POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 9 



first to furnish a numerous and skilled 

 body of sailors available in time of war for 

 the navy, and second to make England an 

 entrepot of commerce; and in both these 

 aims the Act seems to have been success- 

 ful. The term entrepot may be defined as 

 a commercial centre where goods accumu- 

 late on their way to market. 1 Any post 

 which either by its freedom or its geograph- 

 ical position offered a convenient place for 

 vessels to deposit their cargoes and reload 

 with other merchandise was a natural 

 entrepot. 



A place of entrepot was like a great 

 bonded warehouse where one might take 

 almost everything with a fair chance of 

 sale, and a certainty that one could buy 

 something to take away. The profits to a 

 country possessing such an entrepot are 

 obvious. All the machinery necessary for 

 the receiving, storing and distributing of 

 merchandise, the employment of labor, 



1 Mahan, Influence of Sea Power on the War of 

 1812, vol. xxi, p. 12. 



