the times through which that trade has run, and its varying conditions up to the present. Now it all belongs to the two royal crowns of Castilla and Portugal, but it is usurped in part from both by the Dutch, whose only aim is to secure possession of it; and this they will attain on that day when either of the two extremes presented [for which these—MS.] which are maintained shall fail.23
Number 22. Oriental commerce; why it is valued
For many centuries has the oriental commerce been known as the foremost, and most valuable and rich in the world, as appears from Divine and human writings.24 The kingdoms of Europa, Asia Minor, and part of Africa produce, for their mutual intercourse, certain fruits almost the same, and commodities for merchandise, which differ rather in quality or quantity than in essence. But in Asia and the regions of the Orient, God created some things so precious in the estimation of men, and so peculiar to those provinces, that, as they are only found or manufactured therein, they are desired and sought by the rest of the world. Accordingly, different voyages and routes have been taken, which have been varied by the change of monarchies, on which such accidents depend.
Number 23. Beginnings of the Oriental commerce by way of Persia
The islands of Maluco, to begin with what is most suitable for my purpose, were peopled by Chinese [sic] and Jaos, who, with the practice of navigation, commenced to traffic in cloves, a precious and peculiar drug of the forests there, with India, there meeting the traders in pepper, cinnamon, and other articles; thus going from port to port and from nation to nation, all these spices reached the Persian Gulf. There came together various peoples, with still greater diversity of drugs, perfumes, and precious stones, which were brought into Persia; and, being disseminated throughout Asia, these commodities were imparted, although at a great price, to the eastern lands of Africa, and to the south of Europa. That commerce having become known for the precious and wonderful character of its wares, was at once esteemed so highly that it was one of the causes which induced Alexander the Great to direct his conquests toward India, in order to make himself master of the kingdoms which he imagined (and without error) to be the richest of the world, as from them originated the most precious thing that was known in it.
Number 24. Commerce of the Orient through the Arabian Gulf and other parts
Later, the monarchy of the Persians having become extinct and ruined, a part of that commerce passed, on account of the division of the states and the increase of trade among the peoples, by way of the Red Sea to the Arabian Gulf. Then, entering by way of the two Arabias, the nations of Asia Minor snared the spices and drugs; and through Africa they went down by the river Nilo to Egipto, stopping now in Cayro by land, now in Alexandria by water. As the latter was a frequented port in the Mediterranean, the communication of that commerce was easy, almost without knowing from what beginnings it sprang. By that voyage, the commerce increased so greatly that the king Ptolomeo Auleta25 collected there as many as one thousand five hundred talents in duties: if these were Attic talents, they amounted to nine and one-half million Castilian escudos. The Romans came into the monarchy, and, having made Egipto a province of the empire, they enjoyed that commerce by way of the Arabian Gulf—by which the spice-trade penetrated at that time (even to the city of Arsinoe, or that of Berenice), and by the Nile, or went overland to Alexandria, which came to be one of the richest cities in the world because of this trade. Later, as the sultans of Babilonia went on gathering power, until they gained possession of the best part of Asia, the spice again came to have an exit more by way of Persia and Trapisonda [i.e., Trebizond] to the Caspian Sea, whence it was taken down to the ports of the Mediterranean, and in one or another place, was received by the merchants of Italia, who imparted it, in the utmost abundance, to Europa. In Asia Minor, the Ottoman house succeeded, and the Turks got control of that commerce, which they divided—directing it, through the cities of Juda and Meca, to the interior of their lands; and, by the gulf and port of Suez, to Alexandria.
Number 25. Commerce of India confined to Portugal
The Turks did not enjoy the commerce for many years, for after the year 149726 the Lusitanian banners in India conquered their coasts, and the Portuguese, masters of the navigation of the Orient, blockaded the ports of the two gulfs—the Persian and the Arabic—with their fleets, preventing the entrance of that commerce there; and, conducting it by the Atlantic Ocean, they made the great city of Lisboa universal ruler over all that India produces. Thither [i.e., to Lisboa] resorted immediately not only the European nations, but also those from Africa and Asia, by which they despoiled the Turks of the source of their greatest incomes, forcing them to beg from these kingdoms what all had formerly bought from theirs. The wealth of Portugal increased so greatly by the commerce of India that, in the time of the king Don Manuel, payments of money in copper were more esteemed than those in gold. That trade furnished the profits with which to maintain wars, squadrons, and great presidios in the Orient, with which the Portuguese defended their coasts and seas, not only from the native kings, but also from the fleets that the Turks sent up through the Red Sea in order to recover what they so resented losing. Those fleets always returned either conquered or without the result for which they had sailed, until, having lost hopes of the restoration of that commerce through their lands, they desisted from the attempt—contenting themselves with some ships which, with the danger of encountering the Portuguese ships, they take to certain ports and lade with such spice as the fear of robbers allows them to take.
Number 26. Entrance of the Dutch into India, and their commerce
The commerce of the Orient lasted in Lisboa, without any other nation but the Portuguese sharing it, for almost one hundred years, which appears to have been the fatal century of their career. But as always they set upon that trade the value which has been made known in the wars of Flandes and the prohibition of trading with Olanda, their rebels determined to try to secure it; and in the year 1595 their first armed fleet entered India, to carry a portion of the spice to their islands, imparting it through them to all the northern nations, and even to those of the Levant by way of the strait of Gibraltar. Returning merchandise of great richness, they introduced a new trade, so remunerative as may be understood from the peril that they undergo, and from the expenses that they incur, in order to maintain it. Whatever they have acquired by that voyage (and it is not little) they have pillaged from this crown. The Dutch spreading through the Orient, recognizing the wealth of those regions, established their business, took part in barter there, erected factories, built presidios, fortified ports, and (what can well cause more anxiety) collected sea forces, by which they have succeeded even in driving out the Spaniards from their houses, in disquieting them, and, at times, in blockading them. They began to go out to the ocean with this trade, becoming the general pirates of the two Indias—where there are those who affirm that they have pillaged more than one hundred and thirty millions in less than forty years. They established the chief seat of this commerce in Bantan,27 the principal port of Java Major, whither people go from all the islands—Banda, Maluco, Gilolo, Sumatra, Amboino—and from the mainland of Coroman [Goroman—MS.], Siam, Pegu, Canboxa [Ganboxa—MS.], Patan, Champa, and China. Turks, Arabs, Persians, Gusarates, Malays, Jaos, Egyptians, and Japanese go there. Consequently, with the presence of so many nations and so various sects (all of which are evil) Bantan may better be called “the Oriental Ginebra [i.e., Geneva].” There are two markets or fairs held there daily, at which more than thirty thousand persons come together to buy and sell.
Number 27. Commerce of the Orient, which the Dutch carry on from Ba[n]tan
The commerce acquired by the Dutch from that place is notable and large; for it consists of all the drugs, perfumes, and products found in those seas. The money carried by the Dutch is Castilian silver, as that is the kind that is most valued throughout the Orient. The money that circulates in the country is that of the leaden caxies [i.e., cash],
This sentence is very blindly worded, but perhaps indicates, by anticipation, the point made in section 40, post—where India and the Philippines are mentioned as the “extremes” of the Spanish empire in the Orient. Or it may refer to the alternative presented near the end of section 2.
Grau y Monfalcón evidently made use of Leonardo de Argensola’s Conqvistas de las Islas Malvcas in this review of Oriental commerce.
Referring to Ptolemy Neus Dionysus, surnamed Auletes (“the Flute-player”), who ruled over Egypt from b. c. 80 to 51. One of his daughters was the famous Cleopatra VI, who so infatuated the Roman Cæsar and Antony.
This date in the manuscript is 1457, which is misprinted 1417 in the reprint of 1866 (Doc. inéd.).
See Sir Henry Middleton’s Voyage to Bantam (Hakluyt Society’s publications, London, 1855); that voyage took place in 1604–06.
