Commodities played a major role in driving the discovery of ‘new’ lands by European explorers. In the case of Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), Prince of Portugal, it was the wish to discover legendary West African goldfields that prompted him to sponsor a series of voyages from 1420 onwards. These enabled Portugal to circumvent the normal Saharan trade routes and bring home gold and slaves. Subsequent voyages by Vasco da Gama (see The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama and his Viceroyalty) opened up trade routes to India and the Spice Islands. This in turn, drove trade in cloth, spices and silver. This is well described in John Keay’s essay on the history of the spice trade and also in sources such as The Henricus Martellus World Map of 1489: A Brief Somme of Geographia, which dothe Treat of all Partes and Provinces of the Worlde and Specially of Countreis Lately Dyscovered by your Maiestie and by Themperour Charles of that Name the Vth and of the Kynges of Portugall and Spayne (1535); and Magellan’s Voyage: A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation. Dutch ascendancy in the spice trade was in large part due to the efforts of Linschoten (see The Voyage of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten) and lead to the creation of the VOC, the Dutch East India Company (see A Collection of Voyages Undertaken by the Dutch East India Company for the Improvement of Trade).