CHAPTER XV. COMMERCE. 4to. and the ass between burdens. Neither will it be that a people overlaid with taxes should ever become valiant and martial." The apparent incompatibility of heavy taxation and military fashions, which has hitherto been observable, pro. bably arises from the idleness which military life inspires. Soldiers fear danger less than labor, and must not be checked in this, if we would preserve their vigor. But idleness carns little and accumulates nothing, and is to the tax-gatherer more niggardly than avarice. Taxes have seldom been opposed by a soldiery. ART. I. A Commercial Dictionary, containing the present State of Mercantile Law, Practice, and Custom; intended for the Use of the Cabinet, the Counting-house, and the Library. By JOSHUA MONTEFIORE. MILITARY manners are favourable to the graces; and to the pleasures of the earlier, though not of the later stages of life. They are easily superinduced on young men; they agreeably exert the body and adorn the person, they require few or no accomplishments of mind, they favour a luxurious idleness and an amusive dissipation; and they excite expectations of danger and renown, which excuse the omission of the prospective virtues, while they indulge the admission of the prospective hopes. But military manners spoil men for commerce. It is a long, a difficult task, the result only of very careful education, to generate habits of industry and frugality; and to infuse that information respecting some given division of commercial labor, which fits a man to excel in it. The overawing inspection, which teaches these habits, commonly superinduces also a certain meekness and shyness, which soon evapo. rate at drill and at the mess: but with them the industry and the frugality. The pleasures of exhilarating exercise and robust exertion cannot be tasted without infringing on the disposition to submit to confinement. A determination to pursue advancement in life by plodding perseverance is the very reverse of a determination to pursue it by spirited hazard: the first is the commercial, the second the military ambition. It is greatly to be feared therefore that the present danger of the country, which perhaps could not have been adequately met without an interruption of the usual division of labor, will be eventually and permanently mischievous to its commercial character. "The blessing of Judah and Issachar will never meet (says Lord Bacon with his quaint energy) that the same tribe or nation should be both the lion's whelp, If Great Britain was a continental state this exchange of national habits might be not unwise. It would there be essential to national defence: it would there be conducive to the extension of empire. "Perish commerce, live our independence," would have been a rational motto for the states of Holland. But we cannot help suspecting that London might have trusted a little more to its navy, and to its regular army, without incurring so much expence, or hazarding so much prosperity. Keep your shop, and your shop will keep you, says Dr. Franklin, but where master or man are often on parade, 'tis a great chance but the till is poor, for want of watching, or, for want of catching. There are orders, which better deserve attention than those of the commandingofficer. The gazettes begin to announce commissions of both sorts for captains and lieutenants. It is no merit to stand at ease before an assignce. One day of industry avails more than a whole week on the porter's wages of a marching volunteer. It should be understood that courage is the most common gift of nature to animals; that all the military virtues are qualities of easy attainment, which flou rish most among barbarians and boys that to excel in them requires rather training than education, and is not a mark of refinement but of the want of it; that they incroach on the purity of domestic morals and probably on the humanity of the general character; that in all families the idle boy is very rationally flung into the army; and that the more it is left to the lowest classes of the people to supply first soldiers, and then officers from the ranks, the more robust, bold, and trustworthy the troops. Feets and historians by applauding military exploits, which mostly consist in employing a hundred men to beat ninety, have given a ton and a reputation to soldiering, which prompts nations to the most destructive and rebarbarizing actions. which bodies of men can commit. Let the army take its natural place as the basis not the pinnacle of civilized society. To productive industry on the concontrary public opinion assigns an inferior rank and a secondary value. Yet where are we to seek the chosen nests of human happiness and culture but in the cities of the industrious, and the commercial. To Tyre, Corinth, Athens, and Alexandria, not to the Sparta or the early Rome of the ancient world, we turn for the diffusion of ease and the condensation of magnificence, or for the far-fetched refinements of sensual and intellectual luxury. It is to Barcelona, to Florence, to Venice, that the modern world is indebted for the revival of the civilizing arts and the restoration of literary enquiry. It is to Lisbon, to Amsterdam, to London, that the remotest shores of earth owe their novel concatenation and their prospering intercourse. Nor is commerce less favourable in detail to the best interests of society than on the collective scale of estimation. Commercial men can afford to make early and disinterested marriages. They must put to hazard so much more than a wife's dower, that it is less important to their prosperity to wed a fortune, than to wed a capital unincumbered with settlements and jointures. What is the consequence? that the most accomplished and meritorious women in the country are every where the wives of merchants, the women who are selected not for their property but for their propertics. The domestic happiness and interior clegance which results is obvious: whoever compares the families of our city-gentlemen with those of our country-gentlemen must be struck with the far superior character of the former. There is scarcely a peculiarity in the French character, which may not be traced to the military education of their exemplary class, the nobility. At home and by themselves they lived, as at lodg ings, hardly attentive to personal cleanliness, not at all to that of the apartment. Every thing had the air of a make-shift, nothing of comfort: madame received you where she was pow dering, monsieur in his great coat and slippers. To appear well attired and escorted at balls and public places, were, as in a garrison-town, the pivots of so. licitude. Any thing was read, even philosophy, if it assumed the form of a licentious novel. The nuptial bed was invaded with as little ceremony as the women's tent in a camp. Courage, honour, the manners and the prate which conciliate for the hour-these were vir tues; but probity and fidelity seemed qualities, which told less among men, who are monthly shifting their quarters. In legislation again the spirit of the soldier is fatal to liberty and justice. The law of nations begins with the maritime code of Rhodes, the consequence of commerce. The earliest attempts of the Romans at equity and precision in the nicer cases of property begin with the visit of Hadrian to Alexandria, and with what he learnt there of commercial jurisprudence. What of constitutional liberty there is in Europe, has all begun in the corporation-towns, whose elective administrations all grew out of the guilds and purses of the tradesmen, and whose charters were all purchased of the nobility, for the purpose of instituting intelligent and impartial jurisdictioas, such as parliaments of land owners knew not how to bestow. The rudiments of civilization were scattered in the north by the Hanseatic cities, who preserved along the edges of Europe some attention to refinement, while the middle zone was trampled into a desert by the feuds of barons, or the wars of kings. In order to increase the commerce of the country, and it is capable of great increase, an important step is to diffuse a knowledge of the objects with which it is most conversant, and of the places to which it most frequently has recourse. No sudden changes can ever be effected in the habits of nations: a demand once begun may be increased or diminished; but it is not easily created out of nothing, or annihilated. Hence the legislative encouragement of commerce will usually consist in removing the impediments, which monopoly-companies, injudicious regulations, arbitrary duties, deficient security, or imperfect conveniences, may oppose, rather than in any positive bounty or encouragement to intercourse. By colonizing the distant situations which promise to become emporiums, a government may, however, lay the foundations of a speedier interchange than the mere adventurous spirit of the merchant would else bring to bear. These it is for the philosophic geographer to indicate. It is with far more pleasure, therefore, that we meet with a dictionary of commerce than with a dictionary of the art of war: and we congratulate Mr. Montefiore on the taste which leads him rather to lay an offering on the shrine of the creative than of the destructive power. This work contains a well-made selection of geographical articles, which describe the situations and productions of the principal trading places; and a very instructive legal explanation of those terms and cases with which commercial men are likely to wish to become acquainted. A convenient specimen, inasmuch as it includes some legal and some geographical articles, will be those included between Bargain and Berbice. Bargain, a contract or agreement in buying and selling. Most contracts and bargains in trade, between merchant and merchant, are negotiated by brokers. See Agreement, Brokers. "Bark, a general denomination given to small vessels, but which is particularly appropriated to those which carry three masts without a mizen-top-mast. The coiliers distinguish by this name a ship without ornament on the prow or stern. method of trading before money was in use, and is still practised in the American colonies, and parts where cash is scarce. The extreme facility given to commerce by mochange of articles, except in so far as merney has almost put an end to barter or excantile men set off their reciprocal demands, when there are such, previous to paying the balance in money. This, if the terni may be used, is a half species of barter. The articles are bartered in so far as they pay for cach other without the intervention of money. Thus, in one sense, it is barter, but in another it is not, as the value of each article is reckoned in money, and not estimated by a certain quantity of the others. 66 The species of barter now most prac tised in this country is amongst tradesmen in the building line, who execute work for work to a great extent, each setting off his labour and materials at certain prices, called measuring value prices. By this means a tradesman, who only does one branch of building, may undertake a complete construction, and have a profit on the whole by doing business in his own line for the different persons employed. 66 The invention of money has not altogether put an end to barter, yet it has entirely prevented it from appearing in its real form in the books of merchants, as each ar ticle is stated there in its money value, and circulating medium of the country, even in each sale is supposed to be paid for in the cases where no money whatever is made use of in the transaction. "Basle, Balle, or Basil, the capital of one of the Swiss cantons, which bears its name; being nearly in the centre of Europe makes it a sort of centre for the business of exchange, and for drawing and re-drawing. It is famous for letter-press printing, and in general its centrical situation gives it an advantage in whatever is of a nature to be generally distributed in Europe; and there are in it numbers of commercial houses that act as agents, and on commissions for merchants of different nations. "Bassora, Balsora, or Basrah, is situated on a river named by the Arabians Schat el Arab, which is formed by the union of "Baroche, a town of Cambaya, in the the Euphrates and Tigris. This place is dominions of the Great Mogul. It was for rich, and of greater trade than any one in merly a place of great trade, and it is now Arabia Deserta; its possession was a long inhabited by weavers and manufacturers of time disputed by the Arabians, Persians, and cotton cloth. Here is raised the best cotton Turks, but the last remained masters of it. in the world, and excellent bastas are manufactured. The English and Dutch had formerly factorics here, which are now abandoned. "Barratry, is where the master of a ship or the mariners defraud the owners or insurers, whether by running away with the ship, sinking her, deserting her, or embezzling the cargo. See Shipping, Marine In surance. "Barter, an exchange of one species of goods for another, which was the original "Bassora, like Bender Abassi, gained considerably by the destruction of Ormus, and here are now seen ships from all parts of Asia and Europe; and the English and Dutch in particular make a considerable figure, having their factors here to transact business, and dispatch their letters by land, which is done by way of Damascus and Aleppo. The Portugueze also have a settlement here, though they make little advantage of it. Almost all the trade passes through the hands of the Indians, Persians, and Armenians. The caravan of Bassora is one of those that carries to Bender Abassi a part of those rich goods with which that trade is supported; and the same caravan brings back, in return, the products of India, China, Japan, and Europe, of which Bender is depository, staple, or storehouse for Persia and the three Arabias. "Besides this commerce with Bender Abassi, and that which Bassora maintains on the sea coast with the Indians, Moors, and Europeans, whose ships arrive here every monsoon, this city has also a very considerable one with Bagdat, which is not at a great distance, and is conmodiously seated for a transportation of its commodities by the Tigris; and the same with Aleppo and the rest of the Ottoman empire in Asia, whence caravans set out, and a part of them always destined for Bassora. "Bavaria, one of the circles of the German empire, adjoining to Austria and Bohemia; a mountainous country, containing various mines of copper, and some of silver, besides quarries of marble. This circle is divided into three principal provinces; the electorate, subdivided into Upper and Lower Bavaria, the Upper Palatinate, and the Archbishopric of Saltzburg. The revenues of the elector arise principally from a monopoly of the salt, corn, and strong beer consumed in the country or exported. The article of tobacco also the elector engrosses to himself. He also enjoys certain tolls on the Danube, and other navigable rivers. The subject, however, is miserably impoverished by these monopolies, insomuch as the peasants make their chief subsistence from the herds of swine fed in the woods. Here is a great deal of valuable fir timber "Bayonne, in the south of France, seated near the mouth of the river Adden, which forms a good harbour. The trade of this town is considerable on account of its contiguity to Spain, and the wines brought thither from the adjacent country. The Dutch take a large quantity of wine in exchange for spirits and other commodities. This place is also famous for hams and chocolate. "Bazar, the name for a market-place in all parts of the Levant, as well as in Egypt, Persia, and the East Indies. The bazars of Ispahan and Tauris, in Persia, are of great extent, the latter particularly, which contains above 15,000 shops. "Beacon, a signal made by a fire on some eminence near the sea, to give notices of intasions, and which no man may set up without lawful warrant and authority, this being a branch of the royal prerogative, and which is usually vested in the lords of the admiralty. Beacons are also placed as marks either on land or on rocks, to indicate to vessels how to steer. By 8th Elizabeth, c. 18, the masters, wardens, and assistants of the Trinity House, may set up beacons and marks for the sea, in such places near the coasts or forelands as to them shall seemi meet. And any person who shall take or cut down any steeple, tree, or other known and established thing standing as sea marks, shall forfeit 1001. and on non-payment, be ipso facto outlawed. See Light-houses, Trinity-house. "Beaucaire, a city of Languedoc, in France, situated on the Rhone; famous for a fair, which is held every year on the 22d of July, and though it only lasts three days, is attended by people from all parts of Europe, and where every sort of article known in commerce almost may be found. "In the way of barter and exchange, the usual business done does not fall much short of half a million sterling, besides about 250,000l. more in ready money. "Beaucaire is about 20 miles from the Mediterranean sea, and consequently communicates easily with all the countries on its borders, and, by the canal of Languedoc, with a great part of the interior of France and the ocean. "Becr. See Customs, Excise, Exporta tion, Importation. Belfast, a town in the county of Antrim, in Ireland, which has a considerable trade, particularly in linen. 66 Belgrade, a city of Turkey, in Europe, and capital of Servia, scated on the confluence of the Save and the Danube. Its rivers are convenient for commerce, and, as the Danube falls into the Black Sea, the trade is easily extended to different countries, which renders it the staple town in these parts, and the Danube flowing to Vienna, commodities are equally conveyed from thence The shops are but small, and the sellers sit on tables, and dispose of their commodities out of a window, for the buyers never go inside. The richest merchandizes are exposed to sale in two bezesteins or bazars, built crossways. There are two exchanges built with stone, and supported by pillars, not unlike the Royal Exchange at London. "Benares, one of the first cities of the Fast Indies, situated on the north bank of the Ganges. It carries on a considerable commerce, particularly in silks and cotton cloths, both plain and coloured. Here are a number of commodious caravanseras, in which the commodities are exposed for sale; and as they are sold by the manufacturers themselves, strangers have them at the first hand, and of course cheaper than in most other towns of India, where the Banians, Jews, and Armenians purchase them to sell again. The manufacturers, before exposing any thing for sale, must obtain from the proper officer the royal stamp on every piece of cloth or silk, under penalty of a fine, besides corporal punishment. Benecarlo, a city in the province of Valencia, in Spain, the country round which produces excellent wines. The white wine is famous, as also a deep coloured thick red wine, often used for the adulteration of the French wines, in order to imitate port. "Bengal, a country of Hindoostan Proper, bounded on the west by Orissa and Bahar, on the north by Bootan, on the east by Assem and Meckley, and on the south by the bay of Bengal. Its extent from east to west is upwards of 400 miles, and from north to south above 300. The country consists of one vast plain of the most fertile soil, being annually overflowed by the Ganges, as Egypt is by the Nile. The bay of Bengal is the largest and deepest in the world, and the Ganges being navigable for a great distance up the country, affords every facility for conveyance of the commerce of this country. A trade is here carried on with Agra, Delhi, and the provinces adjacent to these superb capitals, in salt, sugar, opium, silk, silk stuffs, múslins, diamonds, and other precious stones. There is also a valuable inland trade carried on with West Patna, and a variety of other places throughout India. Patna is the principal place in the world for the cultivation of opium. Besides what is carried into the interior, there are annually exported between 3000 and 4000 chests, each weighing 300 pounds. This opium, how ever, not being prepared and purified, like that of Syria and Persia, is far from being so valuable. There is also a material trade carried on by the natives, chiefly with the district of Catek, a district of some extent a little below the westernmost mouth of the Ganges, the port of which is Balasore, and whence the people of Catek carry on a navigation and trade with the Maldive islands, and also with the country of Asham. Forty vessels, of 500 or 600 tons each, are sent from the Ganges to Asham, laden with salt, which yields 200 per cent. profit; they receive in payment, silk, ivory, musk, eaglewood, gumlac, and a small quantity of gold and silver. With respect to the immense trade carried on by the East India Company with Bengal, see East India Company; see also Calcutta and Madras. "Berbice, a country of Guiana, on the north-east coast of South America, situated on a river of the same name, in N. lat. 6 deg. 20 min. and 60 deg. W. long. about eight miles west from the mouth of the river of Surinam. This colony was established by the Dutch in the beginning of the 17th century; and in the year 1720 there were six sugar works, besides some plantations of indigo and cacao. It has, notwithstanding the climate is extremely unhealthy, and the soil inferior to Surinam and Demerary, greatly flourished. Berbice was taken by the English in 1796, but restored to the Batavian re public by the treaty of peace of 1801." Both these classes of articles are executed with great propriety: the author has selected his materials from the term reporters, and commercial writers of the most acknowledged authority, and has included a great mass of result from the most recent decisions. This combined intelligence has been compressed into compass, and is well adapted for the library both of the merchant and the statist. Unlike his predecessor Peuchet, Montefiore has neither overloaded his earlier articles with a needless incumbrance of detail, nor stripped his concluding pages to a disappointing bare moderate ness. Great Britain alone, it will favour the His utility will not be confined to continental adoption of that precise legislation concerning property, which grows out of commerce alone, and is the basis of all civilization. |