Page 338 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

338 from Italy to the Canary Islands

Sailing ship of the XIV century. The boat of St. Peter. Fresco by Taddeo Gaddi.
(Chapel of the Spaniards, St. Maria Novella, Florence).

Overland routes having become impassable, opening an alternative
route to the spice trade became necessary, therefore several Genoese mer-
chants and patricians financed an expedition that should have reached “ad
partes Indiae per mare oceanum” (i.e. get to India after circumnavigating
Africa).
A limited ten-year partnership was established by which the gener-
al partners would undertake to produce profits through their navigations
throughout the world based on the capitals provided by the limited part-
ners, to whom they would pay 50% of such profits at the end of the ten
years.
Ugolino and Vadino Vivaldi had borrowed from Antonio de Nigrono
five hundred Genoese Lire, which they would then have to pay back with