MONTEFIORE’S COMMERCIAL DICTIONARY, 
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 foun- 
dations of a speedier interchange than 
the mere adventurous spirit of the mer- 
chant would else bring to bear. ‘These 
‘itis for the philosophic geographer to 
indicate. 
It is with far more pleasure, therefore, 
that we meet with a dictionary of com- 
merce than with a dictionary of the art 
of war: and we congratulate Mr. Mon- 
tefiore on the taste which leads him ra- 
ther 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 prodyctions 
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 ac- 
quainted. A convenient specimen, in- 
asmuch 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 bar- 
gains in trade, between merchant and mer- 
chant, are negotiated by brokers. See dgree- 
ment, Brokers. 
«© Bark, a general denomination given to 
small vessels, but which is particularly ap- 
propriated to those which carry three masts 
Pr horut amizen-top-mast. ‘The colliers dis- 
tinguish by this name a ship without orna- 
ment on the prow or stern. 
«< Baroche, a town of Cambaya, in the 
dominions of the Great Mogul. It was for- 
merly a place of great trade, and it is now 
inhabited by weavers and manufacturers of 
cotton cloth. Here is raised the best cotton 
in the world, and excellent bastas are manu- 
factured. The English and Dutch had for- 
maerly factories here, which are now aban- 
doned. 
«© Barratry, is where the master of a ship 
or the mariners defraud the owners or in- 
surers,- whether by running away with the 
ship, sinking her, deserting her, or embez- 
zling the cargo. See Shipping, Marine In- 
surance. 
«« Barter, an exchange of one species of . 
goods for ayother, which was the original 
, 695 
method of trading before money was in ue, 
and is still practised in the American co- 
lonies, and parts where cash is scarce. The 
extreme facility givem to commerce by mo- 
ney has almost put an end to bartet orex- 
change of articles, except in so far as mer- 
cantile men set.off their reciprocal demands, 
when there are such, previous to paying the 
balance in money. This, if the term may be 
used, is a half species of barter. ‘The ar- 
ticles are bartered in so ‘far as they pay for 
each other without the intervention of mo- 
ney. ‘Thus, in one sense, it is barter, but 
ia another it is not, as the value of each ar- 
ticle is reckoned in money, and not estimated 
by a certain quantity of the others. 
«« The species of barter now most prae- 
tised in this country is amongst tradesmen in 
the building line, who execute work for 
work toa 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 con- 
struction, and have a profit on the whole by 
doing business in his own line for the dif- 
ferent persons employed. 
a The invention of money has not alto- 
gether put an end to barter, yet it has en- 
trely 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 
each sale is supposed to be paid for in the 
circulating medium of the country, even in 
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 ad- 
vantage in whatever is of a nature to be ge- 
nerally distributed in Europe ; and there are 
in it numbers of commercial houses that act 
as agents, and on comunissions for merchants 
of different nations. 
** Bassora, Balsora, or Basrah, ‘is *situ- 
ated on a river named by the Arabians Schat 
el drab, which is formed by the) union of 
the Euphrates and Tigris. © This, place is 
rich, and of greater trade than any -one in 
Arabia Deserta; its possession was along 
time disputed by the Arabians, Persians, an 
Turks, but the last remained masters of it. 
«« 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 dispateh their letters by land, 
which is done by: way of Damascus and 
Aleppo. ‘The Portugueze also have a settle- 
ment here, theugh they make little advan- 
tage of it, j 
‘« Atmost all the trade passes through the 
Yys3 bi Bor 
ty BORNE ‘ 
