A brief outline has already been furnished of the maritime commerce of Spain during the time of the Phœnicians and Carthaginians, and of her trade with Britain, Western Africa, Asia Minor, and the shores of the Mediterranean. Notice has also been taken of the course adopted by the Romans to secure for themselves the commerce formerly in the hands of the Carthaginians, and of the great value of the trade which Rome ultimately carried on with Spain during the first four centuries of the Christian era. We have also endeavoured to show that when the Vandals wrested Spain from the Romans, the maritime trade of the Peninsula was grievously neglected, and that it did not improve under the semi-barbarous rule of the Visigoths. Three hundred years afterwards, when the Saracens established themselves at Cordova, somewhat more attention was paid to mercantile pursuits; but, throughout the whole period of the Saracenic rule, the sea-borne commerce of Spain was insignificant when compared with that of the leading Italian republics. It is true that the invaders so long as they held Seville kept up some commercial relations with the East; but the native population of the country can hardly be said to have done anything worthy of note in maritime matters, till the alliance by marriage of Ferdinand II. of Aragon with Isabella of Castile brought nearly the whole Christian dominion of Spain under one monarchy, and gave renewed life and energy to its trade with other and distant nations.
Trade with the coasts of Africa.
From the commencement of the fourteenth century,[720] the trade between the kingdom of Aragon and the coast of Africa had been slowly but surely advancing, as, in spite of their religious differences, the Christians of the West and the Muhammedans had throughout all time mutually conceded to each other the same advantages in their commercial conventions. Thus the Tunisians were allowed to trade as freely at Barcelona as the Catalans did at Tunis, and the corsairs of each country found safe refuge in the harbours of both nations. International arrangements of an intimate character enabled the ship-owners of Catalonia and Sardinia to enter into many profitable joint adventures with those of Barbary and Marocco, especially in the coral and other fisheries, and in the trade of corn, of which Spain obtained, at a price fixed by treaty, large supplies from the coasts of Africa.[721] By this time, too, Portugal had become alive to the advantages to be derived from the discovery of other and distant lands.
The maritime discoveries of the Portuguese.
But though the travels of Marco Polo had more than a century before shown to the nations of Europe the vast extent of the continent of Asia, and had furnished the means of obtaining clearer ideas of its unspeakable riches than had hitherto prevailed, the merchants of the Mediterranean were too desirous of retaining in their own hands the monopoly of the Indian trade to encourage expeditions which had for their object merely the extension of geographical knowledge; the merchants and seamen, who were the chief travellers, having been induced to restrict their knowledge and experience to their own classes. Indeed, such commerce as they advocated was essentially practical, and adventurers who proposed novel channels of trade were considered visionaries. It is, however, to an enlightened Portuguese prince that the civilized world is indebted for first setting in motion those expeditions of discovery, which, throughout the greater portion of the fifteenth century, and especially towards its close, afforded so much delight and astonishment to the nations of Europe.
A.D. 1415.
Expeditions along the west coast of Africa, by order of Prince Henry.
Soon after the conquest of Ceuta by Dom John I., king of Portugal, his fifth son Prince Henry, who had been appointed governor of the conquered Moorish province, directed his attention to an exploration of the western coast of Africa. Imbued with a spirit for maritime discovery, this intelligent and accomplished prince was incessant in his efforts to increase the geographical knowledge of the time. From his boyhood he had made mathematics and navigation a continual study. To facilitate his long-meditated voyages of discovery he had fixed his abode in the kingdom of Algarve on the most elevated point of Cape St. Vincent, a spot he considered more favourable than any other on the coast of Spain for his astronomical observations, and where he founded the town of Sagres.[722] The first expedition undertaken in 1417 with two very indifferent vessels proved unsuccessful, having only proceeded five degrees south from its point of departure, the currents at the mouth of the Mediterranean being alleged as unsurmountable obstacles. In the following year, however, João Gonçalvez Zarco, and Tristão Vaz, two gentlemen of rank, annoyed at the difficulties which the Portuguese mariners raised against any further progress southward, and anxious to forward the views of their enlightened prince, volunteered to double Cape Boyador, and to prosecute their voyage to the south. A gale of wind drove them far away from the coast, and by this accident they became acquainted with the position of the island of Madeira, of which they took possession in the name of their sovereign. According to a well-known tradition this island had, however, been previously discovered by an Englishman named Machin, moreover had probably been seen by Hanno or by some of the earlier Phœnician voyagers. Mr. Major has quite recently shown[723] that there is good reason to believe in the truth of the story of Machin. The merit, however, of this important discovery is for all practical purposes due to the Portuguese, who, thus encouraged, renewed their exertions and obtained a grant from Martin V. of the dominion over all territories which might thenceforward be discovered from Cape Boyador to the Indies; but it was only in 1441 that Cape Blanco was reached. The discovery of gold dust and the capture of some slaves still further stimulated a spirit for adventure which had been originally roused by loftier motives. Various Portuguese merchants of Lagos combined and equipped six caravels, with which they sailed to the coast of Guinea. By them the Cape Verde Islands were discovered in 1446; and another somewhat similar expedition discovered the Azores in 1449. In 1471 the Equator was first passed, and ten years afterwards the Portuguese founded a fort and established a trading station on the coast of Guinea for the purpose of maintaining a permanent commercial intercourse with the natives.
Discovery of Madeira, A.D. 1418.
Capes Boyador and Blanco, A.D. 1441.