industry that her soil and climate were capable of yielding, the
commercial motive for acquiring territories in the temperate zone,
which could produce only commodities of the same type, was
comparatively weak; and the European settlements in these areas,
which we have come to regard as the most important products of the
imperialist movement, must in their origin and early settlement be
mainly attributed to other than commercial motives. But Europe has
always depended for most of her luxuries upon the tropics: gold
and ivory and gems, spices and sugar and fine woven stuffs, from a
very early age found their way into Europe from India and the
East, coming by slow and devious caravan routes to the shores of
the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Until the end of the
fifteenth century the European trader had no direct contact with
the sources of these precious commodities; the supply of them was
scanty and the price high. The desire to gain a more direct access
to the sources of this traffic, and to obtain control of the
supply, formed the principal motive for the great explorations.
But these, in their turn, disclosed fresh tropical areas worth
exploiting, and introduced new luxuries, such as tobacco and tea,
which soon took rank as necessities. They also brought a colossal
increment of wealth to the countries which had undertaken them.
Hence the acquisition of a share in, or a monopoly of, these
lucrative lines of trade became a primary object of ambition to
all the great states. In the nineteenth century Europe began to be
unable to supply her own needs in regard to the products of the
temperate zone, and therefore to desire control over other areas
of this type; but until then it was mainly in regard to the
tropical or sub-tropical areas that the commercial motive formed
the predominant element in the imperial rivalries of the nation-
states. And even to-day it is over these areas that their