240 COMMERCE. 



manures. Foreign seeds have been introduced, and the 

 methods of cultivation adopted from the nations whence they 

 were borrowed. Tiie intelligent farmer, profiting by the 

 wider diffusion of knowledge, derives assistance from the 

 philosopher, and is furnished with the useful principles of 

 every art in the least degree conducive to the improvement 

 and success of his occupations. 



Questions. — 1. What is agriculture ? 2. What does the practice 

 demand ? 3. Why is it advantageous to those who engage in it ? 4. 

 Why must every improvement in the art be considered of high utili- 

 ty ? 5. What is said of agricuUure with regard to nations ? 6. What 

 belongs to the business of the husbandman besides the raising of vege- 

 tables ? 7. What is said of modern improvements in agriculture ? 



LESSON 108. 



Commerce and Manufactures. 



Cap'ital, the fund or stock of a trading company, or corporation ; 

 the stock which a merchant or tradesman einpluys in business 

 on his own account. 



Commerce is the interchange of commodities, or the dis- 

 posal of produce of any kind for other articles, or for some 

 representative of value for which other articles can be pro- 

 cured, with a view of making a profit by the transaction. 

 The term is usually restricted to the mercantile intercourse 

 between different countries. The internal dealings between 

 individuals of the same country, either for the supply of im- 

 mediate consumption, or for carrying on manufactures, is 

 more commonly denominated trade. 



Those who engage their capitals in commerce or trade, 

 act as agents between the producers and the consumers of 

 the fruits of the earth ; they purchase them of the former, 

 and sell them to the latter, and it is by profits on the sale 

 that capital so employed yields a revenue or income. Com- 

 merce or trade increases the wealth of a nation, not by rais- 

 ing produce, like agriculture, nor by working up raw mate- 

 rials like manufactures ; but it gi/es an additional value to 

 commodities by bringing them from places where they are 

 plentiful to those where they are scarce : and by providing 

 the means for their more extended distribution, both th« 



