CHAPTER 4

The Age of Exploration

The first threads in the tapestry of globalization began in ancient times as merchants began trading between their territorial regions and then expanded over intercontinental land routes. The extended navigation of the Mediterranean Sea basin further enhanced the process as ships ­moving along the Red Sea and then making their way by hugging the coast across the Arabian Sea to India opened up water venues to new territories. These initial commercial connections between the East and the West were dubbed the Incense Road, or the Spice Route, and then the Silk Road. These vestiges of international trade stretching from Europe to Asia operated from 100 BCE to around 1500 CE. The merchants who traveled in these early global trade routes exchanged not only goods but also knowledge—knowledge of different peoples and their cultures, sciences, and religions. The world grew up and civilization advanced as technologies in the fields of chemistry, astronomy, and mathematics were transferred from region to region. Even the more practical aspects of life—from paper making and printing to glass and ceramic production—were exchanged. ­Innovations in irrigation construction, architectural design, and navigation techniques—along with a multitude of new products and artistic use of native raw materials—found their way across territories, which enhanced the lives of these fledgling intergraded societies in the ancient world.

While it has been proven that people moved from one continent to another via adjacent land masses and coastal navigation, the first use of the world’s two great oceans—the Atlantic and the Pacific—is open to historic interpretation as to which social group on the shores of either of these great water masses initiated first contact. John Blasford-Snell provides evidence that South Americans could have had trading contacts with Africa around 1000 BCE using reed boats to journey across the ocean.1 This notion is exemplified by Kon-Tiki, the name of the raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands. Historians have documented, to a degree, the Vikings’ crossing of the Atlantic Ocean and the Chinese fleet’s 1421 voyage around the world.

However, the golden age of world exploration, which was well recorded and evidenced beginning in the 15th century and lasting until the 17th century, is considered the next great step in the evolution of ­civilization and the second stage in globalization. It was ushered in by three motivational inspirations that converged into a singular initiative: (a) the desire to explore the world and to satisfy a natural curiosity as to what lies beyond one’s borders—to reach out and touch others—as inspired by the Renaissance; (b) the drive to propagate religion and bring the world into the fold of European Christianity; and (c) the need to help cement the economic policy of mercantilism as embraced by the monarchs of the royal houses in Europe in the late 14th century. This last impetus for monopolistic commercialization of the world, whose real underlying intention was power and wealth, drove nations to seek out new lands and combine the aforementioned individual ideals into an imperialistic attitude—not only to colonize underdeveloped regions but also to literally carve up and control trading areas of the world. This era in commercial globalization was perhaps not only the most extensive but also the cruelest, as it robbed many indigenous populations of their sovereign rights and exploited their natural resources.

It should be noted, however, that early Chinese and European sea voyagers encountered some societies whose socioeconomic systems were deeply communal. In these systems, tribal sharing was a common ­practice, and the concept of individual property rights was an alien idea: People in the closed community simply took what they needed from one another with no offering of replacement in kind. Laurence Bergreen recounts the tale, as inscribed in the captain’s log of Ferdinand Magellan’s flagship, of the first visit by a group of natives on board Magellan’s vessel.2 He notes that, like thieves in the night, they scampered about picking up anything that intrigued them, expecting to take these things ashore with them. The recognition of personal property rights and the desire for ­individual wealth accumulation were alien concepts to highly collective societies whose ­isolated island social interaction never brought them into contact with other civilizations. Teaching such tribal inhabitants the concept of private ownership and hence respect for another’s property became a ­fundamental cornerstone of the early process of barter practiced by other societies the Magellan fleet encountered. A similar experience is related by the Chinese fleet as they sailed around the world in 1421.3 They also encountered previously remote groups whose geographical ­separation did not allow for contact with new resources; hence, these groups had not developed the notion of exchange of property. Barter may be one of the first practices of ancient peoples, but such an action might require a ­territorial proximity to a physically alien environment that offers resources they need or want to trade for. Barter, however, remains the founding father of the exchange process, the patriarch of today’s ­globalization—that is, trade and commerce practiced on a worldwide basis.

Mercantilism

While the partnering of government and commercial trading is inherent in the history of mankind and continues today, this economic theory reached its zenith across the globe in the policies and actions of Western European countries from the early 16th to late 18th centuries and thereby affected the world as never before. The term mercantilism is defined as ­economic nationalism, the purpose being the building of a wealthy and powerful state by achieving a favorable balance of trade (exports minus imports) whose criteria are measured by the accumulation of gold and silver by a sovereign nation in constant competition with other nation-states. It is a form of protectionism that uses tariffs and subsidies to achieve its goals.4 The mercantilist agenda emerging in Europe during the 15th century, and continuing throughout the rest of the world into ­perhaps the 19th century under neomercantilism, has been cited as the chief motivation for imperialism in the form of war and colonial expansion. Even before this extended period, the desire to dominate or monopolize commerce trade in a region or the global trade of specific commodities, such as incense or spices, is traceable to mercantilist principles. The development of the mercantile theory in the literature is perhaps best attributed to merchant Thomas Mun, whose 1664 posthumously published England’s Treasure by Foreign Trade5 was attacked by Adam Smith as the prime manifesto encouraging governments to follow this policy.6 Smith, a free-market advocate, felt that such nationalistic policies stymied domestic growth and that free and open trade among nations provided a more beneficial economic outcome.

The mercantile classes, both domestic businesses and foreign merchants, prodded governments to enact regulatory policies that would protect their business interests against foreign competition, uniting the interests of the state and private parties. What makes this economic proposition different from the normal pairing of government and private commercial interests is that, during the mercantilism period, military conflict between states was more frequent and more extensive around the world than at any other time in history. A full-time state of global war was employed to support and sustain commercial objectives, with most ­entanglements situated on the world’s oceans. The objectives of ­mercantilism on world trade were to strangle cross-border exchanges between nations and accumulate, via colonization, as many resources as ­possible to be placed under a singular national flag (i.e., control). ­Economic ­protectionism of the singular state from competing countries was the impetus and global commercial imperialism was the tool to achieve this mandate. Although the mercantile concept did not publicly emerge in the literature until the later 1600s, its basic tenets were embraced by Europe’s royal houses although not announced as a national policy.

Setting the Stage

In ancient times, the vast riches of the East trickled into Western Europe via networks of connected overland routes. Merchandise on such paths changed hands many times before eventually reaching the final consumer. At each independent exchange, the price was increased. The transport costs were also high and the efficiencies low, as camel or horse ­caravans—each carrying a small load—were mostly used. ­Constantinople was ­geographically positioned on the crossroad of East and West in 1453. Controlled by the Muslim Turks, the valued cargos they permitted to pass through their territory created a virtual monopoly of trade and made them extremely wealthy. However, the Italian port cities, acting as ­middlemen on the next western stop after Constantinople, were satisfied with being part of the old trade route cartel. This prompted the monarchs of Portugal, Spain, England, and France to find a sea route to the East that would eliminate the stranglehold on imports from the Orient. They were prepared to outfit ships for sea captains sailing in search of the elusive ocean route that would bypass historic land passages and allow them direct access to eastern markets. With the kings’ approval of the proposed enterprises and with the explorers’ promise to defend the claims to discovered lands in the name of their liege lord and to share the rewards with the royal houses (the king of Spain received one-fifth of all gold and silver recovered on the voyages), the quest began. Governments’ financial and political sponsorship of merchants was born and, with the blessing of the Catholic Church, the Western European exploration of the world was devised.

European Exploration: Behind the Push for World Trade Dominance

Notwithstanding the aforementioned global exploration of the great ­Chinese fleet in 1421 or the earlier legendary voyages across the Atlantic by the Phoenicians or perhaps the Vikings to the Western Hemisphere, the push for a route to the East from Europe to directly obtain the riches of China and southeast Asia was one of the prime ­motivations for the historic exploits of the European explorers who took to the sea. The desire to find a new, more direct, and more efficient route for the spice and silk trades, along with the quest for silver and gold, drove these courageous voyages. With the eastern Mediterranean and the land trade routes to the East being controlled by the Turkish Empire, it was ­inevitable that another route would be proposed to reach what the Venetian ­chronographer Marco Polo had proclaimed in his 1285 collaborative best-selling book The Description of the World (or simply known as ­Travels) as the golden land.

The publication of Polo’s exploits was a door opener, a literary bridge connecting the East and West, and as such it was a demarcation line ­inviting the next stage in globalization. It described the mysterious ­wonders of foreign lands, from new products to alien cultural customs and sights. It was a book that changed the world. At the time of Marco Polo, the Silk Road from China to Rome was already a well-traveled merchant highway, as chronicled in the extensive essay Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China.7 Polo’s widely ­distributed book began to transform previously exotic, opulent prized goods into more normal household commodities throughout Europe; the result was the development of the initial mass market concept. It also acted as a travel brochure, opening up a whole new culturally diverse world for the ­average European citizen. Marco Polo traveled with his father and uncle to the court of Kublai Khan, the successor to Genghis Khan; this merchant family used a document called the Pax Mongolica, a decree first introduced by Genghis that insured safe passage across the empire for traders. After uniting the world’s largest geographical ­territory, stretching from China through Mesopotamia and into eastern Europe, the great ruler recognized the need to keep trade routes open and flourishing so that the economic prosperity of his subjects would continue. Besides instituting common laws, he preserved property rights, an important condition inherent in the trading process.

Upon Polo’s return to Venice, around 1295, during his imprisonment in the rival nation-state of Genoa, he chronicled his journey with the assistance of the Italian romantic novelist Rustichello da Pisa, resulting in The Description of the World (originally published in French and titled Le Devisement du monde). The Venetians, so taken by the book’s adventurous tales, which perhaps were enhanced by the creative imaginative efforts of Polo’s collaborator, began to call him Il Milione, or the Man of a ­Million Stories. Like the mythical Persian queen Scheherazade, whose life was spared due to her ability to recite 1,001 nightly tales, thereby captivating her king, the book’s detailed and colorful exploits made it a European best seller, as all levels of society were drawn to its amazing descriptions of a land filled with potential riches and wonderful sights. Not only was it ­valued as an adventure book, but it also served to educate a widening ­population on the unique and specialized goods the Far East produced. It was in essence a travel brochure coupled with a consumer-like ­introductory catalog to exotic new products that increased the appetite of the average shopper. It is said that even Christopher ­Columbus ­carried a copy on his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere to serve as an ­inspiration for his exploration. Some historians also note that the second Polo expedition was blessed by Pope Gregory X and that their merchant activities were intertwined with the church, a further ­reference to the partnering of religion with the commercial imperative as seen in later European explorations. However, the impetus for such a papal sanction may, as recounted in Laurence ­Bergreen’s book,8 have originated in reverse with Kublai Khan requesting the original introduction via the merchant intermediaries. Polo’s book had the European population so excited that for the centuries that followed, the inspiration for travel to distant lands to seek fortune and fame was mutually shared by royal houses, commercial merchants, and even the church. It acted as a unifier of desire, resulting in the great explorers of the 17th century, and as a catalyst for increased globalization. While the human imperative to trade with distant territories for goods of unique and prized value is traceable to much earlier periods of time, the popularity and dissemination of Polo’s account of his journey impacted the world like no other document before or after (with the possible exception of religious texts).

Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, a Florentine tradesman and contemporary of Marco Polo, authored one of the first managerial commercial references offering a practical guide for successfully transacting with intermediaries on the Silk Road. Called Market Practices, it contained information on exchange rates, customs regulations, and intercontinental shipping arrangements, as well as other tips for dealing with different cultures in the cross-territorial trading process. While it was the precursor for the numerous modern-day scholastic textbooks as well as trade and governmental publications on international business, it also served as a classical introduction to establishing relationships with alien societies—a cultural anthropological guide.

Another Early Explorer

While Marco Polo and other early European explorers of the world are routinely recorded in history books, perhaps due to a bit of ­Western ­literary bias, little if nothing is ever mentioned of Ibn Battuta (full name: Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta while also known as Sham ad-Din), one of the most remarkable travelers and chroniclers of the ancient world. Even geography books in Muslim countries, let alone those published in the West, tell of his remarkable journey covering over 75,000 miles, much more than Marco Polo. Battuta began his travels from Tangier in 1325 when he was just 20 years old, about 30 years after the recorded 1271 to 1295 excursions of the more famous Marco Polo. His initial goal was to go on a Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca as his Muslim faith required, but he continued on for 30 years. His exploits covered the equivalent of 44 modern-day countries. Under the insistence of Sultan Abu Inan of Morocco, who felt his story should be preserved for scholars, he dictated his accounts at the end of his life to Ibn Juzzay al-Kalbi. It is interesting to note that Marco Polo also did not write of his own exploits but also dictated them to another. The book is commonly titled Rihla–My Travels. But this designation describes its genre. The true title is Tuhfat al-Nuzzar fi Ghara’ib al-Amsar wa-’Aja;ib al-Asfar, which translates into A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling.

Battuta’s mainly traveled to areas of the Dar al-Islam or the Muslim World. He was traversing the land territories that Muslim traders had already ventured into and where they had established communities; so he benefited from their charity and hospitality, both tenets of the Islamic religion. He was also able to take advantage of the vast maritime activities of his fellow Muslim brethren who dominated 13th-century merchant shipping in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and even Chinese waters. The extent of the areas he visited is enormous. From the wide coastline of North Africa and even Granada he moved down the western side of the continent into the interior of the Mali Empire and its magnificent trading city Timbuktu. While traveling east he circumvented the Mamluk Empire from Cairo to Palestine and the Arabian cities of Medina and Mecca and then into the lower portion of Africa including Mogodishu, Mombasa, Kilwa, and Mozambique. His journey cross the Ilkhan Empire brought him to the Seljuks just shy of the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople and on to Baghdad. Venturing further east, he crossed Kabul and entered India, where he visited the Sultanate of Delhi where he was appointed an envoy. His official duties brought him to Calcutta, the Maldives Islands, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, and eventually the Chinese cities of Canton and Peking as well as others during the Yuan Dynasty, 50 years after Marco Polo. To get a better appreciation of the massive territories Battuta traveled across see Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1 Travels of Ibn Battuta in the 14th century

The descriptions Battuta dictated of his accounts are very vivid and detailed. Unlike Polo, who took more time to comment on the ­authoritative and governmental aspects of his journey, Battuta devotes more pages to painting pictures of the landscape he saw. However, as a keen observer of local customs and traditions practiced by the people he met as they interacted with the environment around them, he offered great insights into how people lived their daily lives. He does therefore include references to their trading value system, noting what is most prized in their lands. While Polo’s primary mission was to be a merchant, Battuta was more of an observational tourist. However, the profiles he offered, in conjunction with the Muslim business communities that served as his guides, provided a tacit consumer marketing survey as to the interconnected needs of people. His book deserves greater recognition for the contribution to garnering an understanding and appreciation of the ancient world. Just like Polo’s book, they both provide an insight into the process of early globalization.

Exploring the World

Trans-regional exploration over land and via a confined body of water, the Mediterranean, was presented in Chapter 2 examining the beginning of recorded trade. However, the navigation of the world’s oceans sailing from one continent to another, a truly global endeavor, has been harder to discern. The nautical timeline for humankind keeps getting pushed further and farther back in history as the inspection of seas and river beds yields the possibilities of earlier-than-thought cross-continental ocean venturing. Some researchers feel that the Phoenicians may have ventured into the Atlantic Ocean reaching the western coast of Africa with the Norsemen or Vikings touching Greenland, Iceland, and the ­northeastern shores of North America. Others consider the 1421 voyage of the ­Chinese Star fleet, as previously mentioned, as the first to navigate both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans reaching almost all the continents of the earth. Ancient maps detailing such marvelous adventures have not yet emerged to confirm such contentions.

The earliest recorded mapping of continents separated by oceans was drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis an admiral of the Turkish fleet that depicts the western coast of Africa and across a vast body of water (Atlantic Ocean) the eastern shore lines of South America as well as the ocean front land mass of Antarctica. The reference to a terrestrial body at the southern pole of the world is considered the most puzzling as, according to geological evidence, this could only have existed around 4000 BCE, the last period before ice covered the entire area. Admiral Reis’s notes accompanying his cartographic illustration as drawn on a gazelle skin indicate that he ­compiled and copied the rendering from other sources dating back to the fourth century BCE. Supposedly, Reis used ancient renderings of land masses on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as gleaned from illustrations contained in the Imperial Library of Constantinople; these might have been saved and then stolen following the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.

Figure 4.2 Shorelines of land masses drawn by Admiral Reis in 1513 as superimposed on a modern-day map of the world

Some scholars have surmised that the venturing of the first European sailors in the 15th century to find a sea route to the East was not based on speculation. In fact, they already possessed references indicating that land masses did exist out and across the vast unknown ocean, perhaps those relied on by Admiral Reis. They further conclude that the only reason such illustrations survived was their value signaling lucrative trade routes used by ancient civilizations as clearly no sovereign kingdom claimed them as their own.

European Exploration

Chronologically, the age of European exploration of the oceans evolved as follows. It would seem natural that the first group of world explorers would emerge from Portugal, itself situated on the Atlantic Ocean. The first of the sea voyages of the age of discovery was that of Infante Dom Henrique (Prince Henry the Navigator), who sailed to the Madeiras and Azores while traveling south along the coast of Africa and reached the western bulge of the continent known then as Cabo de Nao in 1430. He was followed by Gil Eanes and Fernao Gomes, who reached the Guinea, Gold, and Ivory coasts. Years later, these ports would become staging areas for the slave trade. In 1486, Bartolomew Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope, continued north up the east African coast, and discovered a sea route to India. Numerous Portuguese sea voyages followed, many of them targeting the Brazilian coast, which was first discovered by the 1499 transatlantic voyage of Amerigo Vespucci of Spain, whose name evolved into terms denoting the North and South American continents. Various other Spanish explorers made their way to the New World in search of wealth. Ferdinand Magellan explored the coastal straits of Patagonia off the southern tip of South America and found himself in the Pacific Ocean, opening a new dangerous path to the Orient and in essence circumventing the globe. The actual attempt to militarily colonize or simply suppress the indigenous populations encountered by these early adventurers began with Hernando Cortez, who in 1521 conquered the Aztecs of Mexico and forced them to turn over their kingdoms’ riches to the invaders. Twelve years later, Francisco Pizarro defeated the Inca Empire and in doing so claimed most of South America for Spain, the largest amount of territory taken by any nation during the age of discovery.

During the last 1400s, the English also sailed west looking for the illusive water gateway to the treasure-filled East. John Cabot, a citizen of Venice, Italy (born Giovanni Caboto in Genoa), set sail under the flag of England in 1497, reaching Belle Island on the northern coast of Newfoundland in North America. His second try was a disaster, as his four-ship fleet was lost at sea. Ten years later, his son Sebastian Cabot, born in Venice, supposedly also searched for a northwest passage to the East. The English did return, looking again for this magic water route in 1527 under Captain John Rut. But, like Cabot Sr., he only got as far as ­Newfoundland and Labrador.

The work of ocean discovery as noted earlier was initially undertaken by the sovereign commissioned agents of Portugal and Spain, and later joined by those flying the English and then French banners. It should be noted that not all other European nations participated. The Italian port cities were basically satisfied with their historic domination of the existing but constricting routes in the Mediterranean. The Scandinavian countries were far too removed from direct trade contact with the east, although, less than 200 years later, the Netherlands would create the Dutch West Indies Company and thereby explode on the global trading scene. ­Germany was split into too many small regional states, none of which could mount an expedition by itself or in conjunction with the others.

While the generally shared onus for European exploration was the desire to secure an alternative direct route to the riches of the East, thereby cutting out Middle Eastern intermediaries, the need to do so was made even more important by an event in 1453 that disrupted world trade. After the Ottoman Empire took control of Constantinople, it blocked European land access to the east, severely limiting commercial exchanges between the two sides of the world. Additionally, the Turkish kingdom similarly obstructed the southern trade routes across North Africa and the Red Sea. The necessity to find another way to make contact with eastern merchants and break the Ottoman land monopoly only served to ­intensify the magnificent quest of these brave explorers.

Christopher Columbus: The Prolific Explorer

Of all the early explorers the most prolific in terms of trips was Christopher Columbus. In the mid-1400s, while the Portuguese devoted all their efforts to going around the cape of Africa, the Spaniards, after science had established that the world was indeed round, were willing to hear a ­proposal to sail westward to reach the wealth of China. At the time, Venice, England, and Columbus’s native land, Genoa, rebuffed his travel overtures. As he was willing to sell his services to the highest bidder, he continued to approach other royal thrones until Ferdinand and Isabella, the crowned heads of Castile, finally agreed to fund his expedition against the advice of their conservative counselors. This was a difficult time for the Spanish monarchy not only because they had just expelled the ­invading Moors but also because the loyal and commercially intelligent Jews had brought their nation into economic jeopardy. After 72 days at sea on his first voyage, his tiny armada of three small ships and 87 men reached an island in the Caribbean. His second journey discovered additional islands in the West Indies, while his third, in 1498, landed him on the coast of South America, presumably in the area of Guiana and Venezuela. During his fourth voyage, still searching for a western passage to the spice islands in the Pacific, he attempted to establish a settlement ostensibly to mine for gold.

The journal of Columbus, during his initial journey, reveals that while the mission was to secure gold, precious stones and pearls, and spices—“an infinite number of things that would be profitable”9—his thoughts also included strong references to control and dominate the native people not only under the rule of the Spanish monarchy but also under the ­protection of its Christian heritage from outsiders, a veiled reference to the political tenure of the times, as noted in the following excerpt:

I say that if Christendom will find profit among these people, how much more will Spain, to whom the whole country should be subject. Your Highnesses ought not to consent that any stranger should trade here, or put his foot in the country, except Catholic Christians, for this was the beginning and end of the ­undertaking; namely, the increase and glory of the Christian religion, and that no other should come to these parts who was not a good ­Christian.10

Columbus further advises the monarchy to build a city and fortress to convert the people as the new lands are acquired by Spain and all its riches should flow back home. The mercantile trading policy is recounted and it is further strengthened when joined by a religious determination. The blessing of the economic principle by the Catholic Church provided what was in essence a commercial venture with a spiritual undertaking and set the stage for a coming period with the righteous reward of forced colonization being rationalized.

The Commercial Imperative Continues

On the exploratory heels of Bartolomeu Dias rounding the Atlantic side of the Cape of Good Hope on the horn of Africa and Vasco de Gama retracing the route in 1497 but sailing further to east to India, the Far East was transformed via a closer partnership with Europe and the West. ­Ferdinand Magellan in 1519 set sail from Seville, Spain, and ­circumvented the world. Although other explorers and pioneers followed in their ­hallowed footsteps, the prime objective of each was a shared objective, the commercial globalization of the world for the benefit of the singular monarchs of major European nations.

Bergreen’s documents explain that spices played an essential trading role in civilizations since antiquity and were the motivating force for early intercontinental trade and global exploration in the early 1400s.11 Such exceedingly priceless merchandise was the forerunner of the search for other valuable materials and products that played an important role in the development of the globalization imperative. History tells us that other later prized resources—silk as well as gold and silver—drove the world’s trading legacy. Like oil today, the quest in those days by ­Europeans for resources found in foreign lands drove the world’s economy and influenced global politics; and again, like oil in modern times, the search for such rare commodities became inextricably intertwined with ­exploration, conquest, and imperialism—the drivers of both early and modern globalization.

Such considerations led to the period of mercantilism, the desire for national states to create ancient world empires by controlling the spice trade. Arab merchants traded spices across land routes from northern ­Arabia across Constantinople (Turkey), through Asia Minor, and finally to China. By concealing the origins of cinnamon, pepper, cloves, and nutmeg, such traders were able to gain a monopoly and control prices. ­Europeans came to believe that the spices came from Africa, when in fact they merely changed hands in the region. Such a middleman principle of value added at the intermediate level in the channels of distribution process is still with us today. Those who control the distribution stand to make more than those who actually make the items. Oil at its chief source is cheap but at the pump its inherent value increases manifold. The ­garment sewn by a two-dollar-a-day laborer in emerging nations ­translates to a high premium in the hands of the market distributor at the retail segment of the distribution channel.

Under the traditional trade system, spices, along with damasks (a prized reversible fabric of linen, silk, cotton, or wool, woven with ­patterns); diamonds; pearls; opiates (medicine containing opium and used for ­inducing sleep and relieving pain); plus other exotic goods reached Europe, the chief consuming environment, by slow, costly, and indirect routes over land and sea: from China and the Indian Ocean through the Middle East and Persian Gulf, arriving in Italy or the south of France, and then delivered overland to their final destinations. Along the way, they went through a multitude of hands, and at every juncture of the voyage, their prices increased manifold.

As noted earlier, the global spice trade underwent a political upheaval in 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Turks and the time-honored overland routes between Asia and Europe were severed. The prospect of finding and establishing a spice trade route opened up new opportunities for any European nation able to master the seas. If a direct ocean route could be found in the Spice Islands, the reward would be the control over the world’s economy. The lure of such riches compelled monarch financiers—eager to extend their power and rule—to support ­explorers and hence launched the era of expedition. Such desires were assisted by the development of a new type of ship for the seas, a smaller, more ­maneuverable vessel distinguished by its triangular lateen sail. Until such time, ships were built like large floating boxes or galleys relying on ­oarsman or fixed sails for power. With the invention of the movable sail, coupled with construction of a more shallow draft hull, pilots could set a course close to the wind and permit the navigational concept of tack to be employed, allowing for the constant shifting of the track to take ­advantage of the wind from one direction and then from another—­zigzagging against the wind to a fixed point. In ­Portugal, such pursuit attracted the best minds of the day, bringing together ­navigators, shipwrights or builders, astronomers, pilots, cosmographers, and ­cartographers. This ­ambitious exploration of the world resulted in the age of discovery and the next leap in globalization. The chief motivator then—­commercialization of the globe through trade—instigated technological advances in much the same way that the desire to reach out and touch the world today has forced and nurtured communication improvements and other modern advances to bring the world close together.

Although scholars differ on the initial exploration of North ­America, noting the possible accounts of visits by the Vikings and the Chinese as previously mentioned, the opening of commercial undertakings with the continent is usually traced to the first celebrated 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus. His second trip, laden with settlers, foretold the establishment of a true trading colony. While it is well accepted that mercantile-oriented European monarchs were desirous of ­accumulating wealth and power not via equalized exchange but through conquest and colonization of new territories, the specter of the religious influence helped to propel the process.

Potosi: The Colonial Spanish Bell

As the world grew up on the heels of the exploration begun by ­Christopher Columbus, the opening of the New World by European sovereigns led to a period of colonization aimed at extracting the riches of the Western Hemisphere. The Spanish, already the purveyors of newfound wealth due to their conquest of the Aztecs to the north and the Incas in the south, expanded their imperial influence across South America. Upon the ­discovery of silver-rich ore deposits in the mountain called Cerro Rico (rich hill or mountain), the City of Potosi was constructed in Bolivia in 1544. For the next 50 years, this area produced the most fabulous source of the precious metal silver the world had ever known and perhaps will ever know.

Collaterally, the city, perhaps the highest one in the world at 13,420 ft. (4,090 m), was one of the largest and wealthiest metropolises of its time. At its zenith, 200,000 people lived in the city, making it the most populous metropolis of its day, exceeding London, Paris, and Madrid. The mining of the silver ore made it the ancient world’s biggest ­industrial ­complex. The process of extraction utilized a most ­sophisticated and ­intricate ­system of aqueducts and artificial lakes, as water was a key ­component in the extraction of the silver. Using the patio process of refinement, the raw silver ore was formed into an amalgam with ­mercury, washed, and then heated to burn off the mercury. This process, as well as the mining effort itself, was extremely labor intensive, as was the ­physical transport of the finalized ingots on the backs of human mules to the ­Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for export back to Europe and the Orient. Local ­indigenous ­Indians formed the bulk of the coerced workforce built on the Incan Mita institution of conscripted labor. Men from 18 to 50 years of age, taken by force from the 16 highland provinces, provided the mining camps with a virtual slave force for 17 weeks a year. ­Thousands perished, about one out of eight dying on the job due to the toxic ­mercury fumes in the ­refinement process, the foul air in the shafts as they toiled at depths of 700 ft. without proper ventilation, and the ­arduous journey to port ­facilities weighted down with loads normally meant for beasts of burden, not men. The necessity for such a large workforce was the eventual cause for the abduction and transportation of slaves from Africa to supplement the local work contingent. Records indicate that around 1608, approximately 2,000 slave workers per year were ­introduced into the mining operations and that a total of 30,000 were placed in human bondage during the Spanish colonial period. Portuguese traders acted as middlemen in the process, purchasing captured prisoners of war from other African tribes while also at times resorting to the outright kidnapping of native populations, aided and abetted by local Arab slave merchants.

Due to the export of silver and the construction of a mint that produced reals years later, the city was admired and valued. It was the prized jewel in the Spanish Empire, allowing for the accumulated wealth to be used not only to finance their consolidation of Western ­Hemisphere operations but also to travel around the world and solidify their ­influence in the Far East via the establishment of trading activities in the ­Philippines. The precious metal became the first universally accepted medium of exchange and its value was prized not only by all countries in cross-border trading but also internally in the everyday market activities of domestic citizens around the world. In some regions, silver was ­presented in bullion form, while in other areas it was minted into the coin of the realm such as the real or guilder. The base ore, however, remained as the symbol of material value and Potosi itself became synonymous with good fortune and the phrase as rich as Potosi made its way into the English language. For the first 50 years of the mining operation, Potosi was the most fabulous source of silver the world had ever known. It is estimated from records kept by local authorities that from 1556 to 1783 more than 45,000 tons of pure silver was taken from mountain veins of Cerro Rico. The architecture of the city was magnificent, as artists from around the world were recruited to build sumptuous structures featuring elaborate carved columns, lavishly sculptured gates, and Byzantine domes. More than 86 churches were erected in the city, a testament to the city’s importance as the centerpiece of global social life, itself deeply influenced by the Catholic Church.

By the end of the 1700s, the mines were exhausted; competition from other New World sources had begun to grow and a drop in the ­worldwide price of sliver itself deeply affected Potosi’s economy. ­Internal strife between the city’s colonialist overlords and the native population caused further deterioration while a series of natural disasters from floods to earthquakes ravaged the land. Slowly, this once-magnificent city, ­prominent for being the world’s supplier of silver, faded away. Although global trading expeditions had sparked the city’s establishment, they were also responsible for its demise.

Such horrific treatment of native populations and perhaps the greatest wholesale abuse of global human rights occurred during the colonization of the Western Hemisphere by European powers. Tens of thousands of native Africans were sold into slavery and transported across the ­Atlantic. Placed in perpetual bondage, they labored alongside ­domesticated ­animals on plantations in the American south, the Caribbean islands, and Central America. In South America, as noted earlier, they ­supplemented indigenous populations in the mineral-extraction process with both groups considered savages, more like beasts of burden. As world trade was dramatically propelled forward, following the activities of 15th-­century explorers, the business practices that emerged in underdeveloped ­countries were based on the deplorable commercial colonialism practices originally induced in them by the conquistadors. Many business ventures put aside respect for human dignity. Their treatment of the local ­citizens was overshadowed by the quest for new resources, which could bring wealth to foreign traders.

Obsessed with finding a northwest passage to the Pacific, commercial expeditions moved across the newly discovered North American eastern frontier only to encounter a local environment rich with animal hides whose value when imported back to Europe increased manifold. As noted earlier, those merchants involved in the process secured vast profits as trade goods, beaver and otter skins, valued at one livre when they left the New World were worth 200 livres when they arrived back in the fashion-conscious European capitals.12 Area Indian tribes were pressed into service, first by the French and later the British and Dutch in the attainment of these precious commodities, with merchants of each nation looking to protect their valued monopoly. The tribes were manipulated and used like pawns, with wars between them instigated by these varying groups for dominance of the fur trade. They were supplied with guns and ammunition for the sole purpose of destroying competing hunters from other tribes. The Indians never equally participated in the extraordinary wealth inherent in their supply chain activities, a criticism often leveled at modern-day multinational corporations (MNCs) as they take ­advantage of the citizens of emerging nations of today. Certainly, the slaves on plantations in the North American south and those placed in mining operation in South America were deprived of not only an economic livelihood but also their lives.

Centuries later, the atrocities practiced by such business enterprises were still accruing. David Grann in The Lost City of Z recounts in vivid detail how genocide was used to control the native population used by the British-registered Peruvian Amazon Company in the extraction of rubber in the late 1800s. As verified by the 1904 UK government’s Casement Report, public beheading was a common punishment, while rebellious Indians had gasoline poured on them and were set on fire, drowned, or fed alive to ravenous dogs.13 They were castrated, physically mutilated, and starved to death. Company henchmen raped women and young girls while smashing their infants’ heads to the ground—all to keep the precious rubber extract flowing back to Europe and the world. Such vile actions by Western companies—perhaps not to the degree practiced in Peru, but nevertheless still humanly despicable—have been historically accounted for in Africa, India, and the Far East, as the commercially engineered need to enrich themselves on the backs of the indigenous populations in search and extraction of local natural resources has always plagued business institutions in the expansion of their global ­operations. Reprehensible remnants of such policies are still noticeable today as some MNCs outsource to the sweatshops of modern underdeveloped ­countries and directly or indirectly partner with repressive governments to limit and suppress human rights. While the barbaric physical handling of people who came into contact with imported commercial activities is ­historically well ­documented, one should not overlook the unequal economic ­treatment of the indigenous population when it came to their rights to freely conduct business transactions not only between ­themselves but also with other cross-territorial parties.

Prior to the great age of discovery propelled by mercantile thinking, the idea of cross-border free trade first surfaced within one of civilizations hallowed documents, the Magna Carta. It is often cited as one of the first public instruments leading to an emancipated human existence and considered a catalyst for democratic principles when the English baron forced King John in 1215 to recognize their limited rights thereby ­curtailing to a degree his absolute sovereign control over all citizens in his domain. Beyond this social breakthrough, the document contains two chapters devoted to the recognition of cross-border trade as a necessary protected activity worthy of the sovereign’s proclamation to be the law of the land. This hallowed declaration also echos similar concepts found in Pax Mongolica. It is also considered a fundamental announcement for the idealistic foundation of allowing the right of people to engage freely in cross-border trade found in the Declaration of Independence by the fledgling U.S. coalition of colonies in 1776 discussed in the following.

Chapters 41 and 42 of the Magna Carta allow for all merchants to safely and securely go out of England and come into England by land as well as water for the purpose of buying and selling. The term ­merchants included foreign traders and requested the same treatment for British ­merchant’s traveling abroad, even during times of war. Such ­demonstrative language seemingly placed those involved in international commercial ventures in a specialized class and thereby recognized the importance of both ­domestic and cross-territorial exchange as valuable to the ­country and thereby the crown. The decree stressed the ­importance of the roots of ­globalization as a progressive complement to the ­development of ­civilization. But throughout the mercantile period, restrictions were placed on local colonial citizens that might conflict with or damage the exclusive trading rights granted to foreign merchants—that is, citizens of sovereign nations who control their countries. The commercial ­globalization of the world, which began in earnest during the age of ­discovery, would later lead to periods of colonization around the world and the formation of new ­countries. The accelerated process would also raise complicated questions as to the international trading rights of nations and the use of the high seas as the neutral transactional highways for a greater interconnected world.

Founding United States via Right-to-Trade Principles

The American Revolution was predicated on unjust trading principles. The famous Boston Tea Party of 1773 came to represent a ­contest between the British Parliament and the American colonies over ­international trade. As European developed a taste for tea in the 17th century, ­numerous competitors were in constant battle for the lucrative trade imports to England that originated in the East Indies. In 1698, the English Parliament gave the East Indian Company the sole right to import tea into the country but retained a tariff tax on the commodity. As tea became an equally popular drink in their colonies around the world, the government sought to also eliminate foreign competition in them by passing an act in 1721 requiring all colonists to only import their tea from England. Tea coming into the American colonies had to transit England, in effect extending the East Indian Company’s territorial monopoly. Although the ­British ­government repealed the Townshend Acts—a series of burdensome ­monetary regulations concerning the colonies—it ­preserved the tea tax, partly as a symbol of the right to tax imports into their satellite territory and partly to aid the financially embarrassed East India ­Company. The tossing of tea from ships in the Boston harbor, then the largest importing location, became a symbolic rallying cry for the fledgling, but soon to be independent, nation. The colonists, taking their cue from the British Parliamentary elected representative system (which had the right to tax their own citizens), declared that they had a similar right, hence the slogan No taxation without representation.

Three years after the Boston Tea Party, the venerable Declaration of Independence in 1776 was issued by the American colonies. It set out the grievances on which this new nation was created. Beyond the document’s famous rhetoric of proclaiming the fundamental rights of all men as endowed by their creator, it cited as the chief reasons the desire to be free and the right to establish Commerce as an independent state within itself despite continuing allegiance to the British Crown. In the Declaration the king was admonished for cutting off trade with all parts of the world, an economic imperative to declare independence and perhaps a reference to the lesson learned from England’s desire to control global trade. The right to conduct international trade is commingled with the inherent unalienable legitimacy of all humanity to be free. Such proclamations continued the legacy of the Magna Carta along with an expanded veiled reference to the freedom-of-the-seas principle, with both documents recognizing the importance of international commerce as the inherent lifeblood of national prosperity and a universal right of sovereign countries.

Trade as a Right for an Independent India

Centuries later, international trade again played a large part in the Indian overthrow of British colonial control and that nation’s subsequent ­independence. The British had controlled India since about the time of the American Revolution. Under British rule, the harvested raw cotton, a prime staple of the Indian economy and a chief employer of its masculine labor force, would be shipped to England where it was woven and spun into cloth using modern mill machines. In turn, the finished products were then shipped back to India, flooding the ­market with cheap ­cotton textiles. As part of their daily ritualized routine, women in India would ­traditionally spin cotton on their native loom, the charkha (a home ­spinning device), and they would gather village groups for the local ­process. This was a deeply rooted social and ­cultural phenomenon that was practiced throughout the country. Although a ­cottage industry, it was the backbone of most rural Indian economy and could not be replaced. ­Britain’s cotton export–import policy crippled the village-based hand-­spinning and cloth-weaving industry. Millions of Indians were thrown out of work and into poverty. Under Gandhi’s pacifist-inspired resistance to British rule, he encouraged the men to spin (traditionally women’s work) and weave their own cloth. The public wearing of ­homespun cloth called khaddar or khadi, meaning rough, became a symbol of the ­revolution. Even Gandhi himself would often spin in public. This economic-based revolution was one of the forces that eventually motivated the British to leave India. Indian men’s refusal to harvest the cotton fields and the patriotic use of the khaddar widened the importation of British-made cloth and impacted English production and their economy. Even today, this historic resentment of colonial economic policy, which promoted free global trade, is remembered. The charkha remains as a symbol on some Indian money and is pictured on the flag of the Indian Congress Party.

Out of the vestiges of mercantile era policy enactment arose the ­independence of two nations. Their struggle was fueled by a desire for free international trade.

Trade as the Basis for a Religious Proclamation

While all religions recognized the socially induced need to barter and exchange in a rightful way and were thereby involved in commenting on the commercial process in their various doctrines (see Chapter 8), the Catholic Church may have had the greatest effect on international trade. The influence of the Catholic order on global trade reached its zenith with the publication of Inter Caetera, a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493. Following the great age of discovery and the first true commercialization of the globe, the bull divided the New World (i.e., the non-European foreign territories) between the Portuguese and the ­Spanish, essentially settling the first global trade issue. The decree divided the two major oceans of the world through a meridian moving east and west, thereby conferring the lucrative trade in such lands via the routes such waters touched. Creating royal monopolies of trade yielded great wealth to these sovereign nations. From the East Indies, rare spices, prized silks, unique woods, and ivory, along with Chinese porcelain, fed the insatiable demand in Europe for exotic consumer ­products, while from the Americas flowed gold, silver, precious stones, furs, and ­eventually tobacco—the historic mainstays of material wealth. The massive traffic between Europe and the colonies not only created a new merchant class in society but also insured the continued funding of the state via the levy of the quinto, the monarchy’s 20 percent tariff as goods transited the ­trading ports. It also helped solidify the power of the church as an ­architect of world economic affairs. The division was unequal due to Spanish influence in the Vatican (Alexander VI himself was of Spanish heritage), which precluded Portugal from trading in Asia. As a remedy to this injustice, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between the two nations in 1494 (see Figure 4.3). Known as the line of demarcation, it divided the lands discovered initially by Christopher Columbus, who claimed them on behalf of Spain, while recognizing the already asserted ­Portuguese rights to the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa. It was a further ratification of the previously noted papal bull, the Inter Caetera. This declared division of territories did not, however, include lands on the other side of the globe (those touched by the Pacific and Indian Oceans). To settle state ownership in this part of the world, the Treaty of Zaragoza (Saragossa) was signed in 1529. It set an antemeridian line that effectively split the world into two hemispheres of national influence and control, limiting the military clashes of the two countries. These documents were precursors to international trade legacy agreements and the collateral creations of systems regulating and promoting global trade.