grain. After their gold, the Portuguese abandoned their very soil; the
vineyards of Oporto were finally bought by the English with Brazilian
gold, which had only passed through Portugal to be spread throughout
England." We are assured that in fifty years, five hundred millions of
dollars were extracted from "the mines of Brazil, and that at the end
of the time Portugal had but twenty-five millions in specie,"--a
striking example of the difference between real and fictitious wealth.

The English and Dutch were no less desirous of gain than the southern
nations. Each in turn has been called "a nation of shopkeepers;" but
the jeer, in so far as it is just, is to the credit of their wisdom
and uprightness. They were no less bold, no less enterprising, no less
patient. Indeed, they were more patient, in that they sought riches
not by the sword but by labor, which is the reproach meant to be
implied by the epithet; for thus they took the longest, instead of
what seemed the shortest, road to wealth. But these two peoples,
radically of the same race, had other qualities, no less important
than those just named, which combined with their surroundings to favor
their development by sea. They were by nature businessmen, traders,
producers, negotiators. Therefore both in their native country and
abroad, whether settled in the ports of civilized nations, or of
barbarous eastern rulers, or in colonies of their own foundation, they
everywhere strove to draw out all the resources of the land, to
develop and increase them. The quick instinct of the born trader,
shopkeeper if you will, sought continually new articles to exchange
and this search, combined with the industrious character evolved
through generations of labor, made them necessarily producers. At home
they became great as manufacturers; abroad, where they controlled, the
land grew richer continually, products multiplied, and the necessary
exchange between home and the settlements called for more ships. Their