Frantic (@frantic105130)

I stand corrected now. Sergiao however didn't mention that the Mamluks' carracks were built in Egypt by Venetian shipwrights. Portuguese enterprises around Africa and to India for the sake of reaching her spice markets directly, hurt not only Arabs, but also Venetians in their quality of middlemen bringing Oriental merchandise from Constantinople to Europe. This prompt and heavy Venetian involvement in matters half the world away, just a few years after the Portuguese reached India the first time and did not achieve really anything meaningful yet, underscores how important monopoly of the spice trade must have been at the time.