about national trade, and
with it national competition. From this time on the struggle for the
supremacy of the sea was as important as the struggle of the various
nations for extended territory. Portugal, the {435} Netherlands,
England, and Spain were competing especially for the trade routes of
the world. France and England were drawn into sharp competition
because of the expansion of English trade and commerce. Portugal
became a great emporium for the distribution of Oriental goods after
she became a maritime power, with a commercial supremacy in India and
China. Subsequently she declined and was forced to unite with Spain,
and even after she obtained her freedom, in the seventeenth century,
her war with the Netherlands caused her to lose commercial supremacy.

The rise of the Dutch put the Netherlands to the front and Antwerp and
Amsterdam became the centres of trade for the Orient. Dutch trade
continued to lead the world until the formation of the English East and
West India companies, which, with their powerful monopoly on trade,
brought England to the front. Under the monopolies of these great
companies and other private monopolies, England forged ahead in trade
and commerce. But the private monopolies became so powerful that
Cromwell, by the celebrated Navigation Acts of 1651, made a gigantic
trade monopoly of the English nation. The development of agricultural
products and manufactures in England, together with her immense
carrying trade, made her mistress of the seas. The results of this
trade development were to bring the products of every clime in exchange
for the manufactured goods of Europe, and to bring about a change of
ideas which stimulated thought and life, not only in material lines but
along educational and spiritual lines as well.

_Invention and Discoveries_.--One of the most remarkable eras of
progress in the whole range of modern civilization appeared at the
close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth,
especially in England. The expanded trade and commerce of England had
made such a demand for economic goods that it stimulated invention of
new processes of production. The spinning of yarn became an important
industry. It was a slow process, and could not supply the {436}
weavers so that they could keep their looms in operation. Moreover,
Kay introduced what is known as the drop-box and flying shuttle in
1738, which favored weaving to the detriment of spinn