PREFACE, 



If it were poflible that the importance of the fubjc(5l could be equal- 

 ed by the merit of the compofition, there would be few works fo 

 well deferving the attention of a Britifh reader as the Annals of com- 

 merce. 



Wherever commerce has flouriflied, the people have enjoyed gen- 

 eral plenty and happinefs ; civiUzation, urbanity, and a compara- 

 tively-well-ordered government, fecuring the liberty and property 

 of the fubjedl, have been its conflant attendants. Ariflotle, that 

 great mafter of politics, fays that the conflitution of the commerciaF 

 republic of Carthage was one of the moft perfedl in the world. And 

 we maybe allowed, with no fmall degree of fatisfadion, to add, that 

 our own commercial ifland has long been confidered in Europe as 

 the afylum of liberty, and the country wherein property could moff 

 fafely be enjoyed. 



But, though commerce is univerfally known to be the chief fource 

 of the profperity, and alfo the power, of the Britilh empire, no Brit- 

 ifh work illuftrative of its progrefs ever appeared, till Mr. Ander- 

 fon publiflied his Hljlorical and chronological deduction of the origin of 

 commerce, wherein he has traced its progrefs from the creation of the 

 world to the commencement of the reign of his prefent Majefty ; 

 a work which has been quoted with approbation by fome of the 

 greateft authors who have written fince it appeared. 



