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COMMERCE (Lat. commercium, from, cum,...
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See also:COMMERCE (See also:Lat. commercium, from, cum, together, and rnerx, merchandise)
, in its See also:general acceptation, the See also:international See also:traffic in goods, or what constitutes the See also:foreign See also:trade of all countries as distinct from their domestic trade
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In tracing the See also:history of such dealings we may go back to the See also:early records found in the See also:Hebrew Scriptures
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Such a transaction as that of See also:Abraham, for example, weighing down " four See also:hundred shekels of See also:silver, current with the See also:merchant," for the See also: `Here%' The See also:great See also:rivers, which became the first seats of See also:population and See also:empire, must have been of much utility as channels of transport, and hence the course of human See also:power of which they are the See also:geographical delineation, and probably the See also:idolatry with which they were sometimes honoured . Nor were the ancient rulers insensible of the importance of opening roads through their dominions, and establishing See also:post and lines of communication, which, though primarily for See also:official and military purposes, must have been useful to traffickers and to the general population . But the free navigable See also:area of great rivers is limited, and when diversion of traffic had to be made to roads and tracks through deserts, there remained- the slow and costly See also:carriage of beasts of See also:burden, by which only articles of small bulk and the rarest value could be conveyed with any See also:hope of profit . See also:Corn, though of the first See also:necessity, could only be thus transported in famines, when beyond See also:price to those who were in want, and under this extreme pressure could only be See also:drawn. from within a narrow See also:sphere, and in quantity sufficient to the sustenance of but a small number of See also:people . The routes of ancient commerce were thus interrupted and cut asunder by barriers of transport, and the farther they were extended became the more impassable to any considerable quantity or See also:weight of commodities . As See also:long as See also:navigation was confined to rivers and the shores of inland gulfs and seas, the oceans were a terra incognita, contributing nothing to the facility or security of transport from one part of the world to another, and leaving even one populous part of See also:Asia as unapproachable from another as if they had been in different hemispheres . The various routes of trade from See also:Europe and See also:north-western Asia to See also:India, which have been often referred to, are to be regarded more as speculations of future development than as realities of ancient history . It is not improbable that the ancient traffic of the Red See also:Sea may have been extended along the shores of the Arabian Sea to some parts of Hindustan, but that vessels braved the See also:Indian Ocean and passed See also:round Cape See also:Comorin into the See also:Bay of See also:Bengal, 2000 or even l000 years before mariners had learned to See also:double the Cape of See also:Good Hope, is scarcely to be believed . The route by the Euxine and the See also:Caspian Sea has probably never in any See also:age reached India . That by the See also:Euphrates and the See also:Persian Gulf is shorter, and was besides the more likely from passing through tracts of See also:country which in the most remote times were seats of great population . There may have been many merchants who traded on all these various routes, but that commodities were passed in bulk over great distances is inconceivable . It may be doubted whether in the ante-Christian ages there was any heavy transport over even 500 m., See also:save for warlike or other purposes, which engaged the public resources of imperial states, and in which the See also:idea of commerce, as now understood, is in a great measure lost . The See also:advantage which See also:absolute power gave to ancient nations in their warlike enterprises, and in the See also:execution of public See also:works of more or less utility, or of See also:mere ostentation and monumental magnificence, was dearly See also:purchased by the See also:sacrifice of individual freedom, the right to labour, produce and exchange under the steady operation of natural economic principles, which more than any other cause vitalizes the individual and social energies, and multiplies the commercial resource of communities . Commerce in all periods and countries has obtained a certain freedom and hospitality from the fact that the foreign merchant has something desirable to offer; but the See also:action of trading is reciprocal, and requires multitudes of producers and merchants, as free agents, on both sides, searching out by patient experiment wants more advantageously supplied by exchange than by See also:direct See also:production, before it can attain either permanence or magnitude, or can become a vital element of national See also:life . The ancient polities offered much resistance to this development, and in their absolute power over the See also:liberty, See also:industry and property of the masses of their subjects raised barriers to the See also:extension of commerce scarcely less formidable than the want of means of communication itself . The conditions of security under which foreign trade can alone flourish equally exceeded the resources of ancient See also:civilization . Such roads as exist must be protected from robbers, the rivers and seas from pirates ; goods must have safe passage and safe storage, must be held in a manner sacred in the territories through which they pass, be insured against accidents, be respected even in the madness of hostilities ; the See also:laws of nations must give a See also:guarantee on which traders can proceed in their operations with reasonable confidence; and the governments, while protecting the commerce of their subjects with foreigners as if it were their own enterprise, must in their fiscal policy, and in all their acts, be endued with the highest spirit of commercial See also:honour . Every great See also:breach of this security stops the continuous circulation, which is the life of traffic and of the See also:industries to which it ministers . But in the ancient records we see commerce exposed to great risks, subject to See also:constant pilage, hunted down in See also:peace and utterly extinguished in war . Hence it became necessary that foreign trade should itself be an armed force in the world; and though the states of purely commercial origin soon See also:fell into the same arts and See also:wiles as the See also:powers to which they were opposed, yet their history exhibits clearly enough the necessity out of which they arose . Once organized, it was inevitable that they should meet intrigue with intrigue, and force with force . The See also:political empires, while but imperfectly developing industry and traffic within their own territories, had little sympathy with any means of prosperity from without . Their See also:sole policy was either to absorb under their own spirit and conditions of See also:rule, or to destroy, whatever was See also:rich or great beyond their borders . Nothing is more marked in the past history of the world than this struggle of commerce to establish conditions of security and means of communication with distant parts . When almost driven from the land, it often found both on the sea; and often, when its success had become brilliant and renowned, it perished under the See also:assault of stronger powers, only to rise again in new centres and to find new channels of intercourse . While See also:Rome was giving laws and See also:order to the See also:half-civilized tribes of See also:Italy, See also:Carthage, operating on a different See also:base, and by Carthage. other methods, was opening trade with less accessible parts of Europe . The strength of Rome was in her legions, that of Carthage in her See also:ships; and her ships could See also:cover ground where the legions were powerless . Her mariners had passed the mythical straits into the See also:Atlantic, and established the See also:port of See also:Cadiz . Within the Mediterranean itself they founded Carthagena and See also:Barcelona on the same Iberian See also:peninsula, and ahead of the See also:Roman legions had depots and traders on the shores of See also:Gaul . After the destruction of See also:Tyre, Carthage became the greatest power in the Mediterranean, and inherited the trade of her Phoenician ancestors with Egypt, See also:Greece and Asia See also:Minor, as well as her own settlements in See also:Sicily and on the See also:European coasts . An antagonism between the great See also:naval and the great military power, whose interests crossed each other at so many points, was sure to occur; and in the three Punic See also:wars Carthage measured her strength with that of Rome both on sea and on land with no unequal success . But a commercial See also:state impelled into a See also:series of great wars has departed from its own proper base; and in the See also:year 146 B.C . Carthage was so totally destroyed by the See also:Romans that of the great See also:city, more than 20 M. in million of inhabitants, only a few thousands were found within its ruined walls . In the same year See also:Corinth, one of the greatest of the See also:Greek capitals and seaports, was captured, plundered of vast See also:wealth and given to the flames by a Roman767 See also:consul . See also:Athens and her magnificent See also:harbour of the Piraeus fell into the same hands 6o years later . It may be presumed that trade went on under the Roman conquests in some degree as before; but these were See also:grave events to occur within a brief See also:period, and the spirit of the seat of trade in every See also:case having been broken, and its means and resources more or less plundered and dissipated—in some cases, as in that of Carthage, irreparably—the most necessary commerce could only proceed with feeble and languid See also:interest under the military, consular and proconsular See also:licence of Rome at that period .
Tyre, the great seaport of See also:Palestine, having been destroyed by See also: The Venetians traded with See also:Constantinople, Greece, See also:Syria and Egypt . They became lords of the Morea, and of See also:Candia, See also:Cyprus and other islands of the See also:Levant . The trade of Venice with India, though spoken of, was probably never great . But the See also:crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries against the See also:Saracens in Palestine Roman circumference, and containing at one period near a conquests . extended her repute more widely east and west, and increased both her naval and her commercial resources . It is enough, indeed, to account for the grandeur of Venice that in course of centuries, from the security of her position, the growth and See also:energy of her population, and the regularity of her See also:government at a period when these See also:sources of prosperity were rare, she became the great See also:emporium of the Mediterranean—all that Carthage, Corinth and Athens had been in a former age on a See also:scene the most remarkable in the world for its fertility and facilities of traffic,—and that as Italy and other parts of the Western empire became again more settled her commerce found always a wider range . The See also:bridge built from the largest of the islands to the opposite See also:bank became the " Rialto," or famous exchange of Venice, whose transactions reached farther, and assumed a more consolidated See also:form, than had been known before . There it was where the first public bank was organized; that bills of exchange were first negotiated, and funded See also:debt became transferable; that See also:finance became a See also:science and See also:book-keeping an See also:art . Nor must the effect of the example of Venice on other cities of Italy be See also:left out of account . See also:Genoa, following her steps, See also:rose into great prosperity and power at the See also:foot of the Maritime See also:Alps, and became her See also:rival, and finally her enemy . See also:Naples, See also:Gaeta, See also:Florence, many other towns of Italy, and Rome herself, long after her fall, were encouraged to struggle for the preservation of their municipal freedom, and to See also:foster trade, arts and navigation, by the brilliant success set before them on the Adriatic; but Venice, from the early start she had made, and her command of the sea, had the commercial pre-See also:eminence . The state of things which arose on the collapse of the Roman empire presents two concurrent facts, deeply affecting the course The See also:middle of trade—(i) the ancient seats of industry and civilizaages. tion were undergoing constant decay, while (2) the energetic races of Europe were rising into more civilized forms and manifold vigour and copiousness of life .
The fall of the Eastern division of the empire prolonged the effect of the fall of the Western empire; and the advance of the Saracens over Asia Minor, Syria, Greece, Egypt, over Cyprus and other possessions of Venice in the Mediterranean, over the richest provinces of See also:Spain, and finally across the See also:Hellespont into the Danubian provinces of Europe, was a new irruption of barbarians from another point of the See also:compass, and revived the calamities and disorders inflicted by the successive invasions of Goths, Huns and other See also:Northern tribes
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For more than ten centuries the naked power of the See also:sword was vivid and terrible as flashes of See also:lightning over all the seats of commerce, whether of ancient or more See also:modern origin
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The feudal See also:system of Europe, in organizing the open country under military leaders and defenders subordinated in See also:possession and service under a legal system to each other and to the See also:sovereign power, must have been well adapted to the necessity of the times in which it spread so rapidly; but it would be impossible to say that the feudal system was favourable to trade, or the extension of trade
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The commercial spirit in the feudal, as in preceding ages, had to find for itself places of security, and it could only find them in towns, armed with powers of self-regulation and See also:defence, and prepared, like the feudal barons themselves, to resist violence from whatever See also:quarter it might come
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Rome, in her best days, had founded the municipal system, and when this system was more than ever necessary as the See also:bulwark of arts and manufactures, its extension became an essential element of the whole European civilization
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Towns formed themselves into leagues for mutual See also:protection, and out of leagues not infrequently arose commercial republics
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The Hanseatic See also:League, founded as early as 1241, gave the first note of an increasing traffic between countries on the Baltic and in northern See also:Germany, which a century or two before were sunk in isolated barbarism
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From See also:Lubeck and See also:Hamburg, commanding the navigation of the See also:Elbe, it gradually spread over 85 towns, including See also:Amsterdam, See also:Cologne and See also:Frankfort in the south, and See also:Danzig, See also:Konigsberg and See also:Riga in the north
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The last trace of this league, long of much service in protecting trade, and as a means of political See also:mediation, passed away in the erection of the See also:German empire (187o), but only from the same cause that had brought about its gradualdissolution—the formation of powerful and legal governments—which, while leaving to the free cities their municipal rights, were well capable of protecting their See also:mercantile interests
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The towns of See also: 
The Zuyder Zee, which had been opened to the German Ocean in 1282, carried into the docks and canals of Amsterdam the traffic of the ports of the Baltic, of the See also:English Channel and of the south of Europe, and what the seas did for Amsterdam from without the See also:Rhine and the Maese did for See also:Dort and See also:Rotterdam from the interior . By the See also:Union of See also:Utrecht in 1599 Holland became an See also:independent See also:republic, and for long after, as it had been for some See also:time before, was the greatest centre of maritime traffic in Europe . The rise of the Dutch power in a See also:low country, exposed to the most destructive inundations, difficult to cultivate or even to inhabit, affords a striking See also:illustration of those conditions which in all times have been found specially favourable to commercial development, and which are not indistinctly reflected in the mercantile history of See also:England, preserved by its insular position from hostile invasions, and capable by its fleets and arms to protect its goods on the seas and the rights of its subjects in foreign lands . The progress of trade .and productive arts in the middle ages, though not rising to much international exchange, was very considerable both in quality and extent . The republics of Italy, which had no claim to rival Venice or Genoa in maritime power or traffic, See also:developed a degree of art, opulence and refinement commanding the admiration of modern times; and if any historian of trans-Alpine Europe, when Venice had already attained some greatness, could have seen it five hundred years afterwards, the many strong towns of See also:France, Germany and the Low Countries, the great number of their artizans, the products of their looms and anvils, and their various cunning workmanship, might have added many a brilliant See also:page to his See also:annals . Two centuries before England had discovered any manufacturing quality, or knew even how to utilize her most valuable raw materials, and was importing goods from the See also:continent for the production of which she was soon to be found to have See also:special resources, the Flemings were selling their woollen and See also:linen fabrics, and the See also:French their wines, silks and laces in all the richer parts of the See also:British Islands . The middle ages placed the barbarous populations of Europe under a severe discipline, trained them in the most varied branches of industry, and developed an amount of handicraft and ingenuity which became a solid basis for the future . But trade was too walled in, too much clad in See also:armour, and too incessantly disturbed by wars and tumults, and violations of common right and interest, to exert its full See also:influence over the general society, or even to realize its most direct advantages . It wanted especially the freedom and mobility essential to much international increase, and these it was now to receive from a series of the most pregnant events . The mariner's compass had become See also:familiar in the European ports about the beginning of the 14th century, and the See also:seamen of Italy, See also:Portugal, France . Holland and England Opening o! entered upon a more enlightened and adventurous a aew era course of navigation . The See also:Canary Islands were sighted by a French See also:vessel in 1330, and colonized in 1418 by the Portuguese, who two years later landed on See also:Madeira, In 1431 the See also:Azores were discovered by a shipmaster of See also:Bruges . The Atlantic was being gradually explored . In 1486, See also:Diaz, a Portuguese, steering his course almost unwittingly along the See also:coast of See also:Africa, came upon the land's-end of that continent; and eleven years afterwards Vasco da Gama, of the same nation, not only doubled the Cape of Good Hope, but reached India . About the same period Portuguese travellers penetrated to India by the old time-honoured way of See also:Suez ; and a land which tradition and See also:imagination had invested with almost fabulous wealth and splendour was becoming more real to the European world at the moment when the expedition of Vasco da Gama had made an oceanic route to its shores distinctly visible . One can hardly now realize the impression made by these discoveries in an age when the minds of men were awakening out of a long See also:sleep, when the See also:printing See also:press was disseminating the ancient classical and sacred literature, and when See also:geography and See also:astronomy were subjects of eager study in the seats both of traffic and of learning . But their See also:practical effect was seen in swiftly-succeeding events . Before the end of the century See also:Columbus had thrice crossed the Atlantic, touched at See also:San See also:Salvador, discovered See also:Jamaica, See also:Porto Rico and the See also:Isthmus of |