FINANCE, INDUSTRY, TRANSPORTATION. 



459 



erty of the debtor to his creditors will procure 

 immunity from personal process, even though 

 it may not cover the amount owed. New York 

 was the first state in the United States to abol- 

 ish imprisonment for debt. This was done 

 in 1831, and the example was shortly followed 

 by the other states ; and though there is great 

 difference in the insolvent laws of the several 

 states, they all permit debtors their freedom, 

 except in cases wherein dishonesty or pecula- 

 tion render the debtor also amenable to the 

 Penal Code. Both in Greece and in Rome, in 

 ancient times, the creditor had a claim to the 

 person of the debtor. In Rome, thirty days 

 after judgment was pronounced against the 

 debtor, he was given into the hands of his 

 creditor, who kept him sixty days in chains, 

 exposing him on three market-days, and pro- 

 claiming his debt. If no one stepped in to re- 

 lease him, the debtor, at the end of that time, 

 might be sold for a slave or put to death. If 

 there were several creditors, the letter of the 

 law permitted them to cut their debtor in 

 pieces, sharing him in proportion to their 

 claims. The common practice, however, was 

 to treat him as a slave, and make him work out 

 the debt. The children in his power, in ac- 

 cordance with the constitution of society at 

 Rome, followed his condition. 



Wealth of Principal Nations (1899). 



Argen. Rep ...2,545,000,000 



Australia 6,836,000,000 



Austria 19,275.000,000 



Belgium 5,035 000,000 



Canada 4,900 000,003 



Denmark 2,020 000.0 



France 42,990,000,000 



Germany 32,18f>,000,000 



United Km... 47,000,000,000 

 Greece 1,500,000,000 



Holland $4.900,000,000 



Italy 14,815,000,000 



Mexico 3,190.000,000 



Norway 1,215,000.000 



Portugal 2,040,00(1.000 



Russia 25.445,000,000 



Spain 12,580.000.000 



Sweden 3,185,000,000 



Switzerland . . . .2,470,000,000 

 U. States 64,120,000,000 



American Mine, Oldest. The first re- 

 corded account of the discovery of coal in the 

 United States is contained in Ilennepin's nar- 

 rative of his explorations in the West, between 

 1673 and 1680, when he saw the coal outcrop 

 in the bluffs of the Illinois river, not far from 

 Ottawa and La Salle. In New Mexico and 

 Arizona, there are silver mines which were 

 operated by the Toltecs and Aztecs years be- 

 fore the Spanish invasion. So there are cop- 

 per mines in the Lake Superior region in which 

 the tools and mining marks of ancient miners 

 of prehistoric times were found by the pioneers 

 of the present American mining companies. 

 Where the first colonists of Virginia got, the 

 ship load of "fool's gold" which they sent 

 back to England, to the great disgust of the 

 London Company, is not certainly kiiGvri.; 

 but it is known that at the same time, in 1608, 

 they shipped a quantity of iron from Jaimes- 

 town, which yielded seventeen tons of metal 

 the first pig-iron ever made from Ameri- 



can ore. In North and South Carolina, and 

 Georgia, there are diggings, now overgrown 

 with forests, which are supposed to have been 

 excavated by the followers of De Soto and his 

 immediate successors between 1539 and 1600. 

 The oldest mining enterprise of the United 

 States, still active, is generally conceded to be 

 the mine La Motte, in the lead district of 

 Eastern Missouri, which was opened about 

 1720 under Renault, of Law's notorious Missis- 

 sippi Company. It was named after La Motte, 

 the mineralogist of the expedition, arid has 

 been worked at intervals ever since it was 

 opened. 



Liverpool Docks. The docks, at Liv- 

 erpool, England, extend on the city side of the 

 river Mersey 6^ miles, and have a water area 

 of 333J- acres, and a lineal quayage of 22 miles. 

 The great landing stage at Liverpool is the fin- 

 est structure of the kind in the world. It was 

 originally built in 1857, and was greatly en- 

 larged in 1874, but shortly after its completion, 

 July 28, 1874, it accidentally caught fire and 

 was entirely consumed. It was again built in 

 the most substantial manner. Its length is 

 2,063 feet, and its breadth is 80 feet. It is 

 supported on floating pontoons, which rise and 

 fall with the tide, and is connected with the 

 quay by seven bridges, beside a floating bridge 

 550 feet in length for heavy traffic. The great 

 system of docks at Liverpool was commenced 

 by the corporation in 1709, and was for a cen- 

 tury under the control of the City Council, but 

 since 1856 their management has been in the 

 hands of a board. The amount of capital in- 

 vested in these docks is 10,000,000, of which 

 7,000,000 is in Liverpool proper, and the -rev- 

 enue derived from them is over 1,250,000 an- 

 nually. They are constructed as water-tight 

 inclosures, with flood gates, which are opened 

 during the flowing and closed during the ebb- 

 ing of the tide, so that vessels within can be 

 kept afloat and at the same level while being 

 loaded and unloaded 



Communism and Socialism. Commu- 

 nism is the doctrine that society should be re- 

 organized on the basis of abolishing individual 

 ownership of property and control of wages, 

 and most of the now generally admitted rights 

 of individuals in their private and domestic re- 

 lations, and substituting therefor community 

 ownership and control of every person and 

 everything. Attempts to realize Communism 

 have been made in both England and France, 

 but in all cases resulted in disaster to the com- 

 munities. The communistic leader in Eng- 

 land was Robert Owen, who made two attempts 

 to carry out his views in that country. Fou- 

 rier and St. Simon, French Communists, made 

 similar efforts in France, but the results were 



