ABSTRACT
Trading along the Mediterranean, they went through the Straits of Gibraltar and came up to London and Antwerp. There was a southern cycle of trade carried on by Venice and a northern cycle of trade from the Baltic down to London, across to Antwerp and back again, touching at the various ports, carried on by a League of Merchants known as the Hanse League, who for a very considerable time carried on the bulk of the trade of north western Europe. The commodities coming from the Far East were brought to a great extent on caravans to the road ends which were the Levant ports where the Venetian ships called to pick them up. Europe naturally attempted to break this strangle hold; hence the work associated with the great names of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Cabot, and certain great Portuguese navigators, chief amongst whom was Prince Henry the navigator.
