In 1502, three quarters of the Hungarian output of copper had gone to Venice, as was customary.   This was the final year of Venetian dominance of the European metal market.   The Portuguese were in Antwerp picking up the copper and silver from the German mines they needed for their purchases in the Far East.  By 1508, almost 90% of the mining output of Europe was exported via Antwerp.

The year 1503 saw a decline in the profits of the Venetian merchants trading in spices.  In 1504, when the Venetian galleys arrived at the end of their annual voyage to the port of Alexandria in Egypt they found not a single sack of pepper waiting for them.  Thus, by 1503,  in a surprisingly few years, the opening up of a sea route to the Indies by the Portuguese had broken the Venetian monopoly of European trade.   Antwerp, with its masses of unskilled labour, buiding upon the long- established sucess of the Flemish merchants of Bruges, had now become the centre of the entire international economy.  Luxury, capital, and industrial activity, paticularly from the  Empires of the Middle East, all began to blossom together with ideas of the Italian Renaissance in the lands bordering the North Ssa.

The foundations of this increased economic activity and the fruits that fell into the hands of the Flemish merchant families were the Europeans who sailed to the Indies.  There they created coastal settlements from which to explore the local natural resources and quayside warehouses were established to support the rapidly growing trade with Europe.  In 27 September 1503 the Portugues laid the foundations of a timber fortress in Cochin (Ernakulam) South India to protect their "feitoria" (warehouse) . This was the first permanent European trading colony in the East Indies established with the consent of  the Rajah  of Cochin. From here the Portuguese exported large volumes of spices, particularly pepper

In 1503, the fourth voyage of Columbus to the West Indies was becoming a disaster.  For most of the year he was marooned on the island of Jamaica which he had discovered on his second voyage.  Nevertheless, although he failed to find a new route to Asia, Columbus made the lands and peoples of the western hemisphere known to Europeans, setting in motion a chain of events that altered human history on a global scale.

In 1502 a new expedition under the command of Vasco da Gama arrived at Cochin, and the friendship with the Rajah of Cochin was renewed. After the departure of Vasco da Gama, the Zamorin of Calicut, enemy of the Portuguese, attacked Cochin and destroyed the Portuguese "feitoria". The Rajah of Cochin and his Portuguese allies were forced to withdraw to the island of Vypin. Here, they were reinforced by three ships under Francisco de Albuquerque's leadership and, some days later by Duarte Pacheco Pereira (the author of "Esmeraldo de situ orbis") ans the Calicut troops immediately abandoned the siege.

At the departure of the Portuguese fleet to Portugal, Duarte Pacheco Pereira with three ships and 100 men were left in Cochin for assistance to the Rajah. Meanwhile, the Zamorin of Calicut formed a force of 50.000 men and 280 ships to drive the Portuguese out of Cochin. Duarte Pacheco Pereira was in command of only 100 Portuguese, 300 Malabar troops and about 5.000 soldiers of the King of Cochin (and the majority of these deserted). Pereira was a formidable commander. For five months, he and his men were able to sustain and drive back all the Zamorin's assaults. He saved Portugal from being driven out of India.