The Greatness of Cities [17]
of China to the Philippines, from the Philippines to Mexico, and from Mexico to Seville. But let us return to our purpose. There are also some other cities masters of some commodities, not because the goods do grow in their country or be wrought by their inhabitants, but because they have command either of the country or of the sea that is near them: the command of the country, as Seville, unto which infinite wealth and riches are brought from Nova Hispania and Peru; the command of the sea, as Lisbon, which by this means draweth to it the pepper of Cochin and the cinnamon of Ceylon and other riches of the Indies, which cannot be brought by sea but by them, or under their leave and licence. After the same sort in a matter Venice, about four-score and ten years agone, was Lady of the Spiceries, for before the Portuguese possessed the Indies these things being brought by the Red Sea to Suez, and from thence upon camels' backs to Cairo, and after that by Nile into Alexandria, there were they bought up by the Venetians who sent thither their great argosies, and with incredible profit to them carried them in a matter into all the parts of Europe. But all this commerce and trade is now quite turned to Lisbon, unto which place, by a new way, the spiceries (taken as it were out of the hands of the Moors and Turks) be yearly brought by the Portuguese, and then sold to the Spaniards, Frenchmen, Englishmen and to all the northern parts. This commerce and trade is of such importance as it alone is enough to enrich all Portugal and to make it plentiful of all things. There are some other cities also lords, as it were, of much merchandise and traffic, by means of their commodious situation to many nations, to whom they serve of warehouse room and storehouses: such are Malacca and Ormuz in the East, Alexandria, Constantinople, Messina and Genoa in the Mediterranean Sea, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Danzig and Narva in the Northern Seas, and Frankfurt and Nuremberg in Germany. In which cities many great merchants exercise their traffic and make their warehouses, unto the which the nations thereunto adjoining use to resort to make their provisions of such things as they need because they have commodious means for transportation of it. And this consisteth in the largeness and the safeness of the ports, in the opportunity and fitness of the gulfs and creeks of the seas, in the navigable rivers that come into the cities, or run by or near them, in the lakes and chattels; as also where the ways be plain and safe. And here to the purpose, because I speak of ways, I cannot pass over those two ways which the kings of Cuzco (called in their language Incas) in the long process of time cut out throughout their dominion, about two thousand miles in length, so pleasant, so commodious, so plain and so level as they give no place to the magnificent works of the Romans. For there shall you see steep and high hills laid even with the plain, and deep valleys filled up, and horrible huge stones cut in pieces; there shall you see the trees that are planted here and there, in excellent good order even by a line, yield both with their shade a comfort and with the charm of the birds that there abound in great plenty, a marvellous delight and pleasure to the travellers that pass those ways. Neither are there wanting on those ways many good inns for lodging and for entertainment, plentiful of all necessary things, nor palaces and goodly buildings that in eminent and open places, as it were, to meet you, present you with a pleasant and beautiful show of their excellency and rareness; nor pleasant towns, nor sweet countries, nor a thousand other delights and pleasures to feed both the eye with variety and the mind with admiration at the infinite effects, partly wrought by nature and partly by the handiwork of man. But to return to our purpose. It is a good matter and a great help to a prince to know the natural site of his country, and with judgment to have an understanding how to amend it by art and industry. As, for example, to defend his ports with