HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1840. ART. I.-COMMERCE AS A LIBERAL PURSUIT.* BEFORE an association numbering among its members many who have embraced some one of the numerous pursuits of commerce, it may seem strange and almost misplaced to argue, or debate upon a truth, which to such auditors must seem self-evident. Yet there are portions of our own country, so emphatically a commercial one, where this truth, self-evident among us, seems not to be understood-and it was the language used on a public occasion and in a body of distinguished men, in regard to the mercantile classes, that led to the selection of the topic which it is now proposed to discuss. Not very long ago a convention of our southern states was held for the purpose of devising means to resuscitate, if possible, the prosperity of the planting states on the Atlantic, and especially to recover that portion of the carrying trade, and of the direct trade, with Europe, in which some of their sea-ports formerly participated. prac In the address put forth by this convention, and which was understood to be drawn up by Mr. McDuffie, this passage occurs, and it is quoted in the nature of a text to the observations afterwards offered. "The staple-growing states," says Mr. McDuffie, can never be tically independent, and enjoy the full measure of the bounties which Providence has so lavishly provided for them, until the commerce which is founded on their valuable productions, shall be carried on by our own merchants permanently resident among us, whether they be native or adopted. The pursuits of commerce must be liberalized. "The commercial class must be elevated in public opinion to the rank in society which properly belongs to it!! The avocation of the merchant requires as much character and talent, and is of as much dignity and usefulness, as any other pursuit or profession, and the sense * A lecture delivered before the Mercantile Library Association, by Charles King, Esq., and now first published in the Merchants' Magazine. less prejudice which could assign to it an inferior rank, has been blindly borrowed from those ancient republics and modern despotisms, whose policy it was to regard war as the only honorable pursuit. As agricultural productions, which find their market principally in foreign countries, constitute the almost exclusive source of our wealth, the mercantile class is as indispensable to our prosperity as the agricultural. Their interests are inseparably identified, and whatever affects the prosperity of the one must have a corresponding influence on the other. How much then does the general welfare of the staple-growing states depend upon diverting into the pursuits of commerce, a large portion of the capital, the character, and the talent which have been hitherto directed too exclusively to agriculture and the learned professions? It is the deliberate opinion of the committee that no one change could be made in our pursuits, that would so largely contribute to the public prosperity - and that those public-spirited citizens who shall take the lead in this new career of useful enterprise, will deserve to be regarded as public benefactors." com From this extract it will be distinctly perceived and felt, that in the staple-growing states- as those states are somewhat presumptuously called which raise cotton and tobacco, but do not raise wheat merce is not deemed a liberal pursuit, and that the force of public opinion, backed by the sense of pecuniary interest, is invoked, in order to encourage and stimulate men of character, capital, and talent, to embark in a vocation under the ban of what is properly characterized as a "senseless prejudice." The object of the following remarks will be to show how very senseless" in truth this "prejudice" is, how irresistible the claim of commerce to be deemed a liberal pursuit," and how eminently absurd the pretension of assigning an "inferior" social rank to those who culti vate it. 66 go We speak of commerce in its most comprehensive sense, and of course as embracing the numerous cognate pursuits which to make up the vast whole, and all which partake in a greater or less degree of the liberalizing influence claimed for the profession itself. The first great claim to be asserted for commerce is, that it is the antagonist of war, and of all the crimes and misery of which war is productive. Hence it is well said in the extract just quoted, that it was 66 the policy of ancient republics and modern despotisms, who considered war as the only honorable pursuit, to depreciate commerce." The history of the distant and of the recent past, is alike full of instances in proof of this position; but it would lead us too far away, and occupy too much time, to go into details. The fact, however, challenges contradiction, that, as the genius of commerce acquires influence and sway, the fierce spirit and bloody rites of war are gradually subdued, and of less frequent celebration. Not to the jealous honor, nor the rapacious vengeance of military leaders, or feudal barons, is the appeal on questions of war and peace now made, but to the mighty, far reaching, and diversified interests created, set in motion, and controlled by a class of men, upon whom the steel-clad soldiers were wont to look down in disdain. Nay, so great is the change effected in public sentiment in this matter, that these very warriors are now frequently made subsidiary to the wants of commerce, and are valued and entertained to a considerable extent, in order to afford security and protection and permanence to its peaceful pursuits. It is to enable the merchant to follow out his distant enterprises in safety, that proud navies ride over trackless seas, and armies themselves, are sometimes the escort of the trading caravan. "The age of chivalry is gone," happily gone-regretted only by romantic dreamers and poetic lays—and to it has succeeded, what in the beautiful lyrics on Alnwick Castle, one of our truly inspired poets has called-not admiringly perhaps, a “bank note age," in which The Duke of Norfolk deals in salt, The Douglas in red herrings, And guerdoned sword and titled land, Of Rothschilds, and the Barings. Long may this "bank note age" endure, for its very name implies settled order, equal laws, mutual trust, industry, contentment and peace. COMMERCE IS THE NURSE AND COMPANION OF FREEDOM. The first dawn of liberty, in the middle ages, was in the free cities of Spain and Italy-cities founded, inhabited, and defended by men of trade merchants, mechanics, and artisans, devoted to, and flourishing and gaining strength by their perilous, yet gainful callings, while all around were predatory barons, at the head of their unreasoning serfs. "As soon," says the historian, (Robertson,) as the cities of Italy "began to turn their attention towards commerce, and to conceive some idea of the advantages they might derive from it, they became impatient to shake off the yoke of their insolent lords, and to establish among themselves such a free and equal government as would render property secure · and industry flourishing." The fruits anticipated from a free and equal government were speedily realized, and monarchs and feudal superiors were glad to concede to these cities immunities, which in return enabled them to supply the wastefulness of war, and the barbarian prodigalities of military debauch in time of peace. Free corporations spread all over the continent of Europe, and their influence on government and manners was not less salutary than extensive. "A great body of the people" says the same author, “was released from servitude, and from all the arbitrary and grievous impositions to which their wretched condition had subjected them. Towns upon acquiring the right of community, became so many little republics, governed by known and equal laws. Liberty was deemed such an essential and characteristic part in their constitution, that if any slave took refuge in one of them, and resided there during a year without being claimed, he was instantly declared a freeman, and admitted a member of the community. * * * * * * "The acquisition of liberty made such a happy change in the condition of all the members of communities, as roused them from the inaction into which they had been sunk, and the wretchedness of their former state. The spirit of industry revived. Commerce became an object of attention, and began to flourish. Population increased. Independance was established, and wealth flowed in." The superior refinement, and more abundant comforts and conveniences of life, consequent upon these causes, reacted both above and below - civilizing and taming the wild spirit of the warlike barons, and elevating the character and the hopes of the free laborer and artisan. Bound no longer to the soil, nor forced from the cradle to the grave to labor on it for the benefit of a master, in the immunities of these cities, the freeman recovered the feelings of self-respect; a renewed consciousness of the dignity of his nature; and with these came the desire and the faculty of raising himself by his own industry in the social scale. Of Barcelona especially, a free city of Spain, the following account is given by a countryman of our own, whose recent history of Ferdinand and Isabella, has already, by the consent of Europe and America, taken its place among the works that cannot die. 66 - Barcelona," says Mr. Prescott, "claims the merit of having established the first Bank of Exchange and Deposit in Europe, in 1401 — it was devoted to the accommodation of foreigners, as well as to her own citizens. She claims the glory, too, of having compiled the most ancient written code among the moderns of maritime law now extant, digested from the usages of commercial'nations, and which formed the basis of the mercantile jurisprudence of Europe during the middle ages. The Consulado del Mar was published about the middle of the thirteenth century. "But the peculiar_glory of Barcelona was the freedom of her municipal institutions. Her government consisted of a senate or council of one hundred, and a body of regidores or counsellors as they were styled, varying at times from four to six in number; the former intrusted with the legislature, the latter with the executive functions of the administration. A large proportion of these bodies were selected from the merchants, tradesmen, and mechanics of the city. They were invested not me ely with municipal authority, but with many of the rights of sovereignty. They entered into commercial treaties with foreign powers; superintended the defence of the city in time of war; provided for the security of trade; granted letters of reprisals against any nation who might violate it; and raised and appropriated the public monies for the construction of useful works, or the encouragement of such commercial adventures as were too hazardous or too expensive for individual enterprise. The counsellors who presided over the municipality were complimented with certain honorary privileges not even accorded to nobility. They were addressed by the title of Magnificos; were seated with their heads covered in the presence of royalty; were preceded by macebearers, or lictors, in their progress through the country; and deputies from their body to the court were admitted on the footing, and received the honors of foreign ambassadors. These, it will be recollected, were plebeians, merchants and mechanics. Trade never was esteemed a degradation in Castile."-Prescott, Vol. i. p. 112, &c. We could readily add to these instances from the admirable history just quoted, but contenting ourselves with commending that work to the perusal of all who unite, with a high relish for literary perfection, a just and patriotic pride in the eminent success of a countryman, in the difficult path of historical composition, we pass to the next branch of our subject. COMMERCE IS THE CIVILIZER AND REFINER OF NATIONS. It has already been seen how, under the operation of this potent cause, the spirit and excesses of war were at an early period restrained, and how first, villages, then towns, and then nations, rose and prospered just in proportion to their industry and peace. As wealth accumulated, new desires sprung up, and these in turn gave impulse and employment to new devices of industry, and a more extended scope to adven ture. The protection of a regular government, and the consciousness of security both in person and in property, leaving the mind free from solicitude, it naturally sought to exercise itself in the boundless fields of inquiry open to it. Science, learning, taste, were eagerly cultivated, and the contempt for knowledge that characterized the unlettered soldier, was succeeded by zealous application to those studies which soften the manners while they improve the heart. It is in the nature of such causes to be contagious. Hence all improvements spread rapidly from nation to nation. It is one of the high privileges of commerce to disseminate principles equally with the produce of the earth and of the industry of man's hands. The richly freighted argosy careering over distant seas, carries in its bosom a freight more precious than its most precious wares, in the cultivation, the knowledge, and the intellectual, and moral improvement of the people from among whom it goes forth. In all time it has been commercial nations that have advanced civilization. The Phoenicians, insignificant in their territory, have left a deathless name as a commercial people, and even in defeat, the genius of their institutions asserted its power. It was the obstinate resistance made against Alexander by the merchants of Tyre, that first inspired him with a due conception of the value of commerce. Accustomed to march from conquest to conquest, and to see “men in nations" at his feet, this great soldier found himself long and fearfully baffled by a mere trading city. He carried it at last only through the treachery of those allies who should have aided in defending it. The sagacity of Alexander was not long in profiting by the lesson then learned, and the noble city of Alexandria built by him, at the mouth of the Nile, attested to long ages after, by its opulent and successful commerce, that the conqueror had not mistaken or misapplied the causes of such greatness. Up indeed to the close of the fifteenth century, this famous commercial mart founded by a soldier, 333 years before the birth of Christ, maintained its ascendancy-which was only then yielded to a new achievement of commerce-the revelation through the voyage of Vasco de Gama of the passage to India round the Cape of Good Hope. The Carthaginians and the Greeks offer additional illustrations of the remark that commercial nations are the pioneers of civilization, and the history of the Romans confirms it, as it were by contrast-for it is well remarked by the Abbé Raynal, that "The Romans with their warlike institutions did not, like the Greeks, promote the advance of reason and of industry. They furnished indeed to the world a grand spectacle, but they added nothing to the arts or knowledge of the Greeks. "It was by binding nations to the same yoke, and not by uniting them through the means of commerce, that they increased the intercommuni |