he shares of the Mansfeld Copper Co., established in 1524 with a
capital of 70,000 gulden, which was increased to 120,000 gulden in 1528.

[Sidenote: Commerce]

Whereas, in banking and in mining, capital had almost created the
opportunities for its employment, in commerce it partly supplanted the
older system and partly entered into new paths. In the Middle Ages
domestic, and to some extent international, commerce was carried on by
fairs adapted to bring producer and consumer together and hence reduce
the functions of middleman to the narrowest limits. Such was the
annual fair at Stourbridge; such the famous bookmart at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, and such were the fairs in Lyons, Antwerp, and
many other cities. Only in the larger towns was a market perpetually
open. Foreign commerce was also carried on by companies formed on the
analogy of the medieval gilds.

New conditions called for fresh means of meeting them. The great
change in sea-borne trade effected by the discovery of the new routes
to India and America, was not so much in the quantity of goods carried
as in the paths by which they traveled. The commerce of the two inland
seas, the Mediterranean and the Baltic, relatively declined, while that
of the Atlantic seaboard grew by leaps and bounds. New and large
companies came into existence, formed on the joint-stock principle.
Over them the various governments exercised a large control, giving
them a semi-political character.

{524} [Sidenote: Portugal]

As Portugal was the first to tap the wealth of the gorgeous East, into
her lap fell the stream of gold from that quarter. The secret of her
windfall was the small bulk and enormous value of her cargoes. From
Malabar she fetched pepper and ginger, from Ceylon cinnamon and pearls,
from Bengal opium, the only known conqueror of pain, and with it
frankincense and indigo. Borneo supplied camphor, Amboyna nutmegs and
mace, and two small islands, Temote and Tidor, offered cloves. These
products sold for forty times as much in London or in Antwerp as they
cost in the Orient. No wonder that wealth came in a gale of perfume to
Lisbon. The cost of the ship and of the voyage, averaging two years
from departure to return, was $20,000, and any ship might bring back a
cargo worth $750,000. But the risks were great. Of the 104 ships that
sailed from 1497-1506 only 72 returned. In the following century of
about 800 Portuguese vessels engaged in the India trade nea