14 G. G. Hubbard — Tlte Evolution of Commerce. 



York and San Francisco averages from forty to eighty dollars per 

 ton, according to the class to which the freight belongs. It 

 takes from seven to ten days to go from New York to Liverpool, 

 t;^vice as long from New York to San Francisco by rail, thirty 

 days by Panama, and one hundred and twenty days by the all- 

 water route around cape Horn. 



The opening of this canal will therefore reduce the freight on 

 goods between the east and west at least three-fourths and pos- 

 sibly more. It will give us a free, easy and cheap communication 

 by water between the eastern and western states ; our commerce 

 will be built up, and the wealth and commerce of the Atlantic 

 coast and the population of the states on the Pacific coast will 

 be increased in a wonderful manner. 



The opening' of this route will give a demand for large steam- 

 ships, and when we have such ships large ship-yards and 

 machine-shops Avill spring up, and these alone are wanted to 

 enable us to build and run shi^s on the Atlantic ocean in com- 

 petition with Great Britain. Then the prediction of Mr Cramp 

 will be fulfilled, that Englishmen Avill be asking one another, 

 " Can we build ships as economically as they do in the United 

 States?" 



Modes of Conveyance. 



The earliest transportation of merchandise Avas by caravans. 

 The first caravan of which we have any certain account Avas that 

 of the Ishmaelites and Moabites, who, while they were traveling 

 from Gilead Avith their camels, bearing spices, balm and myrrh 

 to Egypt, bought Joseph of his brethren and sold him as a slave 

 to Potiphar. These caravans Avere formed of merchants banded 

 together for protection, under a guide and leader, sometimes 

 numbering several hundred, with one thousand camels in a 

 caravan. They traveled from seventeen to tAventy miles a day, 

 but only in the spring and autumn months. At night they 

 stopped at caravansaries, Avhere free lodging was furnished to 

 men and beasts. In Turkistan and Arabia all trade and travel 

 Avas by similar caravans until the railroad was opened across 

 the desert by Merv and the Oxus to Samarcand. 



Navigation AA'as first by boat, and ages afterAvard by vessels. 

 The earliest vessels of Avhich Ave have an}'- account Avere employed 

 in carrying cattle doAvn the Nile, and AA^ere propelled by sails 

 and roAvers. The vessels, at first small and Avith a fcAA^ roAvers, 



