COMMERCE 



1512 



COMMERCIAL LAW 



the very ends of the earth. The people of 

 London, for example, eat butter and eggs from 

 Denmark, beef and mutton from the Western 

 United States or from Argentina, apples from 

 Ontario, oranges from California. The bread 

 they cat is made from wheat raised in Sas- 

 katih. \van. North Dakota or Minnesota, their 

 tea comes from Ceylon or Japan, and their 

 coffee is raised in Brazil or Arabia. In short, 

 there is hardly a thing produced by nature or 

 by man which is not an item in commerce. 

 For details of the commerce of the world, see 

 articles on the separate countries. W.F.Z. 



Related subject*. The following list of ar- 

 ticles In these volumes which relate to commer- 

 cial topics does not confine Itself to the nar- 

 rower sense of the word commerce, but Includes 

 articles bearing upon trade and various phases 

 of business: 



Accounting 



Advertising 



Auction 



Auditor 



Balance of Trade 



Bears and Bulls 



Bill 



Bill of Exchange 



Bill of Health 



Bill of Lading 



Bill of Sale 



Board of Trade 



Bonded Warehouse 



Bookkeeping 



Boycott 



Burketshop 



Chamber of Commerce 



Commercial Agency 



Corporation 



Department Store 



Dun Commercial 



Agency 

 Exchange 

 Express Company 

 Fair 



Federal Trade Com- 

 mission 



Free Trade 



Fur and Fur Trade 



Good AVill 



Grace, Days of 



Insurance 



Interstate Commerce 

 Act 



Joint Stock Company 



Lloyd's 



Meat Packing 



Merchant Marine 



Monopoly 



Partnership 



Pawnbrokers 



Profit 



Profit Sharing 



Receipt 



Receiver 



Standard Oil Company 



Stock, Capital 



Stock Exchange 



Trade Mark 



United States Steel 

 Corporation 



COMMERCE, CHAMBER OF. See CHAMBER OF 

 COMMERCE. 



COMMERCE, CHAMBER OF, OF THE UNITED 

 STATES. See CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



COMMERCE, DEPARTMENT OF, the ninth 

 executive department of the United States 

 government, originally established in February, 

 1903, as the Department of Commerce and 

 Labor. In 1913 the Department of Labor 

 (which see) was organized as a separate depart- 

 ment. The Department of Commerce "fosters, 

 promotes and develops the foreign and do- 

 mestic commerce, the mining, manufacturing, 

 shipping and fishing industries, and the trans- 

 portation facilities of the United States." This 

 Department has charge of the promotion of 



American manufactures, the census, statistics, 

 lighthouses, coast survey and steamboat in- 

 spection. 



The Department organization includes many 

 important Bureaus, such as the Bureau of For- 

 eign and Domestic Commerce, Bureau of 

 Lighthouses, Bureau of the Census, Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, Steamboat Inspection Serv- 

 ice, Bureau of Fisheries, Bureau of Naviga- 

 tion and Bureau of Standards. When the De- 

 partment of Commerce and Labor was estab- 

 lished two new Bureaus of first importance 

 were created, the Bureau of Manufactures and 

 the Bureau of Corporations, and it was largely 

 because of the necessity of these two that the 

 Department was originally organized. The for- 

 mer remains a part of the present Depart- 

 ment of Commerce, but the work of the Bureau 

 of Corporations is- now in the hands of the 

 Federal Trade Commission (which see). 



At the head of the Department is the Secre- 

 tary of Commerce; he is a member of the 

 Cabinet of the President, but is not eligible 

 to succession to the Presidency, as are the first 

 seven members of that body (see PRESIDENTIAL 

 SUCCESSION ACT). The secretary receives a sal- 

 ary of $12,000 per year. 



COMMERCIAL AGENCY. Wholesale dealers 

 and manufacturers in large cities have many 

 customers scattered throughout rural districts 

 and smaller towns. Most of these customers 

 usually wish to purchase goods on credit. Be- 

 fore the dealer can sell on deferred payments 

 he must know the financial standing of cus- 

 tomers, their reputation for honesty, and other 

 facts pertaining to them to serve as a basis for 

 credit. Since it is impracticable for dealers 

 to gain this information themselves, they are 

 willing to pay reliable firms to do it for them. 

 Such firms are commercial agencies. The best 

 of these agencies are very reliable and are con- 

 sidered authorities in their field. They issue 

 an annual guide to their subscribers which gives 

 the financial standing and credit of every firm 

 of any importance in America, and sometimes 

 in the leading European countries. These rat- 

 ings are denoted by letters and figures which 

 are disclosed by a key, and those not ac- 

 quainted with the system employed are unable 

 to interpret the symbols. The two leading 

 commercial agencies of America are Dun & 

 Company and Bradstreet's. 



COMMERCIAL LAW, the branch of law 

 which relates most directly to every-day mer- 

 cantile transactions which are based on or 

 modified by the usage of trade. The body of 



