THE EVOLUTION OF COMMERCE. 657 
ocean rates on grain to Liverpool in 1888 were about half a mill per ton 
per mile; and 1 mill per ton per mile, or $3 per ton from New York to 
Liverpool is said to be a fair rate, while the all-rail rate between New 
York and San Francisco averages from $40 to $80 per ton, according to 
the class to which the freight belongs. It takes from seven to ten days 
to go from New York to Liverpool, nearly twice as long as from New 
York to San Francisco by rail, thirty days by Panama, and one hundred 
and twenty days by the all-water route around Cape Horn. 
The opening of this canal will therefore reduce the freight on goods 
between the East and West at least three-fourths and possibly more. 
It will give us a free, easy, and cheap communication by water between 
the Eastern and Western States; our commerce will be built up, and the 
wealth and commerce of the Atlantic coast and the population of the 
states on the Pacific coast will be increased in a wonderful manner. 
The opening of this route will give a demand for large steamships, 
and when we have such ships large shipyards and machine-shops will 
spring up, and these alone are wanted to enable us to build and run 
ships on the Atlantic Ocean in competition with Great Britain. Then 
the prediction of Mr. Cramp will be fulfilled, that Englishmen will be 
asking one another, ‘‘Can we build ships as economically as they do in 
the United States?” 
Modes of conveyance.—The earliest transportation of merchandise was 
by caravans. The first caravan of which we have any certain account 
ras that of the Ishmaelites and Moabites, who, while they were travel- 
ing from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, to 
Egypt, bought Joseph of his brethren and sold him as a slave to Poti- 
phar. These caravans were formed of merchants banded together for 
protection under a guide and leader, sometimes numbering several 
hundred, with one thousand camels in a caravan. They travelled from 
17 to 20 miles a day, but only in the spring and autumn months. At 
night they stopped at caravansaries, where free lodging was furnished 
to men and beasts. In Turkistan and Arabia all trade and travel was 
by similar caravans until the railroad was opened across the desert, by 
Mery and the Oxus, to Samareand. 
Navigation was first by boat, and ages afterward by vessels. The 
earliest vessels of which we have any account were employed in carry- 
ing cattle down the Nile, and were propelled by sails and rowers. The 
vessels, at first small and with a few rowers, were slowly increased in size 
and number of rowers until three, four, and even five banks of oars, one 
over the other, were used. They were often from 150 to 175 feet long 
and from 18 to 26 feet in breadth, drawing from 10 to 12 feet of water, 
and sometimes carrying two hundred rowers and several hundred men. 
All these ships were without decks, whether sailing on the Mediterra- 
nean or Atlantic. They sailed by day, putting into harbor at night, 
and never losing sight of land unless driven by stress of weather, At 
H, Mis, 334, pt. 1 42 
