vicissitudes of this eastern commerce were thus very great in

former times. The wealth and arrogance which the possession of it

produced, and the envy it excited, may, in general, be ascribed as the

cause; indeed it is not certain whether the envy of the Genoese, at the

success of the Venetians, did not make them, in an underhand manner,

favour those attempts to find out a new channel which might destroy

the prosperity of a haughty and successful rival. {55}

Whether it was so or not, it is certain that the discovery of the passage

by the Cape of Good Hope was not accidental; but that the Portuguese

were induced to listen to the proposal of trading to India by that route,

under the certainty of rivalling the greatest commercial city of the

world, if she should succeed.

Though no new channel can now be expected, and the present one is

every day becoming more easy and frequented, yet the capricious

shiftings of the India trade were not ended by this new discovery.

Instead of the contest being, as formerly, between cities situated on

---

{54} The prices of Asiatic produce were exorbitant. Silk was sold for

its weight in gold; and a Roman emperor refused his empress the

luxury, or rather the splendour, of a silk gown.

{55} Amongst the passions that get hold of rivals in commerce, that of

envy is so great, when avarice is defeated, that, to humble a successful

rival, they will meet ruin themselves, without fear, and even with

satisfaction.

-=-

[end of page #58]

the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, those maritime powers who

navigated the main ocean became the contending parties.

There are only two ways by which wealth is accumulated and brought

into few hands; the one by compulsion and levying taxes, the other by

producing or procuring objects of desire; for a small quantity of

which, people give up a great portion of their labour.

Sovereigns have amassed wealth and possessed revenue by the first

means, and the use they have put it to has been magnificence in

building, or in great or useful works, for war, or for pleasure.

The wealth obtained by the other means, of which the trade to the East

seems to have been the chief, produced a different effect. In Italy it

occasioned the invention of bills of exchange, and gave

encouragement to the fine arts, and to some manufactures. In the north

of Europe it infused a general spirit for trade and manufactures; for the

luxuries of the East only served to teach the people of the north the

necessity of acquiring comfort by manufacturing the produce of their

own country.

To improve the arts of weaving, to make woollen and linen cloths of a

finer texture, was very natural, after having seen the silks and muslins

that came from India; particularly to people living in a cold climate,

where a more substantial covering was wanted, and where the

materials were in abundance.

It was, accordingly, in Flanders, and the adjacent country, that the

modern spirit of manufactures rose up, nourished by the wealth which

the ancient commerce of India had produced.

In the early ages, when the Tyrians had this trade, they amassed great

wealth, though they had not any large countries to supply; for,

probably, neither Egypt nor the eastern part of Syria would receive the

produce by so circuitous a road. But, during the first ages, sacrifices to

the gods and the funeral ceremonies consumed vast quantities of

aromatics of every sort, as well as the enjoyments of the living. The

two former causes of request for aromatics have long been at an end,

owing to the changes in religion. They are now neither burned on the

altar nor at the grave; and custom and taste, which are to a certain [end

of page #59] degree variable and arbitrary, have lessened the

consumption of some, and others have been supplied by the progress

that we have ourselves made in manufactures. {56}

While this diminution of consumption took place, the western world

was advancing in civilization, and the progress of wealth became

vastly more extended; so that if the consumers of eastern luxuries

were less profuse in the use of them, they were, at the same time,

greatly increased in number.

The taste for tea, alone, which was introduced not much above a

century ago, has alone, overbalanced all the others, and it is still

augmenting in Europe; besides the discovery of a new quarter of the

world rapidly increasing in population, into which the custom of

drinking tea, as in Britain, has been introduced also.

The reasonable price at which an article can be afforded, always

augments the consumption: and though we have no criterion to go by

in judging of the prices in former times, yet it is certain they must

have been very great. At the time when silk was sold for its weight in

gold, that metal was compared with common labour of six times the

value that it is now; silk was, then, at least three hundred times as dear

as it is now; indeed, even that extravagant price scarcely accounts for

the parsimony of the Roman emperor, who refused his wife a robe of

that rich material. {57}

Though new discoveries have robbed Egypt and Syria for ever of the

commerce of the East; and though the loss of trade was the proximate

cause of the degradation, yet both countries had long been desolate

and

---

{56} Wrought silks, muslins, and porcelains. Cotton stuffs are now no

longer bought as formerly, so that, except in porcelain, the raw

material is the only object of commerce. The silk worm was

introduced into Italy during the time that the intercourse with the East

was very difficult, and therefore had not the increase of wealth, and a

taste for new articles extended the demand and brought a new one, the

trade would at last have been nearly done away.

{57} The carriage is 24 L. a ton backwards and forwards, or out and

home, which is only equal to what is paid in England by land for 500

miles. Indeed, none but articles of a very great value and high price

could pay for the carriage by any of the channels hitherto discovered

but that of the Cape.

-=-

[end of page #60]

degraded before this change happened; for though the commerce came

through their countries, the riches it produced centred in Italy. Syria

had long become a desert, and the ruined palaces were become the

habitations of scorpions, reptiles, and beasts of prey, long before those

discoveries which seemed to have sealed their doom. That discovery

only completed what had long been begun, and rendered permanent

and irrevocable what might otherwise have been altered. {58}

At the rate at which this trade now goes on to increase, all the gold

and silver mines in the West, will soon be insufficient to afford

enough of the precious metals to pay for produce from that country:

for few European manufactures are taken in return. This is laying a

foundation for a great revolution, either in manners or in nations at

some future day.

It is extraordinary that, from the earliest ages, the inhabitants of India

have been receiving gold and silver from all other countries, and yet,

that those metals are not so abundant there as with European nations.

As our demand for the produce of the mines increases in order to send

remittances in specie to that country, the mines themselves diminish in

their produce, so that whatever change this may bring on, can be at no

very great distance. {59}

---

{58} What Dr. Robertson says of Palmyra may be applied nearly to all

the cities in Asia and Africa that shared in this commerce. "Palmyra,

after the conquest by Aurelian never revived." At present, a few

miserable huts of beggarly Arabs are scattered in the courts of its

stately temples, or deform its elegant porticoes, and exhibit a

humiliating contrast to its ancient magnificence.

{59} If the taste of the Anglo Americans for tea continues, allowing

one pound to each person in the year, which is very little, one hundred

millions of pounds weight will be annually wanted in less than half a

century.

-=-

[end of page #61]

CHAP. VII.

_Of the Causes that brought on the Decline of the Nations that had

flourished in the middle Ages, and of Portugal, Spain, Holland, and

the Hans Towns_.

The trade with India, which had been almost the only one, and

always an occasion for envy and contest, was sought for by the

Spaniards and the Portuguese; who, as we have seen, were the first

amongst modern nations that seemed to aspire at naval discovery.

The manner in which Spain discovered America; and Portugal, the

passage by the Cape of Good Hope, both nearly at the same period,

and at the beginning of the sixteenth century, is too well known to

require the smallest detail.

Europeans, with the superior degree of knowledge they possessed, and

particularly that of the use of fire-arms: incited also by the love of

gold; and careless of keeping their word with the unsuspecting

natives, soon triumphed wherever they went, and the consequence

was, that both nations brought home immense riches. The trade of

Venice, Alexandria, and Aleppo, was all transferred to Lisbon, {60}

and never was so small a country so suddenly enriched; and it may be

added, more quickly deprived afterwards of the chief source of its

wealth.

The Dutch had triumphed over the power of Spain, on their own soil,

and they soon rivalled that of Portugal in the East. It was a very

different thing to combat the natives, and to fight with the Dutch, who

very soon deprived Portugal of the rich means of wealth she had

discovered in India.

The prosperity of Portugal, arising from its possession =sic= in the

East, continued at its height exactly a century. Its decline is accounted

for by the following causes.

---

{60} Lisbon had its depot for the north of Europe, at Antwerp, and the

value of the consignments have been estimated at a million of crowns,

annually; but this is, probably, an exaggeration.

-=-

[end of page #62]

Its domineering principles, too great an extent of conquests, which

were widely scattered, and the haughtiness of the Portuguese, both

towards the natives and Europeans; the envy and rivalship which

brought the Dutch into the same countries; a great want of attention

and energy; and, lastly, giving a preference to the trade to the Brazils.

The Brazils had been first discovered by the Portuguese, afterwards

seized upon by the Dutch, whom they, however, expelled about the

middle of the sixteenth century; that is, about fifty years after its first

discovery, and an equal period of time previous to the decline of their

trade in India.

The possession of the whole of this lucrative trade, that had enriched

so many great nations, and that by so easy a channel, and without

almost any contest, for nearly a whole century, had so enriched the

small kingdom of Portugal, that after being too eager, and grasping at

too much, it was almost ready to resign the whole without a struggle,

had it not been for some reasons of another sort. {61} So immense

was the influx of wealth, from the united sources of India and the

Brazils, that the former, which has been at every other period the

object of ambition of all nations, and is so still, was considered as

scarcely worth retaining.

It is almost unnecessary to add, that from that moment Portugal has

been on the decline. If ever the cup of prosperity ran over, in large

streams, it was then; and when the possession of the trade to India was

scarcely thought worth preserving, it is clear that no great efforts

could be made to encourage internal industry.

Spain, extensive and powerful before it discovered the Indies, did not

so immediately feel the effects of the wealth imported, as the

Portuguese had done; but its prosperity was of less duration, though

the decline was not quite so rapid.

The Dutch must have known the effects of wealth on a nation, else

---

{61} It was debated in council, at Lisbon, whether it would be worth

while to keep India, the wealth from the Brazils was so much more

easily obtained. A scruple of conscience, least =sic= the missionaries

should be destroyed, turned the scale in favour of retaining the trade

of India!!

-=-

[end of page #63]

they would scarcely have tried to throw off the yoke of Spain, at the

very moment when it appeared in its greatest splendour and power.

{62}

Insolence and pride, we have too often had occasion to remark,

accompany wealth; and Philip was no more proof against its effects,

than those potentates who had gone before him.--There was a great

resemblance between the project of invading England, with the

invincible armada, as it was called, and the attack on Greece by the

King of Persia. That monarch must have thought very meanly of

England, to suppose that the island could be conquered by 30,000

men, even if they could have made good their landing. Indeed, to try

such an experiment on a nation that had supported its claim to valour

so well at Agincourt and Cressy, and which was not, in any respect,

degenerated, manifests his being blinded by the effects of wealth and

greatness.

The consequence was, a gradual decline of the affairs of his kingdom;

so that, in little less than a century, England placed a king on the

throne of Spain.

Though the effect produced on Spain was not so rapid as on Portugal,

it was, in some respects, more irretrievable. The vast numbers of

persons who quitted that country, in quest of gold, injured its

population, already reduced by the expulsion of the Moors, who were

the most industrious of its inhabitants.

The wealth that came to Spain, came in a very unequal distribution,

which is a considerable disadvantage, and hastens on that state of

things which is the natural forerunner of the decay of a nation. Wealth,

arising by commerce, however great its quantity, must be distributed

with some degree of equality; but the great adventurers in the gold

mines only shared with their sovereign, and the whole of their wealth

came in prodigious quantities, pouring in upon the country. {63}

---

{62} Though the Dutch were subject to Spain, yet that had not

prevented them from acting in an independent manner in their modes

of following trade and commerce.

{63} We see an example of this in our own trade to India. Captains of

ships, merchants, and all those who get money by that trade, come

home with moderate fortunes; but the governors, and civil and

military officers, who have been settled in the country, come home

with princely fortunes, and eclipse the old nobility of the country.

-=-

[end of page #64]

Both Spain and Portugal, finding that wealth came with such ease

from India and America, neglected industry. This, indeed, was a very

natural consequence; and, when the sources of their riches began to

dry up, they found, though too late, that instead of having increased in

wealth, they had only been enriching more industrious nations, and

ruining themselves. The gold that arrives from the West passes

through the hands of its masters with almost the same rapidity as if

they were only agents for the English and the Dutch; so chimerical an

idea is that of wealth existing without industry.

The Dutch were the only rivals of the Portuguese in the East Indies;

for though other nations came afterwards in for a share, yet the

transition from wealth to weakness was already made by the

Portuguese, before any of them had begun to set seriously to work, in

acquiring possessions, or in carrying on trade with that country.

Portugal thus fell, merely from the rivalship of a more industrious and

less advanced nation, after having embraced more territory than she

had power to keep. Spain fell, because she had embraced a wrong

object as a source of riches. {64}

The Hans Towns, which owed their prosperity, partly to their own

wisdom and perseverance, in the beginning, and partly to the contempt

with which sovereigns, in the days of chivalry, viewed commerce,

might, with very little penetration, and much less exertion of wisdom

than they had displayed, have seen that the spirit of commerce was

becoming general, and that moderation and prudence were necessary

to preserve them in their proud situation; but the prudence which they

possessed at first had given way to pride, and abandoned them; and

the first great stroke they received was from Queen Elizabeth. The

ruin of so widely-extended a confederacy could not be astonishing,

and, indeed, was a natural consequence of the changes in the manners

of the times: but it was not so with Flanders. There was nothing to

have prevented the Flemish from continuing to enjoy wealth, and

follow up industry, except in the rivalship of other nations,

---

{64} So short a time did the wealth remain in the country, that, when

the famous armada was fitted out against England, a loan of money

was solicited, from Genoa, for the purpose.

-=-

[end of page #65]

particularly of Holland and England; for, though France was farther

advanced, as a manufacturing and wealthy nation, than England, yet it

was not in the same line of industry with the people of the

Netherlands, whose prosperity was not therefore injured by it in the

same degree.

As for the Dutch, they continued to increase in wealth till the end of

the seventeenth century, and their decline requires a more particular

attention.

In addition to their great industry, the fisheries, and art of curing fish,

the Dutch excelled in making machines of various sorts, and became

the nation that supplied others with materials, in a state ready prepared

for manufacturing: this was a new branch of business, and very

lucrative, for, as the machines were kept a secret, the abbreviation of

labour was great, and the materials had still the advantage in their sale

that a raw material has over manufactured goods; so that the

advantages were almost beyond example.

Add to all this, that the Dutch were the first who established the

banking system, (copying in part from the Italians,) on a solid plan.

The advantages that Holland enjoyed were, indeed, all of its own

procuring, but they were numerous and inappretiable, without

counting the trade to India, of which it enjoyed a greater share than

any other nation, for a considerable period.

No nation has shewn, so completely as the Dutch, how exterior

enemies may be repelled, and difficulties overcome, while there is a

true attention to the real welfare of the country. The exertions of the

Romans, to conquer others, scarcely surpassed those of the Dutch to

preserve themselves, when they were in a state of necessity; but, when

they became affluent, energy and unanimity left them. The

manufacturers became merchants, and the merchants became agents

and carriers; so that the solid sources of riches gradually disappeared.

All this time, taxation increased, and though no nation ever allowed its

manners to be less corrupted by the possession of wealth, yet there

was a sensible change; but the change in the way of thinking was the

most pernicious. Discontent with the government, and disagreements

amongst themselves, completed their misfortunes, while England was

[end of page #66] all the time endeavouring to supplant them in the

most beneficial sources of their wealth.

The Dutch, fairly sunk by that rivalship, and natural change of things,

which transfers the seat of wealth and commerce from one nation to

another. There was no violent revolution, no invasion by an enemy; it

was the silent operation of that cause of decline, which has been

already mentioned in the Second Chapter, and will be farther and

more particularly illustrated and explained.

The Dutch had a superabundance of capital; the interest of money was

low; and wealth had begun to leave Holland long before the symptoms

of decay became visible; by which means, the trade of other countries

was encouraged, and, as always will be the case, capital emigrated, the

moment it could find secure employment, and greater profits than

were to be obtained at home. The leading causes of the decline of

Holland may be distinguished thus:

The taxes were gradually increasing.

Its superiority in manufactures over other countries was continually

diminishing; consequently, industry was not so well rewarded, and

less active.

The merchants preferred safe agencies for foreigners to trading on

their own bottom, thereby lending their credit.

Dutch capital was employed to purchase goods in one country and sell

them in another: so that the Dutch became carriers for others, instead

of manufacturing and carrying for themselves.

The trade to India, and the banking business, were both taken up by

other nations; so that Holland then lost her superiority in these

branches.

Thus circumstanced, Holland was gradually sinking, when political

troubles, the end of which it is not easy to foresee, put her at the feet

of France: an event that would not have happened in the manner it did,

when the true spirit of patriotism reigned, that distinguished her in her

more prosperous days. From this, at least, there is one distinct lesson

to be learnt, that however it may be natural for nations to lose a

superiority, owing to arts, inventions, or foreign trade, yet, if the

minds of the people and their manners remain pure, they will not be

degraded, by falling a prey to an enemy. When Holland was not rich

[end of page #67] it resisted Spain in all her glory, during a very hard,

arduous, and continued struggle; but then the people were united as

one man: there were no traitors to raise a voice for Spain against their

country. When Holland was wealthy, it did not even attempt to resist

France when invaded; but then Holland was divided, and there were in

every city men, who wished more for the plunder than the prosperity

of their country.

In viewing the fall of those nations that sunk before the discovery of

America, the eastern empire was the last that attracted attention. It had

been reduced by the Turks, with a vigour and energy that promised a

renovation, which, however, it did not effect. The Turks brought with

them the Mahometan religion, which has debased the manners and

degraded the minds of every people. Constantinople, by this change,

lost the remains of ancient learning and of commerce, which even the

weakness of the emperors, and the repeated wars, had not been able

entirely to destroy. The Greeks were reduced to a state of

subordination and slavery, but the Turks were not civilized. They

adopted what was luxurious and effeminate of Grecian manners, yet

still retained their former ignorance and ferocity. Amongst modern

nations, the Turkish government is, in form, a monster, and its

existence an enigma; yet it extended its sway over all that was most

valuable or most splendid in the ancient world. Greece, Egypt,

Phoenicia, Syria, the three Arabias, and countries then but little

known, are subject to a brutish people, who do not even condescend to

mix with the inhabitants of the country, but who rule over them in a

manner the most humiliating and disgraceful. {65}

The Turkish government has never been powerful. The city of Venice

was always its equal at sea; and, as it disdains to adopt the systems of

other nations, it is every day becoming weaker, in comparison with

them. It has formerly maintained successful struggles against

---

{65} In all other conquests, the conquered and the conquerors have

become, at last, one people, when they have settled in the same

country, whether Christians or Pagans; but the Turks and Greeks keep

as distinct to this day as at the first, and this is probably owing to the

nature of the Turkish religion.

---

[end of page #68]

Germany, Poland, and Russia; but that time is now over, and it owes

its present existence to the jealousy of other powers. It is possessed of

a greater quantity of good territory than all the leading nations of

Europe, Russia excepted; and it is not the interest of men living in less

favoured climates, to endeavour to renovate the country of Alexander,

and of the other great nations of antiquity.

The Turkish nation is represented as greatly on the decline, but, soon

after its establishment, it had every vice that could well exist in a

government, and its greatest weakness now arises more from the

alteration produced in other nations for the better, than in itself for the

worse. The difficulty of keeping people in ignorance is becoming

every day greater; and when the Ottoman throne falls the usual order

of things will be reversed. For, as other governments may attribute

their destruction to corruption of manners, and to ignorance, the

Turkish government looks there for its security; and the day that any

reasonable degree of light breaks in amongst its subjects will be its

last.

To endeavour tracing the causes of decline in a state that owes its

existence to its defects, and is in every respect different from other

nations, would be useless in the present Inquiry, it has only been

noticed to shew, that, in the infinite variety of things, some may owe

their existence to what is in general the cause of destruction. [end of

page #69]

CHAP. VII. [=sic=--error in printer's copy, should read VIII.]

_General View and Analysis of the Causes that operated in producing

the Decline of all Nations, with a Chart, representing the Rise, Fall,

and Migrations of Wealth, in all different Countries, from the Year

1500, before the Birth of Christ, to the End of the Eighteenth Century,

--a Period of 3300 Years_.

From the revolutions that have taken place amongst wealthy and

powerful nations to the present time, though the origin has been owing

to very different causes, and the decline and removal from one place

to another has been attended with circumstances not similar; yet the

same leading cause for that decline may not only be traced easily and

distinctly, but is so evident that it is impossible for it to be overlooked

or mistaken.

Local situation, or temporary circumstances, have always afforded the

first means of rising to wealth and greatness. The minds of men, in a

poor state, seem never to have neglected an opportunity, presented

either by the one or the other, and they have generally proved

successful, till energy of mind and industry were banished, by the

habits of luxury, negligence, and pride, which accompany, or at least

soon follow, the acquisition of either.

Where wealth has been acquired first, power has generally been

sought for afterwards; and, where power came first, it has always

sought the readiest road to wealth, by attacking those who were in

possession of it.

The nations and cities on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, where

arts and commerce first began, where agriculture flourished, and

population had risen to a high pitch, carried on perpetual struggles to

supplant each other; and, in those struggles, the most wealthy

generally sunk under; till Alexander, the first great conqueror, with

whose history we are tolerably well acquainted, reduced them all to

[end of page #70] his yoke; one small and brave people triumphing

over the Egyptian and Assyrian empires, where wealth and luxury had

already produced their effects.

Though this triumph of poverty over riches was very complete, except

in one single instance, it did not occasion any real change, either in the

abodes of wealth, or the channels of commerce. Tyre, the richest

commercial city till then, was ruined, to make way for the prosperity

of Alexandria, which became the most wealthy; drawing great part of

the commerce from Carthage on the west, and taking the whole from

Rhinocolura on the east: but, in Egypt and Syria, Babylon and

Memphis still remained great cities.

The whole of this ancient world was for a moment under one chief,

but was soon again divided amongst the generals who succeeded to

that great conqueror; and the Egyptian and Persian empires became

rivals, as Egypt and Syria had been before. The Grecian nations still

remained the chief seats of civilization and the fine arts; and this

continued till the Romans, originally a poorer people than the

Macedonians, conquered the whole. This was the second great

triumph of poverty and energy over wealth and grandeur, and, in this

struggle, Greece itself fell.

The effects of wealth were not less formidable to the Romans

themselves, than they had been to those nations they had enabled that

brave and warlike people to conquer; so that the mistress of the world,

in her turn, fell before nations that were rude and barbarous, but

uncorrupted by wealth and luxury.

The conquerors of Rome were too rude, and too many in number, to

become themselves enervated by wealth, which disappeared under

their rapacious grasp, and which they neither had the art nor

inclination to preserve.

This invasion of the fertile and rich provinces by men rude and

ignorant, but who came from northern climates, established a new

order of things; and only a small remnant of former wealth and

greatness was preserved in Egypt and at Constantinople.

For several centuries of war and confusion commerce and the arts

appear to have been undervalued and neglected; but still the taste [end

of page #71] for oriental luxuries was not entirely banished, and, at the

first interval of peace and safety, sprung up again. It was then that

Alexandria, Venice, Genoa, and Constantinople, became the channels

through which the people of Europe procured the luxuries of Asia.

Babylon, Memphis, Palmyra, and all the other great cities of antiquity,

were no more; even Greece had lost its arts and splendour; Alexandria

and Constantinople were repeatedly assailed, taken, and conquered, by

the barbarians, who envied their wealth, but who still found an interest

in continuing them as channels for procuring to European nations the

refinements of the East. Though Venice and Genoa were wealthy, they

were but small, and of little importance; and all the nations who might

have crushed them at a blow, only considering them as sea-ports of

convenience and utility, allowed them to remain independent.

As an intercourse had been established between the northern and

southern parts, a taste for the luxuries of Asia had extended to the

shores of the Baltic, soon after the victorious arms of Charlemagne

had carried there some degree of civilization, and the Christian

religion.

Then it was that a new and more widely-extended system of

commerce, but something like what had formerly existed in Tyre and

Carthage, began in all the maritime towns of Europe, when Italy and

Flanders became the most wealthy parts of Europe. A spirit of

chivalry, and a desire of conquest, not founded on the same principles

with the conquests of ancient nations, or of Rome, to obtain wealth,

pervaded all Europe, and the greatest confusion prevailed. In the

history of wealth and power, as connected together, this is a chasm.

Those who had power despised wealth, and were seeking after what

they esteemed more--military glory; and wealth was confined to a

number of insulated spots, and possessed by men who were

merchants, without any share of power or authority.

This extraordinary and unprecedented state of things gave rise to the

Hanseatic League, which rose at last to such importance that those

who had been so long seeking after glory, without finding it, began to

see the importance which was derived from wealth. They began to see

that, even in the pursuit of their favourite object, wealth was an ex-

[end of page #72] cellent assistant, and the friendship of merchants

begun =sic= to be solicited by princes, as in the days of Tyre and

Sidon.

This progress was greatly facilitated and accelerated by the crusades,

which, at the same time that they beggared half the nobility of Europe,

gave them a taste for the refinements of the East, and taught them to

set some value on the means by which such refinements could be

procured.

In this manner were things proceeding, when three great discoveries

changed the situation of mankind. {66}

The mariners compass, gunpowder, and the art of printing, were all

discovered nearly about the same time; and, independent of their great

and permanent effects, they were wonderfully calculated to alter the

situation of nations at that period.

The navigation of the ocean, which led to the discovery of a passage

to the East Indies, and of America, gave a mortal blow to the nations

situated on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, who thus found

themselves deprived of the commerce of the East.

The discovery of gunpowder, a means so powerful of annoying an

enemy, without the aid of human force, which places a giant and a

dwarf in some sort upon an equality, was wonderfully adapted for

doing away the illusions of knight errantry, that had such a powerful

effect in making war be preferred to commerce: while printing

facilitated the communication of every species of knowledge.

It was then that northern nations began to cultivate arts and sciences,

as those of the south under a mild heaven, and on a fertile soil, had

done three thousand years before. But ingenuity and invention took a

different direction in the north from what they had done in the

southern climates; instead of sovereigns and slaves, men were more in

mutual want of each other, and therefore a more equal division of the

fruits of industry was required.

The manufactures of former times had been confined chiefly to

luxuries for the great, and simple necessaries for slaves; and

commerce, though productive of great wealth to a few, was in its

limits equally confined.

---

{66} For the dates see the chart, and for their effects, chap. i. book ii.

[Transcriber's note: See in the Chart "Mariners Compass

/Gunpowder/Printing Invented 1300-1400"].

-=-

[end of page #73]

It was natural that the two nations which had first discovered the

passage to the East, and the continent of the West, which abounded

with the precious metals, should become rich and powerful, as those

cities had formerly done that possessed exclusively the channels of

commerce. Those two countries were Spain and Portugal; but here

again we find the same fatality attend the acquisition of wealth that

had formerly been remarked. It was, indeed, not to be expected, that

the steadiness and virtue of the Spaniards and Portuguese could resist

the operation of a cause, that neither the wisdom of the Egyptians; the

arts and industry of Greece, nor the stubborn and martial patriotism of

the Romans could withstand.

Those two nations soon sunk, and the Dutch, the French, and the

English, became participators of the commerce.

Manufactures were a new source of wealth, almost unknown to the

ancient world. Those begun first to be set in activity in Flanders, then

in Holland and France, and, last of all, in England; but, like

commerce, and every other means by which wealth is acquired, they

have a tendency to leave a country. The cause and the effect are at

variance, after a certain time; and though we cannot illustrate this

from history, as we may the migrations of wealth arising from other

sources, the tendency appears of the same nature, though with this

difference; that men may always labour for themselves, and enjoy the

fruits of their labours, though they cannot always find the means of

being the carriers to other nations, or becoming merchants.

This alteration in the nature of wealth; the inventions of mankind; the

alterations brought on by the facility of communicating knowledge;

the systematical manner in which men pursue their interests, and other

changes: give reason to hope that, in the present situation of things,

those possessions may be rendered permanent, that have hitherto been

found to be so evanescent and fugitive.

Where wealth has not been wrested from a country by absolute force,

(in doing which the poorer nations were always successful,) it has

emigrated from other causes, and taken up its abode amongst a new

people, where circumstances were more favourable for its

encouragement. [end of page #74]

Before we leave this recapitulation, it is necessary, however, to take

notice of one revolution that did not take place on similar principles

with the others, so far as wealth and luxury are in question; but which

has in some respects a similarity, and, in others, is precisely the

reverse.

About two centuries and a half ago, the Polish nation was one of the

most powerful in Europe; Russia could not then, nor for long after,

contend with it. The Prussians were its vassals; and the capital of the

German empire, when besieged by the Turks, in 1650, owed its safety

to the Poles, its brave and faithful allies.

Such was the case; but, at this day, the Polish nation is no longer in

existence: it is subdued, parcelled out, and divided, amongst those

very powers, to any of which it was at least equal, and to the others

superior, at so late a period.

It may be asked, whether Poland was one of those states that has been

borne down by its own wealth and opulence? If its ambition, injustice,

or any of the other causes so prominent in the decline of nations,

operated in the total extinction of it from the rank of independent

states? Not one of those causes operated, but still it is not altogether an

exception to the general rule.

When the feudal system was established all over Europe, nations

under its influence were so far on an equality; and as they all emerged

from that situation nearly about the same time, Poland excepted, they

still preserved their relative situations. The Poles, during this change

in other states, comparatively lost power. Amongst the alterations

produced, was that of placing in the hands of the sovereign all the

disposable revenue and force of a country, with which standing armies

were maintained. Those irregular militias, till then composed of the

barons and their retainers; a species of force, at best, far inferior to

regular armies, became useless; but particularly so, after the modes of

fighting had been changed by the invention of gunpowder, and the

adoption of large trains of artillery, which could never have been

employed in the feudal armies.

The disposable force of Poland and its revenues did not, by any

means, keep pace with those of neighbouring nations; and what was

still worse, the strength of that unfortunate country was divided; the

[end of page #75] monarchy was elective, and foreign influence had a

means of exertion, which, under a hereditary line of kings, is not

practicable. Poland was not only weaker than its neighbours, but

became a prey to intestine divisions, cabal, and intrigue.

Though Poland was not wealthy, according to the meaning applied to

that word, it was a populous and fertile country, and therefore a

desirable possession to the neighbouring states. To Prussia, a most

ambitious and aggrandising power, with a military government, and of

a very limited extent, it was peculiarly desirable. To Russia, extensive

as it is, the fruitful territory was also an object of ambition, from its

proximity to the seat of an empire, the most fertile and fine provinces

of which lie at a distance. The same desire of possessing what they

wanted, operating at the same time on two neighbouring nations,

occasioned them to unite their power in a first dismemberment of

Poland, for their mutual benefit. The interior convulsions of the

country served as a pretext, and its weakness furnished the means of

executing the design. In 1772, that independent country first lost some

of its finest provinces; but this was only a prelude to its final fall.

The nature of ambition is to augment with success, and as the same

divisions continued in the state, a pretence for a farther interference in

its affairs was easily found; and, in 1794, Poland ceased to be one of

the number of European states. In this last seizure, the house of

Austria had no immediate hand. It was, however, necessary to have its

consent: and, as the aggrandisement of Prussia was not an object of

indifference to Austria, participation in the spoils was proposed, as the

price of acquiescence, and it was readily accepted.

In this case, the weakness of Poland, and the ambition of its rivals and

neighbours, were the immediate causes of its destruction; but that

weakness arose from a want of true patriotism and proper attention in

the people themselves. Jealous of liberties, and disobedient to their

king, the Poles were slaves to the feudal proprietors of the soil.

Though the first cause was different, yet their divisions and quarrels

were the same in effect, as if they had proceeded from real causes of

discontent, and a deranged state of society, such as we have seen,

when the love of the country is lost. In Poland, that love of the country

[end of page #76] was not lost, but it was badly directed, which is

nearly the same thing; at least, it is equally dangerous.

Why, it may be asked, did not the other powers of Europe interfere?

To this, indeed, it would be difficult to give a satisfactory answer.

Those who did not interfere, probably, may have cause to repent their

indifference. It was an infraction of that sort of federation of nations,

which had been found necessary to prevent a repetition of conquests

like those of Alexander, or of the Romans; yet, still there is a way of

accounting for their conduct, though it cannot be vindicated.

In the first place, Poland lays =sic= remote from those powerful

nations that have had the greatest sway in modern times. It was not

very easy to interfere with great efficacy; besides, as Poland was

previously under foreign influence, the essential evil was done. The

example of partitions, indeed, was not given, but it is not impossible

that some powers on the continent, though they got no share, might

not be sorry to see such an example. Britain and Spain certainly could

not wish for the example, but others might, and others probably did

wish for it.

The first division was, besides, only a beginning; some degree of

moderation was preserved, and Poland was only mutilated; it was not

destroyed. The case was not entirely new, nor without example.

The second and last division took place at a time when the nations

whose interest it was, and whose wish it might have been to interfere,

had not the means of doing so. It was when the republican frenzy in

France was at its most desperate height, and whom =sic= the whole of

civilized Europe appeared to be in danger.

There is one more excuse to be found. The aspect of affairs in Poland

resembled, with regard to its revolutions, those of France so much,

that those, who at another time would have probably interfered, were

rather inclined to co-operate in stifling a rising flame in the north,

similar to that which had endangered the whole of the south of

Europe.

In all this, the thing the most difficult to be accounted for, is the

conduct of the Polish nation; but an inquiry into the causes of that

would be quite foreign to the present subject: this is, however, an

instance of the danger arising from not keeping pace with other

nations [end of page #77] in those arts of government, and internal

policy, which constitute the power of nations in the general order of

things, whatever that may be.

Although we have seldom found intestine divisions carried to so

blameable a length in any other nation that was not corrupt in itself,

yet, it is clear, that the influence obtained by the wealth of its

neighbours was at the bottom of those highly blameable, and

dreadfully fatal divisions.

When aggrandisement is the aim of modern states, there will not now

be any difficulty of pleading example; and there is one of those very

powers that on this occasion participated in the division which has all

the seeds of discord in itself that brought on the ruin of the Polish

empire. That power has already felt the effect of example; and, though

it may repine, it cannot complain, as it might otherwise have done; or

if it does, it cannot expect equal commiseration.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE INTENDED TO ILLUSTRATE

THE RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS.

In the chart, at the beginning of the work, the lines, from top to

bottom, represent the division of time into centuries, each indicating

the year, marked under and above it, in the same way that has been

adopted in Dr. Priestley's Chart of Universal History, in works of

chronology, and in statements of commerce and finance.

The countries that have flourished, whether by commerce, or any

other means are supposed to be represented by the parallel spaces

from right to left, according to the names written on the right hand.

The rise of the black part, something like a distant range of low

mountains, shews at what periods the country was great; when its

greatness began and when it ended. This plan would be

unexceptionally correct, if the materials for it could be procured; but if

they were, it would not lead to any very different conclusion from

what it does in its present state. The times, when the elevation began,

and its duration are exact. The rises and falls are, as nearly as I am

able, estimated from existing documents.

The part shaded of a darkish colour, and growing gradually lighter at

both edges, represent those centuries of ignorance which succeeded

the fall of the Roman empire. [end of page #78]

At the bottom, on the part not stained, is a chronological list of events,

inventions, and discoveries, connected with the subject. Those which

are not, however, important or curious, have no place.

The commerce of France, Britain, Russia, and America, are upon a

true scale with respect to their proportional amount, as well as to their

rise and progress. The others are not, owing to want of documents;

but, as before observed, the amount has very little to do with the

subject; the business is to see how wealth and power were divided at

any particular time, if they were rising or falling, or if they were at

their height, comparing them with the manners of the people at the

time.

This is the use of the chart, as to the representation of individual

places and nations.

The general conclusion is, from taking the whole together, that wealth

and power have never been long permanent in any place. That they

never have been renewed when once destroyed, though they have had

rises and falls, and that they travel over the face of the earth,

something like a caravan of merchants. On their arrival, every thing is

found green and fresh; while they remain all is bustle and abundance,

and, when gone, all is left trampled down, barren, and bare.

This chart is a sort of a picture, intended to make those migrations and

change of place distinct and easily conceived, on which the whole of

this book has been occupied. Being once acquainted with the changes

that have taken place, we may more accurately compare them with the

state of this country at the present time. Those who will take the

trouble to read Ferguson's History of the Roman Republic, and

Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Empire, may form a judgement of the

accuracy or inaccuracy of the chart.

EXAMPLE OF THE MANNER OF INSPECTING THE CHART.

To know when Rome was at the highest pitch of greatness, find, on

the right hand, the space marked Roman empire: then look between

the lines for the highest part of the dark ground, and look immediately

under for the year, it will be seen to be at the birth of Christ, that is,

during the reign of Augustus; and by the same means it will be found

declining gradually till the year 490. [end of page #79]

In like manner, Carthage will be found at the zenith of its power about

300 years before Christ. The founding of Alexandria and the wars

with Rome began then to diminish both its wealth and power.

It is intended by the author of this to execute a chart of the same sort

on a very large scale, and assign to the different powers spaces

proportioned to their importance, as nearly as he can ascertain.

With respect to the chronology of this chart, to prevent criticisms

which might perhaps be made; but do not apply to it, according to the

purpose for which it was constructed, the reader is requested to

observe, that I am desirous of illustrating a very important

investigation, by representing a very confused and long series of

events. The result to be derived from this, is not to be affected by any

small inaccuracy. In counting before the birth of Christ, having found

many different opinions, and much uncertainty relative to dates,

(which I neither have abilities nor inclination to investigate,) I

measured backwards, without pretending to settle the year of the

world, respecting which there are so many different opinions.

The materials for ancient history are few, and sometimes not much to

be relied upon; but, in great leading facts, such as alone are of use in

this picture, the authenticity is not to be doubted.

The Assyrian and Egyptian empires had attained wealth and power

previous to the time at which this commences. They stood then, and

for long after, as if it =sic= were alone in the world; their revolutions,

and the rise, prosperity, and decline of other nations, are all

represented.

I have not wished to continue the view of France, since the revolution,

its present real situation is so imperfectly known; and, from what is

known of it, it cannot be compared with any other nation, or with

itself previous to that period. [end of page #80]

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