150 



pect in its favor, the wealth of the Indies may resume its 

 ancient channel for a time, and Napoleon III. may yet 

 live to see a share of the commerce of the East restored, 

 by the successor of Charlemagne, to the Latin countries 

 of Southern Europe. 



Commerce among the ancients was a wholly different 

 thing from the commerce of the modern world. It was 

 confined mainly to the shores of the Mediterranean and 

 rarely ventured beyond the pillars of Hercules. To the 

 ports and cities of these shores it drew, to some extent, 

 the wealth of the interior. To how limited an extent 

 will be obvious, when we reflect that road- ways for trans- 

 portation by carriages were unknown except in the inime- 

 diate environs of the great cities, and that the pro- 

 ducts of the country were brought for export to the sea, 

 and the products of exchange returned, on the backs of 

 camels, asses, oxen and men. Just so in Arabia 

 to-day is brought out from the back country to Mocha 

 that delicious coffee with which our townsman, Capt. 

 Bertram, regales so many of the breakfast tables of the 

 Union. 



Of course, under such a system, only articles of small 

 bulk and great value can be advantageously transported. 

 The staples of modern, commerce were then unheard of. 

 Neither cotton, tobacco, sugar, coal, nor iron, were then 

 subjects of freight, and breadstuffs only in limited and 

 intermittent quantities. Trade was made tributary to the 

 luxuries rather than the comforts of life, and gold, ivory, 

 spices, marble for building and the arts, gums, jewels, 

 silks and ornamental woods outranked in consequence the 

 staple commodities. Thus Tyre, Carthage, Athens, Cor- 

 inth, Corcyra, Byzantium and Rhodes grew great in turn 

 upon the overland traffic of Asia and Africa which they 

 carried across Europe, even at last so far as to barter for 



