COMMERCE. 



principles on which its value has been 

 estimated, the principal regulations have 

 consisted in restraints upon importation, 

 and encouragements to exportation. The 

 duties and restrictions imposed by one 

 country, either with the view of encourag- 

 ing 1 its trade and manufactures, or for the 

 purpose of rendering commerce a source 

 of public revenue, have, however, only 

 created similar returns from other states, 

 and the commerce of Europe has become 

 a complicated system of high duties, 

 drawbacks, prohibitions, and bounties, 

 attended with much unnecessary expense, 

 and holding out continual temptations to 

 fraud and evasion. The impolicy and 

 injustice of many of the existing restraints 

 has been shewn by Dr. Adam Smith and 

 others, and the prevalence of just sen- 

 timents of the reciprocal advantages of 

 freedom of trade will render future com- 

 mercial arrangements more liberal and 

 beneficial. 



Commercial intercourse wasone of the 

 earliest effects of the progress of civiliza- 

 tion, but it was not till the gradual im- 

 provement of navigation had lessened 

 the dangers of long voyages, that distant 

 nations were enabled to exchange their 

 surplus produce, and to enjoy the conve- 

 niencies and luxuries of foreign climes. 

 The Egyptians, at a very early period, 

 opened a trade with the western coast 

 of the continent of India ; but the Pheni- 

 cians and the Carthaginians carried com- 

 merce to a much greater extent, the 

 trading voyages of the latter extending 

 not only to all the coasts of Spain and 

 Gaul, b-.it even to Britain. The commerce 

 of the Greeks was confined to the ports 

 of the Mediterranean till the foundation 

 of Alexandria, which soon acquired the 

 greater part of the trade with India, and 

 became for a time the first commercial 

 city in the world. The extent of the 

 Roman empire, and the spirit of its gov- 

 ernment, gave facility and security to 

 commercial transactions, and rendered 

 Rome the metropolis of the commercial 

 world till the fourth century, when the 

 sea* of empire was removed to Constan- 

 tinople, which was thus made the empo- 

 rium of commerce. Here it continued 

 to flourish, even when the devastations of 

 the Goths and Vandals had annihilated 

 commercial intercourse in almost every 

 other part of Europe, and a considera- 

 ble trade with India was kept up, al- 

 though, after the conquest of Egypt by 

 the Arabians, it could only be carried on 

 by a very tedious and difficult channel of 

 conveyance. 



The inhabitants of Italy who fled to 

 the islands of the Adriatic, and founded 

 the city of Venice, were led by their 

 situation to the pursuit of commerce, 

 which they carried on with success, and 

 in no very great length of time became 

 almost the sole carriers of the East Indian 

 merchandize brought to Alexandria, 

 vrhich their vessels distributed to all 

 parts of Europe. The example of Venice 

 led to the cultivation of commerce at 

 Genoa, Florence, Pisa, and other cities 

 of Italy, which for several centuries were 

 the only places in Europe that carried on 

 any considerable foreign trade. The in- 

 security of property, during the unsettled 

 state of Europe which succeeded the 

 destruction of the western empire, caus- 

 ed an almost general suspension of com- 

 mercial intercourse till the time of Char- 

 lemagne, whose extensive empire facili- 

 tated correspondence between different 

 parts of Europe, which had before little 

 connection, while the establishment of 

 Christianity in Germany contributed to 

 the increase of cities and towns in the 

 north of Europe, and introduced an ac- 

 quaintance with the productions of more 

 southern climates. 



The encouragement given to manufac- 

 tures in Flanders, and their consequent 

 improvement,drew the merchants of other 

 countries to the fairs and markets estab- 

 lished at Bruges, Courtray, and many 

 other towns, which thus became of consi- 

 derable importance, while a taste for the 

 productions of the East was spreading 

 through almost every part of Europe, ac- 

 quired in Palestine during the crusades, 

 and contributing very materially to the 

 encouragement offoreign trade. The pro- 

 ductions of India were, however, obtained 

 at great risk and expense, till the improve- 

 ment of navigation, by the invention of the 

 mariner's compass, and the subsequent 

 discovery of a passage to India by the 

 Cape of Good Hope. This was soon fol- 

 lowed by the still more important discove- 

 ry of the West Indies, and the continent 

 of America, events which filled Europe 

 with astonishment, and opened a vast field 

 for speculative and commercial enter- 

 prize. Spain and Portugal attempted to 

 monopolize the benefits of the discovery 

 of America, but their injudicious policy 

 has rendered them little more than the 

 channels, through which the profits of 

 this trade have been conveyed to more 

 industrious states. 



The establishment of English colonies 

 in North America,the improvement of ma- 

 nufactures in Flanders, Holland, France, 



