=211. Portugal; promise of commercial greatness in the sixteenth century.=—The little country of Portugal, numbering perhaps a million inhabitants, built up in the sixteenth century a commercial empire worthy to rank with that of Spain, and exceeding in importance that which any of the more northern states in Europe had yet established. I have already recounted the achievements of the Portuguese in maritime explorations. The part which they played in these expeditions prepared them for the oceanic commerce which developed after the discovery of America and of the sea route to India. While other nations stronger than Portugal in resources and industrial development were still unready to put forth their strength in distant commerce, Portugal shared with Spain the extra-European world, and gained for herself the richest part, the East. Da Gama returned to Lisbon in 1499 with a cargo which repaid sixty times the cost of the expedition. This was the beginning of a series of voyages devoted especially to the importation of pepper and other spices, which could be bought so cheaply in the East that they returned immense profits in Europe. Even the gold and diamonds which came later from Brazil were less valuable to Portugal than the monopoly she now possessed in the spices, drugs, dyes, and manufactures, which formerly had been obtained only by the expensive land route. =212. Failure of Portugal to maintain her position.=—Portugal was favored not only by conditions in Europe, which gave her the start on other states, but also by conditions in Asia which enabled her able agents to build up, through naval power, a commercial overlordship which brooked no competitors, either Asiatic or European. Portugal was, however, destined to play a great part in European commerce for only one century. We cannot, as in the case of Spain, say that a mistaken policy was the cause of her decline, for although the Portuguese commercial policy was very similar to the Spanish and would have shown the same weaknesses if it had been allowed to develop, more important forces were at work to drive Portugal from the rank which fortune had conferred upon her.