=188. Wars occasioned by commercial interests; military aspect of commerce in this period.=—Still another class of wars can be distinguished in which the religious or dynastic motive might enter to some extent, but in which the commercial motive was predominant. The reader should be cautioned against an extravagant idea of the power of government to extend commerce. At the present time this power seems very slight indeed. It was, however, far greater in the period under consideration. References in preceding sections to the prevalence of piracy and to the warlike attitude of merchants of different nations toward each other have suggested the military character of commerce, inviting the armed protection of the state. “One fact stands out clearly,” says a recent authority on the history of India, “No European nation has won the supremacy of the East which did not make it a national concern.” The prize in distant commerce went not to the best producers and merchants, but to the group of the best fighters; not size and resources, but ability to organize and willingness to risk resources in conflict, determined the question of success. The little state of Holland made her fortune by an eighty years’ war, in which she broke the power of the Portuguese and Spanish in the East. The English were still unready to embark their national resources in distant ventures, but they won their position in continental India in the eighteenth century by military support which the French kings refused their subjects. =189. Wars arising from the conflict of colonial interests in the New World.=—Between 1600 and 1815 was a constant succession of wars, arising from the fact that five European powers had colonies in the New World which they were seeking to maintain or to extend. Holland and Portugal lacked the territorial basis to maintain their struggle when larger states armed for the conflict; France and Spain found their best energies absorbed by dynastic interests in Europe which tied their hands abroad; England emerged victorious from the conflict and found herself repaid, by a position of commercial supremacy, for the expense to which she had been put. Out of the one hundred and twenty-six years between 1688 and 1815 she had spent more than half, sixty-four, in wars ranging from seven to twelve years in length.