confidence of their sovereigns, and exhausting their coffers in defence of the realm, have been found in this class, and we shall, upon another occasion, enumerate the most distinguished examples which history furnishes us. The merchants of London were, even in the earliest times, the bankers of the crown, and Elizabeth in particular knew what it was, on many an occasion, in her own exigencies, and in the exigencies of the kingdom, to have her purse replenished by their liberal coffers. In our own country we may be permitted to say that there has on no occasion been ever displayed a truer love of country, and a loftier tone of patriotism than has been displayed by our merchant citizens. They have fallen behind none in the assertion of the rights and the liberties of the republic. Commerce is a natural guardian of the arts and sciences. Under its influence the highest results have been stimulated. To what, for instance, can the astonishing progress and perfection to which astronomy has been carried be attributed, more than to the everarising wants of navigation? The solution of the problem of the latitudes and longitudes has been promised, at different periods, the highest premiums of government. It has set astronomers at toil which only terminated in brilliant discovery. The various problems of navigation even now demand the highest labors of these men in every country, and the mere tables of a nautical almanac-the calculation of eclipses, occultations, and parallaxes -calls into action a degree of scientific skill which can scarcely be appreciated by the uninitiated. The mariner's compass, quadrant, or chronometer, are miracles of art as well as of science. From every nation in the world commerce has brought together her trophies, and laid them at the feet of science. Without leaving his closet, the student of nature may arrive at profound results in the investigation of animals, plants, shells, and minerals, scattered over the whole globeabove the earth, and under the earth, and down to the depths of the sea. Every art and science acknowledges its large indebted ness to the hand of commerce for the influence it is enabled to wield over nature in extending the empire and dominion of man. Commerce is the parent of civilization. We are acquainted with but one agency which excels it in perpetuating peace and good will among men, and elevating national character, and that agency is Christianity. But even the heralds of the cross, with all their noble and inspiring theme, have not penetrated farther into the depths of savage wildernesses, or among the fiercest islands of the ocean, have not crossed mountains and deserts more desolate and terrific, have not plunged more fearlessly in the midst of horrid idolatry, cannibalism, and semi-demonism, than have these men of bales and merchandises in their search after trade. They have gone hand in hand with the missionary, where they have not acted as his pioneer. It was thus in the early history of America. Marquette and Allouez, fathers in the Roman church, were even distanced in energy by the adventurous La Salle in the first visits which were made by civilized men to the howling wilderness westward of the lakes. It is thus with the hunters and trappers of Oregon and California, who, as far upward as the Russian limit, and south to Mexico, prosecute trade with the savage, as yet ignorant of his soul and of his Maker. It is most strikingly thus in the case of the Sandwich Islands. Commerce, acting as the adjunct or handmaiden of Christianity among the sav ages there, has transformed them into men and into citizens. We see a trophy won to civilization-a people added to the Christian nations of the earth. Let us take the extremest limit of the ocean, the stormiest islet of the sea, struggling against a thousand billows, and what do we find? The sailor and the trader have been there, and the return of the "white wings" is hailed by anxious multitudes, who bring out their treasures to be bartered for the veriest trifles of civilization. From the intercourse which arises, new wants are stimulated in their bosoms. They begin to think with the new objects which occasion thought. Their views and ideas are naturally expanded to a wider compass, and they are insensibly moulded in the type of those who have excited their highest admiration and wonder. Mysterious, beneficent and wise are the ways of Providence, when even the interests of men are called into requisition to work out the great problem of their existence. Commerce, in fine, is what it has been beautifully entitled, "the golden girdle of the globe." It binds together all the great families of men. It teaches that they are creatures of like wants, errors and necessities. It determines them to be component parts of a great and magnificent system which God has devised, and which requires the concurring movements of every part to be preserved in its perfection and duration. It forbids them to treat, like the ancient Roman, the foreigner cast upon their shores, as a barbarian deserving of death, or to confiscate his shipwrecked effects, but urges rather the doctrines of humanity and justice. Even the laws which regulate it are based upon the immutable principles of right, and bind the consciences of men from their very nature. As Mansfield, the most celebrated commercial lawyer of his age, said of them, quoting the splendid language of Cicero: Nec erit alia lex Roma, alia Athenis; alia nunc, alia posthac; sed et omnes gentes, et omni tempore una lex et sempiterna, et im. mortalis continebat:"-they are not one law at Rome and another at Athens, they do not fluctuate from extreme to extreme; but among all men, and in all times, the laws of commerce are one and immutable. COMMERCE-PROGRESS OF AMERI CAN. Commerce, qui fait à la fois la richesse d'un état et les advantages du monde entier.-VOLTAIRE. The sixteenth century introduced the leading European powers to a minute acquaintance with the Continent of America. Adventurous navigation had rescued a world from savage dominion, and there were adventurous spirits enough to people that world, and identify thenceforward their destinies with it. A hundred years after, and civilization planted her abodes through all this waste. Peculiar, indeed, is the feeling with which these infant days of our country are regarded -so like an illusion does it all seem; so like a dream of glowing imagery. We look back as to a classic era, and the romance of Pocahontas, and of Raleigh, of Fernando de Soto, and Juan Ponce de Leon, do they thrill us less than the beatific visions of the Greek, recurring to ages long ago, when Ilion resisted the shock of Agamemnon's heroes, and the Argo sailed away to distant Colchis? The dim antiquity seems gathered around both of them alike. But let it pass, all-the romance of our history! They imagined not, the men of that day imagined not the stupendous results which have occurred so soon. They saw not the benign and regenerating influences of a virgin land, preserved for countless ages uncorrupted by tyranny, and ignorant of oppression. Could such a soil have nurtured else than freemen? They saw it not, and do we, even we, see other than darkly yet, the great consummation, the mighty destinies of the regions which, three centuries ago, were proclaimed from the mast-head of a crazy ocean bark, a speck upon the distant heaven? But we pause not here to lament the causes which have counteracted these genial influences, and left whole regions of America, stagnated as it were, in the very elements of vitality and yet living hopelessly on. Should we refer to Canada, to Mexico, and the South American States? What is there here of progress to chronicle, and how much of humiliation? Regions blessed by heaven in everything but in men. Changing ever their dynasties and their despots in revolution and in blood. In motion always, without progress. In arms, without valor. Loving change rather than hating oppressors. Proclaiming civilization and annihilating its advances. The bitterness of Voltaire's sneer has no cruelty or injustice in its application to many of them, "en pansant les chevaur de leurs maitres ils se donnent le titre d'electeurs des rois et de destructeurs des tyrans!" Under Heaven, as it was the destiny of the savage aboriginal, incapable of civilization, and with no law of progress engrafted upon his nature, to fade away before the steady advances of European arms and policy, so, the AngloSaxon element of America, by its flexibility and its power, by the new elements which it has taken to itself in the trying, yet triumphant scenes through which it has passed, will and must, in the inevitable course of events, preside over the destinies of the continent of America, aiding and directing them, adding life and vitality, rousing dormant and sleeping energies, and developing, upon the theatre of the world, movements in comparison with which all that history can furnish, before the deluge, before the era of Christ, and since, shall dwindle into insignificance! It needs no ardent temperament to draw a stronger picture. Let our speculations cease, however, for the present. We have a subject before us which looks rather into the past than into the future, difficult though it be not to lift the veil for an instant that shrouds that future. The progress of American commerce is so rich, so fruitful, so limitless a theme, that all our condensation will be required to embrace even the main facts which are presenting themselves to our mind. We will for perspicuity and order distribute the subject under appropriate heads : The development of American character is replete with instruction, and solves one of the most remarkable problems in the history of mankind. The untried scenes of a new world, cut off by trackless oceans from contact and communion with the civilization of unnumbered generations, were sufficient to introduce, what might have been predicted of them, results, new, striking and without a precedent. The indomitable will, the stern endurance, the inflexible and hardy spirit of independence, the high daring, the lofty patriotism, the adventurous, unlimited enterprise, the genius resolute, active, intrepid; inexhaustible in resources, elastic in vigor and in freshness, buoyant ever and hoping on, and executing amid every trying scene, every danger, and difficulty, and disaster-War of 1812. triumphing everywhere and in all things. Philosophy could have argued this complexion for the men whose fathers braved so much beyond the ocean, and would philosophy have won less than the fame of prophecy by her judgment? I.-American Commerce in the seventeenth century. II. From the opening of the eighteenth century to the Revolution. III-Under the articles of confederation. V. From that War to the present day. A particular reference will afterwards be made to each of the countries with whom our own maintains important commercial_relations; commercial changes in the different divisions of the Union will be marked; in- | nies that the African trade be thenceforward vestigations on the advantages of the South laid open to them. In the same parliament for conducting foreign enterprises made, and it was conceded that the whole gain of the the singular and fortuitous events which mother country from the trade of Virginia have unfortunately checked and retarded and Maryland alone, amounted annually to those enterprises. In conclusion, some re- £180,000. The Pennsylvanians were exmarks may be ventured upon the means of porting corn to Spain and to Portugal, and regeneration and the ultimate prospects of with the proceeds of their ships and cargoes the commerce of our country. selecting out merchandize in the English markets. To the Dutch alone they sold 5,000 pistoles annually in liquor and provisions. They had their invoices to Surinam, and Hispaniola, the West Indies, Canaries, Newfoundland, and the other colonies, and £150,000 from the proceeds to traffic in Britain. "New-York," says a chronicle of this epoch, "sends fewer ships to England than some other colonies do, but those they do send are richer, as dealing more in furs and skins with the Indians, and they are at least of equal advantage to England with those of Pennsylvania. The soil of NewEngland is not unlike that of Britain. It employs about 40,000 tons of shipping; and about 600 sail of ships, sloops, &c., about half which shipping sail to Europe." Now began the parent's jealousy of her offspring. Nothing, it was said in parliament, nothing is more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous to any mother kingdom than the increase of shipping in her colonies. The only use of colonies, added Lord Sheffield, is the monopoly of their consumption and the carriage of their produce. In 1730, the Commons of England struck an ineffectual blow at the American trade with the French and Dutch colonies, it having been represented to them as greatly detrimental to England and her colonies. I. Our Commerce in the seventeenth century. The early colonists were exposed for a fearful probation to the most extraordinary vicissitudes and necessities. With the axe in one hand they reduced the sturdy forests into the farm-yard, and with the knife in the other they resisted the approaches of the stealthy and sanguinary savage. A meagre subsistence rewarded the toils that knew no rest, and the charities of the mother country were invoked for men, whose determined wills grew stronger as they suffered. This period had its different limits. Fifteen years after the landing of Wm. Sale, we find the proprietary government in England complaining to the Carolinas, "we must be silly indeed to maintain idle men. Thirty-three years after the landing of Bienville in Louisiana, the Western Company threw up their charter in utter hopelessness and despair.† New-England's rugged soil yielded a too reluctant tribute to the industry of her sons. They went out early upon the ocean by which they were girt, in search of bread that the plow yielded not To this hardy, daring and inimitable people, the boons of Nature were to be found in her apparent denial of them all. Upon the pathless deep they are described in eastern gorgeousness, while yet in infancy, by the oratory of Burke, struggling at either pole amid tumbling mountains of ice; in the frozen recesses of Hudson Bay and Davis's Straits; beneath the arctic circle and engaged under the frozen serpent of the South. The seventeenth century affords us, however, but a few particulars of the trade which had been started in the colonies. That it was limited can be readily imagined; that it should be worthy of any regard at all, is the only source of surprise. The materials of this portion of our history are meagre. It is sufficient that, in 1647, a trade had been opened from the Northern ports to Barbadoes and others of the West Indies; that a collector of customs was appointed at Charleston in 1685, and that the hardy enterprises of the Nantucket whalemen received their first impulse in 1690. Let us pass then to the second epoch. II. Our Commerce from 1700 to the Revolution. In the year 1731, we find a petition read in parliament from the American colo * Southern Quarterly Review, 1845. Art, Carolina Political Annals. † Commercial Review, vol. I. Art. Louisiana, In 1732 a writer gravely announced that the convenience of the Americans from the plenty of beavers, hare, coney wool and many other furs, gave them such advantages that, unless restrained, they would soon supply all the world with hats. The Board of Trade of the same year report that there are more trades carried on and manufactures set up in the provinces on the continent of America, northward of Virginia, prejudicial to the trade and manufactures of Great Britain, than in any other of the British colonies. In 1750 the Americans were forbidden to work in iron, and Lord Chatham declared not long after in Parliament that the colonies of North America had not even the right of manufacturing a nail. So stringent had become the restrictive policy! In 1764 was imposed an onerous burthen upon American commerce by the mother country, grown jealous of its too great extension.* This commerce had greatly en The English navigation act of 1660 declared that certain specified articles of the produce of the colonies, and since known in commerce by the name "enumerated articles," should not be exported direct riched the home as well as the colonial governments, but the former was too much blinded by erroneous policy to perceive it. She heeded not the annual purchases made in her markets with the avails of lumber, beef, fish, pork, butter, horses, poultry, live stock, tobacco, corn, flour, bread, cider, apples, cabbages, onions, &c., disposed of by our traders to the eager West India planters; and Lord Sheffield, in his observations on the commerce of the American states, tells us that at this time the Carolinians, of their exports to Kingston, Jamaica, took back one-half in the produce of that country, the middle provinces one-fourth, New-England one-tenth, and the balance in specie dollars. The trade of Britain with the American colonies employed in 1769, 1,078 ships, and 28,910 seamen. The value of her imports from them for that year amounted to £3,370,000, and of their imports from her to £3,924,606, showing a large difference in favor of the parent country.* In 1770 the imports of Carolina were £535,714, those of New-England £564,034, of Maryland, and Virginia £851,140, the exports of Virginia at the same time being double the value of those of either of the others named. Mr. Burke triumphantly announced in the House of Commons, "Our trade with America is scarcely less than that we carried on at the beginning of the cen tury with the whole world! In the six years ending with 1774 there was an average import from the colonies into England of £1,752,142, and an average export to them in turn of £2,732,036. Crippled as our energies were, they could not be repressed. It was a vain effort to confine the enterprise of a people, whose views embraced the world itself, into the narrow compass afforded by English ports, and by portions of Europe southward of Cape Finisterre. When the day of reckoning came, as it did at last, for these reckless abuses of power, and they were solemnly proclaimed in the immortal bill of rights, not the least of the usurpations for which retribution was demanded is to be found in the clause: She has cut off our trade with all parts of the world!'" The following table, compiled by Mr. Hazard from the most authentic sources, will exhibit the trade of the provinces with ly from the colonies to any foreign country, but that they should be first sent to Britain, and there unladen before they could be forwarded to their final destination. The act of 1764 provided farther that no commodity of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe shall be imported into the British plantations, but such as are laden and put on board in England, Wales, or Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in Englishbuilt shipping, whereof the master and two-thirds the mother country during the whole of the of the crew are English. Such are the amazing periods we have been considering; the table lengths to which systems of restrictions and monopoly have been carried by nations claiming enlightis of great interest, embracing as it does in enment! Nearly all of North America was doomed, one view almost the entire commerce of during its colonial dependence upon European America for seventy-six years. powers, to the same senseless and suicidal régime. From these statistics we learn the relative In the instance of Spain it is even yet continued, commercial position of the different prov though much moderated. She levied alike upon exports and imports, the alcavala and other oppressive inces. Dividing the whole time embraced taxes, and even so late as the middle of the eight- into periods of twenty-five years each, we eenth century, it was shown that she derived no observe in the first period that Virginia, greater advantages from the possession of Cuba, Hispaniola and Porto Rico, than England or France Maryland and Carolina furnish almost the from the smallest of their dependencies. The entire exports, and import much more largecourse of England, however, was at first of a liberally than New-England and New-York. In character, for we find the colonists empowered in the early charter of Pennsylvania to carry on a direct intercourse with foreign states. The permission had but a brief length, as we have seen. the second period New-York greatly increases her imports, which still fall short of those of We very much agree, after all, however, with while her exports are enhanced but little. New-England, or Virginia and Maryland, McCulloch and his school, in relation to these adverse and favorable differences which the world The whole exports of New-York, Pennsyl have entitled "balances of trade," and made no little vania and New-England combined did not hubbub about for the last century or two. difficult to estimate the mischief which the notions "It is reach the amount of those of Carolina singly. In the third period Pennsylvania imports more largely than New-York, but less than New-England; the southern provinces retain their rank as exporters, Carolina being still greater than New-York, New-England and Pennsylvania together; and Georgia, a is the empire of trade a fickle and inconstant new plantation, equals New-York. Truly relating to the balance of trade, have occasioned in almost every commercial country. The great, or rather the only argument insisted upon by those who prevailed upon the legislature in the reign of William and Mary to declare the trade with France a nuisance, was founded on the statement that the value of imports from that kingdom considerably exceeded the value of the commodities exported to it. It never occurred to those who so loudly abused the French trade, that no merchant would import any commodity from France, unless it brought a higher price in this country than the commodity exported to pay it, and that the profit of the merchant or nation would be in exact proportion to this excess of price. The very reason assigned by these persons for prohibiting the trade affords the best attainable proof of its having been a lucrative one, nor can one. our subject—[first giving the Table.] there be any doubt that unrestricted freedom of in- GEORGIA. Years Exp'ts £ Imp'ts Exp❜ts Imp❜ts Exp'ts Imp'ts Exp'ts Imp'ts £ Exp'ts Imp'ta 1700...41486....91918...17567...49410.... .4608...18529..317302..173481...14058...11003.. 1701...32656. ..86322...18547...31910....5220...12002..235738..199683...16973...13908.. 1702...37026....64625....7965...23991....4145....9343..274782...72391...11870...10460.. 1703...33539. .59608....7471...17562. .5160....9899..144928..196713...13197...12428 1704...30823....74896...10540...22294....2430...11819..264112...60458...14067....6621.. 1705...22793.... .62504....7393...27902....1309....7206..116768..174322....2698...19788.. 1706...22210 ...57050....2849...31588....4210...11037..149152...58015....8652....4001.. .786...14365..207625..237901...23311...10492.. .2120....6723..213493...79061...10340...11996.. .616....5881..261668...80268...20431.. 28521. ..1277....8594..188429..127639...20793...19613.. ..38...19408..373181...91535...12871...20406.. .1471....8464..297941..134583...29394...20015.. 1711...26415...137421...12193...28856. 1712...24699...128105...12466...18524. 1713...49904 ..120778...14428...46470.....178...17037..206263.. 76304...32448...23967.. 1714...51541...121288...29810...44643....2663...14927..280470..128873...31290...23712. 1715...66555 ..164650. .21316...54629....5461...17182..174756..199274...29158...16631.. .5193...21842..281343..179595...46287...27272.. 1718...61591...131885...27331...62966....5588...22716..316576. 191925...46385...15841.. 1719...54452...125317...19596: .56355....6564...27068..332069..164630...50373...19630.. 1720...49206...128769...16836...37397....7928...24531..331482..110717...62736...18290.. 1722...47955...133722...20118...57478....6882...26397. 283091..172754...79650...34374.. 1721...50483...114524...15681...50754. .8037...21546..357812..127376...61858...17703. 1723...59339...176486...27992...53013. 1724...69585...168507...21191...63020. .8332...15992..287997..123833...78103...42246.. ....4057...30324..277344..161894...90504...37839.. 1725...72021...201768...24976...70650...11981...42209..214730..195884...91942...39182.. 1727...75052...187277...31617...67452...12823...31979..421588..192965...96055...23254.. 1728...64689...194590...21141...81634...15230...37478..413089..171092...91175. .33067.. 1729...52512...161102...15833...64760....7434...29799..386174,.108931..113329...58366.. 1726...63816...200882...38307...84866....5960.. 57634..324767..185981...93453...43934.. 1730...54701...208196....8740...64356...10582...48592..346823..150931..151739...64785.. 1731...49048...183467...20756...66116...12786...44260..408502..171278..159771...71145.. 1732...64095...216600....9411...65540....8524...41698..310799..148289..126207...58298.. 1734...82252...146460...15307...81758...20217...54392..373090..172086..120466...99658. 1736...66788...222158...17944...86000...20786...61513..380163..204794..214083..101147.. 1737...63347...223923...16833..125833...15198...56690..492246..211301..187758...58986.. 1738...59116...203233...16228..133438...11918...61450..391814..258860..141119...87793. 1733...61983...184570...11626...65417...14776...40565 .403198..186177..177845...70466. .72899...189125...14155...80405...21919...48804..394995..220381..145348..117837....3010...12112 1735. 1739...46604...220378...18459..106070....8134... ..54452..444654..217200..236192...94445 ....2012 ..5701 17....6496 233. .3324 924. 3524 1740...72389...171081...21498..118777...15048...56751..341997..281428..265560..181821. 1746...38612...209177....8841...86712...15779...73699. 419371..282545...76897..102809.. 1747...41771...210640...14992..137984....3832...82404..492619..200088..107500...95529.. 1748...29748...197682...12358..143311...12363...75330..494852..252624..167305..160172. 1749...39999...238286...23413..265773...14944..238637..434618..323600..120499..164085. 1750...48455...343659...35632..267130...28191..217713 .508939..349419..191607..134037 1751...63287...305974...42363..248941...23870..190917..460085..247027..245491..138244. 1752...74313...273340...40648..194030...29978..201666..569453..325151..288264..150777. .2553 1753. .83395...345523...40553.277864...38527..245644..632575..356776..164634..213009....3057...14128 1754...66538...329433...26663..127497...30649..244647..573435..323513..307238..149215.. 1755...59533...341796...28055..151071...32336..144456..489668..285157..325525..189887 1756...47359...384371...24073..250425...20091..200169..337759..334897. 222915..181780....7155.....536 1757...27556...363404...19168..353311...14190..168426..418881..426687 .130889..213949.. 1758...30204...465694...14260..356555...21383..260953..454362..438471..150511..181002.. ..2571 ..10212 1759...25985...527067...21684..630785...22404..498161..357228..459007..206534..215255.....6074...15178 1760...37802...599647...21125. 480106...22754..707998..504451..605882..162769..218131... 12198.. 1761...46225...334225.. 48648..289570...39170..204067..455083..545350..253002..254587.... 1762. .41733...247385...58882..288046...38091..206199..415709..418599..181695..194170. 1763. ..74815...258854...52998..238560...38228..284152..642294..555391..282366..250132... 1764. .88157...459765...53697..515416...36258..436191..559508..515192..341727..305808... 5764...24279 6522. 23761 .14469...44908 31325...18338 53074...67268 1765..145819.. 451299...54959..382349...25148..363368..505671..383224..385918..334709... 34183...29165 1766..141733...409642...67020..330829...26851..327314..461693..372548..293587..296733... 82270...58340 1767..128207...406081...61422..417957...37641..371830..437926..437628..395027..244093...35856...23334 55532...56193 1768..148375...419797...87115..482930...59404..432107..406048..475984..508108..289868... 42402...56562 1770..148011...394451...69882..475991...28109..134881..435094..717782..278907..146273. 1769.129353...207992. .73466...74918...26111..199906..361892..488362..587114..306600.. .... 1771 .150381..1420119...95875..653621...31615..728744..577848..920326..420311..409169... 63810...70493 1772..126265...824830...82707..343970...29133..507909..528404..793910..425923..449610...66083...92406 1773..124624...527055...76246..289214...36652.426448.589803..328904..456513..344859... 85391...62932 1774..112248...562476...80008..437937...69611..625652..612030..528738..432302..378116...:67647...57518 1228..175962....1366..758356....1921..579349....6245.. 103477..113777 1421. ..365...73226.. |