=307. Position of Venice at the beginning of the period.=—Venice, which had enjoyed the commercial primacy among the Italian states, saw in the Portuguese discoveries a threat to her prosperity which only the strongest measures could avert. There was no physical reason why Venice should not adopt the sea route to India, and, if necessary, fight with the Portuguese for the Indian trade at its source. All her traditions, however, pointed the other way; all her investments were tied up in the route through Egypt; and, most important, all her resources were required in the Mediterranean. The island city had been drawn into an expansion on the mainland which involved her in continental intrigues and sapped her strength at sea, at the very time when her sea power was of the greatest importance; the navy of the Ottoman Turks was rapidly developing and the scourge of the Barbary pirates (from the Mediterranean coast of Africa) had begun. =308. Blows at Venetian trade both by sea and land routes to India.=—For a moment Venice halted undecided between the two routes. Venetian ambassadors were especially instructed to procure maps, letters from voyagers, and all other information that would help the home government determine its policy with respect to the recent developments. Venice made repeated attempts to buy from Portugal the right to dispose of all the spices brought to Lisbon, a proposition that naturally was declined. Venice had to buy in small lots, on what terms the Portuguese chose to set; more and more silver flowed from Italy to Lisbon, and it became increasingly difficult to get spices in Venice. Meanwhile the government was sending explorers eastward, in the hope of opening one of the old routes to trade, and seriously considered for a time the piercing of the Suez isthmus with a canal. Venice found the Ottoman Turks favorable to trade through their dominions, but had not the strength to maintain her old commercial connections when Cairo was finally captured by the Turks in 1517.