Commerce formed perhaps the most powerful motive for exploration.
Eastern spices—cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger—were used more
freely in medieval times than now, when people lived on salt meat during the
winter and salt fish during Lent. Even wine, ale, and medicines had a seasoning
of spices. When John Ball wished to contrast the easy life of the lords
with the peasants' hard lot, he said, "They have wines, spices, and fine
bread, while we have only rye and the refuse of the straw." [9] Besides
spices, all kinds of precious stones, drugs, perfumes, gums, dyes, and fragrant
woods came from the East. Since the time of the crusades these luxuries, after
having been brought overland by water to Mediterranean ports, had been
distributed by Venetian and Genoese merchants throughout Europe. But now
in the fifteenth century two other European peoples—the Portuguese and
Spaniards—appeared as competitors for this Oriental trade. Their efforts to
break through the monopoly enjoyed by the Italian cities led to the discovery
of the sea routes to the Indies. The Portuguese were first in the field.
