THE OLD WORLD AND THE 15TH CENTURY.

In the 15th century a major and profound change occurred in trade activities in the Old World. Just as the Renaissance brought about a new spirit in religion, so the trading world was the manifestation of the same forces in its economic domain.
This trend affected european societies in many ways. A renewed study of the classics were on its way leading to an acquaintance with the literature and scientific knowledge of the Greeks and Romans, stimulating an interest in nature and natural science.
In religion the inquiry into the relations of man and God led to changes in theological doctrines and church organizations.
In the economic sphere the art of navigation was improved, the routes of trade were altered, new commodities were introduced into the European market, and the general standard of living was raised under the materialistic point of view.
The most important phase of the trade expansion of Europe was that with the Orient. Trade between Europe and Asia had been almost destroyed during the break-up of the Roman Empire, but about the 10th century some of the Italians towns began to send ships to the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Crusaders gave further impetus to a revival during which Venetian and other Italian traders gained a name in Constantinople and other Eastern points, and Europeans developed a taste for Oriental wares.
Certain goods were in special demand and among these were edible spices.
The diet of the Europeans of those times was limited and monotonous as well as coarse. It lacked potatoes (white and sweet) that later were brought to them from the land of the Incas, together with pumpkins, corn, squashes, tomatoes, and sugar beans, and which today give such welcome variety to the European diet.
Because of the lack of winter fodder, most of the cattle were slaughtered in the fall, and their flesh was smoked or salted down for winter use. The meat was tough, strong in flavor, and unappetizing, and the cooks were unskillful. To such dishes spices gave flavor and variety. Even ale and wines were highly spiced, and pepper, nutmegs, and cloves were eaten as delicacies. Also the limited area of production suitable for those spices which was an issue in those days, they must be obtained from the East. Nutmegs, cloves, and all spice grew only in the Spice Islands of the Malay Archipelago; pepper and cinnamon-bark came from Ceylon, Sumatra, or Western India; and ginger was found in Arabia, India, and China.
Precious stones were also highly esteemed for personal adornment and for decoration of shrines and ecclesiastical vestments, and were believed to possess magical powers. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls, emeralds, turquoises, and other precious stones came almost exclusively from Persia, India, and Ceylon.
Drugs, perfumes, dyes, fragrant woods, and gums were also in great demand. In a period when bathing was infrequent the liberal use of scents and perfumes were essential. These articles also were found only in the East.
In addition to the spices, jewels, and pharmaceutical products, the Eastern lands produced manufactured goods of peculiar delicacy or excellence which were also in great demand in Europe. Such were glass, fine porcelains, silks, cottons, brocades, satins, carpets, rugs, hangings, and metal work. From all these valuable goods from the Orient, Europe had only a very few commodities. Woolen cloth, coral, and certain metals such as arsenic, antimony, quicksilver, tin, copper, and lead, found in Europe were highly valued in Asia; but these alone could nor pay for the great amount of Eastern goods consumed by Europeans, and the balance had to be paid in gold and silver. Hence the precious metals were drained off and metallic money grew so scarce in Europe that each coin had a very much greater purchasing power because of the great famine of this precious metals.
At the same time there was a steady conversion of considerable quantities of silver from monetary to industrial uses or to ornamental and sacerdotal uses in the churches and monasteries, thus depleting still further the scanty stock of money in circulation.
In these facts we can see the explanation of the eager search for gold and silver which was one of the strong motives for the European invasion to the land of the New World in which the richness of this soil made the Europeans rich and became the"developed countries of the World."
Today the New World is still being exploited by the lust of those who wants to accumulate more richness from the ground that once were revered and respected as sacred by the people in charge to it. The real power that this people holds, the ones who still revere its land is that the products of their ground still continue feeding the world in every angle of its life with food, precious metals, cloths, etc., and such sacred power is digested by the number of people fed by it continuing in that way its life, now not only in the ground from which it was extracted, but around the World.
One day this real power will be manifested in all the World through the ones who nurtured their souls by digesting it and will be in command and will restore all the riches that were taken from this sacred land and then the World will live in harmony again with the rest of powers co-existing with them.