COM 



31 



Commerce 



II 

 Common. 



a calculation was made to shew how much greater 

 would be our profit, were we to send our supplies di- 

 rect to the Spanish settlements. At last the time came, 

 when this envied traffic was thrown into our hands ; 

 the year 1 808 having sealed the American ports by the 

 embargo, and opened, in consequence of Bonaparte's 

 usurpation, a free intercourse between Britain and the 

 Spanish colonies. This was followed by a very exten- 

 sive, or, as it was frequently termed, a spirited trade 

 with the western hemisphere ; and the amount of our 

 exports was such, as to make a veteran writer on com- 

 mercial subjects * declare, that, " throughout the ef- 

 fluxion of half a century, the year 1 809 was the most 

 prosperous." Unfortunately, however, a great part of 

 this flattering exportation was never paid for. The 

 North Americans had supplied the Spaniards with a 

 cautious hand ; but we, conceiving the market inex- 

 haustible, poured in merchandise in immense quanti- 

 ties, and were first taught, by the bankruptcies of 1 8 1 0, 

 that the Spanish colonists were incapable of giving an 

 equivalent for the goods which we had so liberally sent 

 them. We have now learned, that a country may pos- 

 sess a fine soil, and a delightful climate, without the in- 

 dustry which is necessary to make her inhabitants de- 

 sirable customers. Without attempting to compute 

 the loss sustained in this quarter, or in the cultivation 

 of newly settled colonies, such as Demerara or Trini- 

 dad, the general conclusion is, that much capital is 

 sunk and lost in these countries, while, in trading with 

 our European neighbours, the profits, though small, are 

 steady and of quick return. Instead, therefore, of ma- 

 king war for sugar islands, or cotton plantations, the 

 nations of Europe will, it is to be hoped, become in time 

 alive to the importance of the vast profits which they may 

 make, by trading with each other. In this country, 

 we have no ground to dread the political power atten- 

 dant on the successful prosecution of commerce by our 

 neighbours ; since our insular situation, and the exten- 

 sive navigation inseparably connected with it, bid fair 

 to assure to us the preservation of the empire of the sea. 

 The Continent possesses, as we have very recently 

 seen, the means of asserting its own independence ; 

 and if we analyse the sources of our national losses, we 

 shall frequently find them to have originated more from 

 mistaken measures at home, than from the power of 

 our foreign enemies. 



Our limits do not permit us to go farther at present 

 into the general principles of trade ; and we conclude, 

 by referring those of our readers, who take an interest 

 in such discussions, to the article Political Econo- 

 my. ( x ) 



COMMERSONIA, a genus of plants of the class 

 Pentandria, and order Pentagynia. See Botany, p. 

 169. ■ 



COMMIPHORA, a genus of plants of the class Di- 

 scern, and order Octandria. See Botany, p. 337. 



COMMODUS. See Rome. 



COMMON. See Agriculture. 



COMMON Chord, in Music, is a term applied to 

 the most perfect combination of harmony that is known, 

 and with which pieces of music generally end. In the 



III 3 4 

 major key of C, these notes are C E G c, the inter- 



V 6 

 VIII 

 vals between each adjacent note being placed above, 

 those of every alternate pair are placed below the let- 



C O M 



ters, and the VIII below these, is the whole interval Common 

 between the extreme sounds ; in which arrangement, ~""~\ 

 it appears that all the seven concords, 3, III, 4, V, 6, 

 VI, and VIII, except the Vlth, are heard between the 

 different notes of this chord, the major third being next 

 the bass, to which circumstances are perhaps owing the 

 peculiar effect and delight which this chord affords. If 

 the two thirds be inverted, and the minor third placed 

 next the bass, the chord is then called the common 



3 III 4 

 chord minor, thus C E[j G c. Here again 6 out of 

 V VI 

 VIII 

 the 7 concords are heard in the sounding of this chord, 

 the minor sixth being now absent, and the minor third 

 being placed next the bass, which circumstances proba- 

 bly occasion, or are closely connected with, the pecu- 

 liar effect of this minor common chord. It seems ra- 

 ther a singular circumstance, that the VI should be 

 wanting in the major chord, and the 6th wanting in 

 the minor common chord. See our article Chord, (g) 

 COMMON Logarithms, in musical calculations. 

 These are often mentioned and used by the musical cal- 

 culator, and, like all other kind of logarithms, they are de- 

 cimal values of a particular interval, which is their unit, 

 radix, or modulus. This interval is, in the present case, 

 T ^th, = 2033 2 + 40/+ 176»n ; and thus 1, in the Jirst 

 place of reciprocal common logarithms, represents 203.32 

 + 4/+ 17.6 m, or 203.296855 2 + 4/'+ 18 m, being 

 only .7005242 less than the isotonic III, or | part of 

 the octave. 1, in the second place, represents 20.332 

 + .4/+ 1.76 m, or 20.395840 2 + w. 1, in the third 

 place of these logarithms, represents 2.033 2 -|- .04/ 

 + . 1 76m, or 2.04037022 2, which differsonly .00020 i332 

 from the Extameride, or T i T VIII of M. Sauveur. 

 If the recip. log. of the octave be .30103, then from the 

 above VIII =6 12.000008 2 + 12/+ 53m. In like man- 

 ner, the hyperbolic logarithms are decimals of an inter- 



val, whose ratio is £&££** = 88 ^ 18 ^ * + 

 17/+ 77m. ( { ) 



COMMON Measures of Musical Intervals. In our 

 article Commensurable Intervals, we have shewn, that, 

 strictly speaking, there can be no such thing as a com- 

 mon measure or unit, by means of which all other in- 

 tervals might be expressed in whole numbers or in de- 

 cimals that terminate, or even that circulate or repeat ; 

 but that all such numbers expressing intervals (being 

 logarithms of a particular species) will have decimal 

 values indefinitely large, without any law in the conti- 

 nuation of the same being discoverable. Before the 

 important invention of Lord Napier, and the construc- 

 tion of copious tables of logarithms, even the best ma- 

 thematicians had but imperfect views of the relations 

 and values of the prime ratios to which musical inter- 

 vals are aUied, and hence the many mistakes and in- 

 consistencies in some of the best of the ancient writings 

 on music, (see Aristoxcnian Common Measures,) where 

 they treat on the minute relations and values of inter- 

 vals. Mersennus, for instance, concluded from his cal- 

 culations, that 58^ major commas made an octave, or 

 6l22+12/4~53m, instead of 638.9796142 12f±55m, 

 the real value of so many major commas, which error 

 was detected by Nicholas Mercator, who, according to 

 Dr William Holder, ( Treatise, 1 st edit. p. 79,) in an 

 unpublished manuscript, mentions having calculated by 

 logarithms, that there were more than 55 commas (55^' 



* Mr -George Chalmers. See his Considerations en Bullion, p. 1. 



