Full text of The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review : August 1839, Vol. I, No. II

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MERCHANTS’ MAGAZINE.
No. II.
A U G U S T , 1839.

A rt . I.—THE COMMERCIAL RIGHTS OF NEUTRAL

NATIONS .*
T he “ Commercial Rights of Neutral Nations,”— the subject of our re­
marks at this time, are founded on the Law of Nations, itself, the result
of the civilizatiofl of modern times. It.is scarcely necessary to add, that
the system which we style the Law of Nations is not Law, as this word
is understood, when applied to the internal regulations of a country. It
does not emanate from superior authority, for independent nations, how­
ever variant in magnitude, wealth, or power, acknowledge no superior;
nor is its infraction, like that of the civil regulations of government,
visited by a fixed or determinate punishment, which law-writers term,
the sanction. Doubtless a violation of the Laws of Nations subjects the
wrong-doer to such penalty as the injured may choose, and be able to
inflict; but there is not, nor of necessity can there be, any common
arbiter of causes, with authority to determine national questions, and
power to carry its determinations into effect. These rules are rather
certain propositions of public justice, certain maxims embodying acknow­
ledged principles, which the experience and accumulated wisdom of ages
have collected, and which rest on the foundation, less impalpable than
might, at first, be supposed, of the common conscience and moral sense
of civilized man.
This system, which modifies the intercourse of nations in peace, and
limits the severity of their hostilities in war, may be claimed as the
proudest achievements of modern civilization. It may temper the in­
voluntary humiliation with which we contemplate the fragments of
Grecian genius, which have survived to us through two thousand years,
and which, in the graceful arts— in poetry — in rhetoric— in philosophy,
defy our rivalry, while they excite our wonder,— to reflect that this
astonishing people, in humanity, in public justice, in common national
honesty, were scarcely superior to the barbarians by w'hom they were
surrounded. Piracy, avowed and practised by the most polished repub­
lics ; the received opinion that a State was bound to no duties, where no
* A Lecture delivered before the Mercantile Library Association of New York,
March 19th, 1839, by W illiam K ent , Esq., and politely furnished by the author, at
the request of the Board of Directors of said Association, for publication in our
Magazine.

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VOL. I .----NO. II.




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Commercial R ights o f N eutral Nations.

treaty existed; the unquestionable right to put prisoners to death, or
reduce them, and their wives and children, to perpetual slavery, do not
more attest the absence of public law than the career of their great con­
queror. Sparkles of generosity and magnanimity could not but appear
in the noble nature and dazzling genius of Alexander; but, throughout
the wonderful course of this hero-boy, it seems never to have been
dreamed of to inquire whether any cause of war existed against the
nations whom he subdued; and, when weeping on the banks of the
Hydaspes over the lassitude of his armies, a doubt of his right to devas­
tate countries, whose names had never reached his distant Macedon,
seems never to have suggested itself to the mind of the pupil of Aristotle.
In the successors to the fame and power of Greece, some ideas of
regular public law may be observed, and appear to have been more
congenial to the sober mind and graver dignity of Rome. But the end
and object of the Romans were foreign warfare; and in the accomplish­
ment of their destiny, cunning interpretation of treaties, sophistical
evasions of compacts, cruel rules of war, and haughty triumphs, seem
the attendants of their legions in their steady progress in the conquest
of the world. And when the tide, at length, became recedent, and the
God that had so long proudly extended the boundaries of the republic,
commenced retreating, in the reign of Adrian, all law, all humanity, and
all civilization, gradually Corrupted and circumscribed, were irretrievably
overwhelmed in the ruins of the Empire.
While the resuscitation and gradual improvement of Christian
Europe, from the long continued debasement which ensued on the fall
of Rome, is, perhaps, the most interesting and instructive portion of his­
tory, never, on the other hand, did the world present so dreary and
hopeless a prospect as during the earlier half of the period of time
designated as the dark ages. The state of society (if it deserve the
name) differed from that of primeval barbarism, as the decrepitude of
age from the weakness of infancy. It was not unformed, but decayed;
not merely imbecile, but worn out. The noble language of Rome
became corrupted into numerous and barbarous dialects, which the slow
operation of centuries was required to form, again, into the mellifluous
languages of Southern Europe. The libraries, formed with such diffi­
culty and labor before the invention of printing, were irretrievably scat­
tered by barbarian soldiery; while isolated manuscripts, containing, per­
haps, the lost treasures of Cicero or Tacitus, were erased to make room
for some monkish legend, at once fabulous, yet destitute of fancy. The
rulers of the earth, even the illustrious one of France, who, in his cha­
racter and the extent of his conquests, affords the best parallel to Napo­
leon, were unable to write their names. The Roman civil law, probably
the noblest monument of human genius, and raised by the accumulated
labors of a thousand years, gave place to absolute anarchy, except so far
as the stern maxims of the feudal system intervened, by which the bar­
barians of the North were garrisoned, as it were, in the countries they
had subdued, and secured in the licentious privileges of a military aris­
tocracy. The destruction of trade — of manufactures— of almost every
useful a rt; the degradation of agriculture to the feeble and unskilful
labors of predial slavery; the depravation of morals, the indifference to
faith, and the grossness of manners, during the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th
centuries, seemed to indicate that the empire of Chaos and Old Night
were returning to cover the earth. Yet a philosophic observer, if we




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99

can imagine such a one to have existed during these times, might still
have perceived, under all these disheartening appearances, that absolute
death, yet, was not, and that the pulse, though fluttering and low, still
beat, and vitality had not entirely fled from the aspect of Europe.
So complicate and inextricably interlaced are the relations of all
human events, and so feeble and limited the powers we bring to their
examination, that we can scarcely designate, with confidence, the pri­
mary cause of the simplest transaction of individual life. How difficult,
then, the task to pronounce the distant causes, by_which government,
and law, and order, and art, and science, were reintroduced among the
kingdoms of Europe ! Of all the causes, which have been pointed out
by the historian, I have always been most impressed by the operation
of two, which I the more readily mention as most directly connected
with the creation of public law. I allude to the influence of C o m m er c e ,
and of THE INSTITUTIONS OF CHIVALRY.
It is not my purpose, or part, to dwell on the usual effects of commerce
in exciting industry, and producing wealth ; stimulating the rude inhabi­
tants of uncivilized countries, by precious luxuries before unknown, and
by wants, though, in themselves, possibly selfish or frivolous, yet intro­
ducing civilization among nations, and rendering the earth fruitful of its
produce. Neither is this the occasion to describe the early manufacture
and trade of Flanders— causes mutually acting and reacting upon each
other— nor the emigration of the Flemish artizans into England, and
their encouragement by the wisdom of the 3d Edward, conduct far more
useful and more entitled to his subjects’ gratitude, than his barren laurels
at Cressy and Poictiers. Equally striking, but beyond our plan, was
the rise and confederacy, in the 12th and 13th centuries, of the free
Hanseatic towns, by which, in an age of barbarism, wealth, and civil
right, and orderly government, and republican liberty, were planted,
never utterly to fail, along the bleak and stormy shores of the Baltic:
while on the Mediterranean commenced, still earlier, the more splendid
career of the Italian Commercial Republics — Amalfi— Pisa— Genoa,
and Venice— holding, for a long time, the gates of the “ gorgeous
East,” and sole access to the wealth of “ Ormus and of Ind,” and form­
ing in their rise and decline, more than any other portion, the romance
of history.
The inference, it is our design to draw from the fact of such extended
commerce, is, that it must have tended, beyond any other cause, to the
creation and general recognition of principles of justice and universal
law. Commerce implies a jealous observance of rights of property.
Commerce, between different nations, implies a reference to established
customs, obedience to acknowledged tribunals, and the discrimination
of the principles of natural justice. And so, what we could thus pre­
liminarily suppose, we find confirmed by actual history. The word
stranger, in modern Europe, ceased to be identical in meaning, as it had
been in Latin, with the word enemy. The shipwrecked mariner remain­
ed no longer beyond the protection of the law, and his goods ceased to
be permitted objects of confiscation and plunder. And community of
interests, and increasing appreciation of the blessings of trade, lead
rapidly to the circumscription and final extinction of ocean piracy.
While commerce was thus aiding the civilizing process in maritime
countries, where trade could penetrate, the interior of the continent was
benignly affected by the institutions of Chivalry, commencing with




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Charlemagne and his paladins, nor ceasing till the discovery of gun­
powder and the inventions of modern science had destroyed the impor­
tance of individual valor. Without minutely pointing out the features
of this extraordinary system, we may remark, that it banished treachery,
the universal vice of barbarism, and restored fidelity to engagements,
which had sunk amid the corruptions, and wily intrigues, and menda­
cities of the Lower Empire. It induced courtesy to the enemy in the
field, and humanity and generosity to the prisoners after battle. Well
may history love to linger over tjue knights of the 14th century — over
the Du Guesclins of France — and the Chandos and Black Prince of
England; for by their conduct was war moderated in its terrors; and
virtues, which antiquity but imperfectly knew — deep devotion — polished
deference to the sex— candor, and modesty, and courtesy, and fidelity,
became, for a long period, the distinguishing qualities of the European
gentlemen! The deeper researches are made into this system, the
greater becomes our admiration. A celebrated writer of the present day,
of unsurpassed learning, and in the interest of liberty, can find nothing
but unmixed good in the consequences of these institutions. The
lamentations of Burke over their fall are scarcely extravagant; and if it
be true that “ Cervantes laughed Spain’s chivalry away,” it remains a
question of doubtful solution, whether his inimitable writings have done
more good or harm : and whether more pleasure or pain have been
caused by the perusal of Don Quixote.
These tvvq^gre«t--caj4ses have always appeared to me the primary
motive povye?bC_®4S$ite//0y,ose the movement of modern resuscitation.
Other
causes&M which writers have attached importance,
obviously, grjfjttktMd'frfifry' one or both of the antecedents we have men­
tioned1; a'hd.rrone rrmre evidently than the elevation and freedom of the
female sex, which fqqns^the peculiar feature of modern manners. This
cannot be so'WelEexplained as in the language of the profound and
eloquent historian to whom I have already alluded.
“ In a rude state of manners, in all ages, woman has not full scope to
display those fascinating graces by which nature has designed to coun­
terbalance the strength and energy of man. But as a taste for the
more elegant enjoyment of wealth arises, a taste which it is always her
policy and her delight to nourish, she obtains an ascendancy, at first, in
the lighter hours, and from thence in the serious occupations of life.
She chases or brings into subjection the god of wine, and calls in the
aid of divinities more propitious to her ambition. The love of becoming
ornaments is not to be regarded in tbe light of vanity; it is rather an
instinct, which woman has received from Nature, to give effect to those
charms that are her defence ; and when commerce began to minister to
the wants of luxury, the rich furs of the north, the gay silks of Asia, the
wrought gold of domestic manufacture, illumine the halls of Chivalry, and
cast, as if by the spell of enchantment, that ineffable grace over beauty,
which the choice and arrangement of dress are calculated to bestow.”
Having thus imperfectly alluded to the rise of modern civilization, I
shall not pursue its majestic progress to its present splendors; and I
will only allude to its wonderful discoveries and inventions, its arts and
sciences, as causing a permanent distinction in the intercourse of nations,
unknown to antiquity, by the immense superiority they have conferred,
in war, on a civilized over a barbarian nation. There is no passage of
history more deeply interesting than the effort of Archimedes, in the




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101

siege of Syracuse, to repel the Roman army. His burning the Roman
gallies with his sunglasses, and lifting them in the air with his levers
and pullies, were the unsuccessful, because premature, struggle of sci­
ence with mere physical strength. It occurred some centuries too soon.
The difference between the civilized nations of antiquity, and their
barbarian opponents, though decisive in favor of the phalanx and the
legion, was yet too slight to afford that confidence of power, which gives
scope to the exercise of magnanimity and mercy. But, in modern times,
the discovery of an obscure chemist, or alchemist, with the accumulated
inventions of his successors, the art of fortification, and of attack, and,
more than this, the concentrated art and science exhibited in naval
architecture, and navigation, have placed, between civilized and barba­
rous people, a distinction as wide as separates untutored man from the
beast of the forest, whom his intellect enables him to subdue.
It was under the increasing operation of such influences, as have been
most imperfectly alluded to, that the modern community of Christian
nations reached the commencement of the Seventeenth Century, under
forms and maxims of government, varying in degree, rather than essence,
from those now existing, and observing, in their international intercourse,
practices and rules, which the present times do not entirely reject. But
they were not governed by any precise and definite system, or, indeed,
by any system whatever; and vagueness and obscurity covered the Law
of Nations, which it required some mighty genius, like Bacon and New­
ton, to dispel and control. Such intellect was found in one, whom it
was the glory of Holland to produce, and her shame to persecute — in
Hugo Grotius,— whose character is thus given by Sir James McIntosh,
who, in depicting another, was unconsciously, but not inaccurately,
describing himself:— “ Grotius combined the discharge of the most
important duties of active and public life, with the attainment of that
exact and various learning, which is the portion only of the recluse
student. He was distinguished as an advocate and a magistrate, and
he composed the most valuable works on the law of his own country ;
he was almost equally celebrated as an historian, a scholar, a poet, and
a divine; a disinterested statesman, a philosophical lawyer; a patriot,
who united moderation with firmness; and a theologian, who was
taught candor by his learning. Unmerited exile did not damp his
patriptism ; the bitterness of controversy did not extinguish his charity.
In times of the most furious civil and religious faction, he preserved his
name unspotted, and knew how to reconcile fidelity to his own party,
with moderation towards his opponents.”
The great work of Grotius,— his treatise on the Law of War and
Peace,— should be read, not merely by every lawyer or statesman, but
by every philosophic student, who would mark the epochs of the human
mind, or examine those primary works of genius, which have apparently
changed the destiny of man. The modern reader will be surprised to
find in this celebrated work, as, indeed, in the more celebrated treatises
of Bacon, many examinations of doctrines, which, to him, are perfectly
plain, many elaborate discussions of rules and theories, which he re­
ceives, at once, as acknowledged truths. Let it be remembered that
Bacon and Grotius were the pioneers of modern science; that we
criticise their works with aids themselves have furnished; and that to
undervalue the hardihood of genius that led them, in the unknown
regions of mind, to conquer prejudice and develop truth, is as if, amid



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the luxuries and comforts of our cities, we lessened the merit of the
early settler, who encountered, unshielded, the severity of the elements,
and with his unaided right arm subdued the forest and its tenants. Nor
will the modern reader be less surprised by the quotations and authori­
ties with which Grotius supports his positions. He invokes the aid, not
of lawyers or civilians, but of orators and historians, dramatists and poets.
Yet how beautifully philosophic was this invocation ! In enforcing a
rule, for the government of all, he shows that what many men of differ­
ent professions, at different times, in different countries, unanimously
affirm to be true and right, is, with propriety, to be acknowledged by all.
In his labors you are reminded of the ingenious allegory, which repre­
sents truth given, originally, to man, as a perfect statue, but broken by
his violence, and scattered in pieces over the earth. It was the part of
Grotius to collect the precious fragments from various regions, and to
reinstate the goddess on her crystal pedestal, in original symmetry and
beauty.
This rapid, though most imperfect glance, at the origin of the Law of
Nations, has encroached so much upon the time allotted to the conside­
ration of neutral rights; a subject on which volumes, I might add,
libraries, have been written by modern diplomatists, that I can do no
more than touch on the subject to which I am about to advert. I shall
address myself, therefore, but to one proposition, and limit myself, in it,
to a summary history and explication of its nature and condition.
In the discussions that have taken place between neutral and bellige­
rent nations, the former have insisted on the following propositions:
1. That free ships make free goods, thereby meaning, in the words
of one of the writers, that the flag of a neutral vessel is inviolable as the
veil of a vestal virgin, and absolutely forbids the examination of a
belligerent cruiser.
2. Which is a corollary from the preceding, that neutrals have a right
to trade from port to port, from colony to colony, and from the colonies
to the mother country of belligerents, without being liable to search or
detention, except for articles contraband of war, such as arms, ammuni­
tion, and, perhaps, naval stores.
The affirmative of these propositions has been maintained by the
weaker maritime nations, by argument and arms, while the converse has
been claimed, and with varied success, supported by the great naval
power, which, from the time of Oliver Cromwell to the present day, has
been paramount on the ocean.
The state of the question m aybe thus further explained. It was
formerly, and, to a great degree, still is, the practice of European nations,
owning colonies, to permit them, in time of peace, to trade only with the
mother country, for the double purpose of supplying a market for the
commodities of the mother country, and of furnishing, to the mother
country, the peculiar commodities of the colonies. Such was the policy
of England herself, and of France, and Denmark, and Sweden, and
Holland, and Spain. But when hostilities broke out between any of the
latter nations and England, they generally resulted in such entire pre­
dominance of the English fleets, that all direct trade between the mother
country and the colony was annihilated. In such case, it has been the
policy of the feebler maritime powers, to throw open, during war, their
colonies to the trade of the world, that neutral vessels might supply their
place, and carry to them the colonial produce, which their own vessels
were prevented from, carrying by the predominating force of the enemy.



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103

Hence have arisen endless discussions, with much apparent reason on
both sides, between England, always contending for the sternest rules of
naval war, and the neutral powers, like Russia, Denmark, and the Uni­
ted States, supporting the interests of peace. Say the English:— “ We
are at war with France — we have the right to possess ourselves of
places belonging to France. By our decided superiority at sea, we do
this with the French colonies, which depend on foreign supplies. These
we can cut off, unless you neutrals step in, and, safe from our seizure,
under your pacific flag, engross the trade with the-colonies. This you
will not do in peace, for the mother country would not let you. She
permits it now, to escape from the effect of our victories. We will not
permit you to injure us, and strengthen our adversary ; and we deprive
you of no privilege, since, till we had driven the enemy from his monop­
oly, you were not allowed by him to share it.” This is, in a nut-shell,
the argument of England, and it certainly is not destitute of plausibility.
But the Russian, or the American, neutral replies:—“ Every inde­
pendent nation has a right to trade with all that choose to trade with
them, and no third party has a right to limit this freedom of intercourse.
We admit we have no right to carry arms or ammunition to your enemy,
because likely to be employed immediately to your prejudice; nor can
we enter a blockaded port, as we may thereby immediately defeat an
expensive and laborious measure of hostility. But a trade with your
enemy in sugar, cotton, hardware, or wines, does you no injury, except
by promoting the general welfare of the enemy’s country; and the
stoppage of this trade will injure us, out of all proportion, more than its
going on will injure you. You wish to injure us, that France may be
hampered in her finances, and the spirits of your sailors kept up by
occasional prizes, and your commercial jealousy indulged, under the
pretext of following out legitimate warfare.”
At this stage of the controversy, England, like Jupiter in the fable, has
generally had recourse to her thunder, and the argument between nations,
like too many verbal disputes between individuals, has ended in blows.
The English doctrine is known, artiong lawyers, as the rule of’56, hav­
ing been promulgated in the year and war of 1756, when the French fleets
were driven from the ocean, and Wolfe stormed the heights of Abraham,
and the national supremacy was secured by the vigor of the elder Pitt,
who, in the well-known language of his eulogist, with one hand smote the
house of Bourbon, and wielded in the other the democracy of England.
A second, and memorable epoch in the history of this rule of law,
occurred in the year 1780, when was formed the celebrated league of
the Northern Powers of Europe, called the “ Armed Neutrality.” The
circumstances of England were wonderfully changed. The American
rebellion had become a revolution. Burgoyne had surrendered ; Clin­
ton lay cooped up in New York ; Cornwallis was vainly marching and
countermarching in Carolina; Rochambeau and the French army had
landed at Rhode Island ; and France, with Spain, having openly de­
clared war against England, was contending on the ocean with her
ancient rival, with equal valor, and not unequal success. At this period,
Catharine II. was Empress of Russia, whom, with her neighbor, the great
Frederick, Gibbon contrasts with the Bourbon kings of Spain and
France, in his well-known sentence, which gave so much mortification
to the unfortunate Louis X V I.: “ A Julian or Semiramis may reign in
the north, while Arcadius and Honorius slumber on the thrones of the
south.” At this time, when another great nation of the world is sub­



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jected to a female reign, it may be pardonable to linger a moment over
the character of Catharine. It was the remark of Napoleon that female
reigns were dangerous, as the government was influenced more by the
heart of the sovereign than the head. But it may be well doubted if
this ungallant remark is sustained by history. It was “ the fatal gift of
beauty,” and not the diadem, that brought misery on the Egyptian and
the Scottish queen; and rarely, by masculine sovereign, has the frailty of
the heart been more restrained than by Zenobia and Elizabeth. But
Catharine of Russia was masculine in her mind, her taste, her virtues, and
her vices. The sanguinary violence with which she seized the sceptre,
— the unfaltering grasp with which she held it,— the schemes of con­
quest she partly executed, and partly left for, perhaps, her grandson
Nicholas to complete,— her personal magnanimity,— her utter indiffer­
ence to human carnage— form a life and character foreign to her sex,
and in which we see
“ Much that we love, and more that we admire, and all that we abhor! ”

This sovereign will, at all events, live in the records of commercial
law. In 1780, her minister delivered to the Courts of London and Ver­
sailles, her declaration,-setting forth the principles of maritime freedom,
to which I have already adverted, and accompanied it with the explicit
avowal, that she “ had fitted out a considerable part of her naval forces,
and if forced to depart from the strict and rigorous neutrality, which her
Imperial Majesty was resolved, religiously, to observe, her fleet will be
ordered to act in this extremity, wherever her honor, interest, and neces­
sity, should require.” To this declaration the king of France gave his
immediate adhesion, avowing, what at that time was not deemed pre­
cisely accurate, that “ he had no other object in the Avar, in which he
was engaged, than his attachment fo the principles of perfect liberty at
sea.” Spain, of course, assented ; and Denmark and Sweden forming
alliance with Russia for mutual co-operation of fleets, the confederacy
was enabled to give irresistible force to their pretensions. To the
action of this powerful league, the conduct of England is thus described
by one of her writers: — “ Solitary, and abandoned by the whole world;
struggling with a fatal schism among her own children ; opposed to all
the greatest maritime powers of Europe, to the continent of America,
and almost to the.continent of Asia; without a single ally, and before
her ancient vigor shone out under Rodney, nothing could be more fair
and honorable than the conduct of Great Britain.” The king of Great
Britain declared that, “ strongly attached to her majesty of all the Russias by the tie of recipi’ocal friendship, and common interest, he had
given the most precise orders respecting the flag of her imperial majesty,
and the commerce of her subjects, according to the Law of Nations, to
which he would adhere with the most scrupulous exactness ; and that
if irregularities should occur, the Courts of Admiralty would redress
every hardship in so equitable a manner that her imperial majesty
should be perfectly satisfied, and acknowledge a like spirit of justice
which she herself possessed.” The peace which followed our revolu­
tion, left the rule of ’56 in this condition. In reading similar descrip­
tions of England’s facing a hostile world, which she has often done, and
which her writers love to describe, we may remark, that it proves, in­
deed, the spirit of our ancestral island, and if it proved any thing more
than spirit, our applause would be more unmingled. But there has
been another nation, whose hand has always been against every man,



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105

and every man’s hand against it, simply because Ishmael’s ideas of
property and travellers’ rights, are similar to the regulations of the
English code of billigerents’ privileges.
The third epoch of the rule of ’56 occurred in the commencement of
the present century, when the situation of England, as to universal hos­
tility, was, with the exception of America, not unlike that of 1780 ; and
the armed neutrality was attempted to be renewed, but with widely dis­
similar results. Napoleon, then First Consul, by the battle of Marengo,
had broken up the coalition against France, and crushed, for a time, the
power of Austria. Paul, the Emperor of Russia, in the vacillation of
his later life, from the enemy had become the admirer of Napoleon, and
through his influence, on the 16th December, 1800, a hew league was
formed between Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, re-affirming the great
principles of the armed neutrality, and reciprocally engaging to make com­
mon cause in defending each other. It may afford some light to those,
among us now, who suppose that Great Britain is unable to undergo the
expenses of a war, to remind them that in 1801, as Mr. Addington, then
Cancellor of the Exchequer, exhibited, the public expenditure amounted
to more than £68,000,000 sterling, exceeding the income by about
£30,000,000; yet, with this immense burden, she threw down the
gauntlet to combined Europe, and supported her maritime doctrines
with a vigor that will be memorable in history. Perhaps naval annals
record no events more interesting, in all its associations, than the Brit­
ish expedition to Copenhagen, in 1801. The passage of the Sound,
where the commerce of the Baltic pays a hereditary tribute to the Dane,
between the picturesque and varied hills of Sweden, and the rich plains
of Holstein — the spot which the genius of Shakspeare has hallowed,
with the imaginary musings of the philosophic and melancholy Hamlet
— the conduct of Nelson, commencing battle with a part only of the
squadron — turning his blind eye to his commander’s signal of recall,
and at the crisis of his fate, by heroic diplomacy, sealing and despatch­
ing a note to the Crown-Prince, which converted defeat into victory—•
the noble valor of the undisciplined citizens of Copenhagen, crowding to
the batteries to die, by thousands, for their country and homes. These
remembrances will throng the memory, as, in the words of Campbell’s
splendid ode, we
“ Think of them that sleep,
Full many a fathom deep,
By thy wild and stormy steep,
Elsinore!”

Contemporaneously with this battle was tbe death of the Emperor
Paul, who was cut off by (what Tallyrand called the natural death of a
Russian prince) assassination, and Napoleon did not scruple to ascribe
his demise to the machinations of England. “ Paul I.,’’ says he, “ died
on the night of the 23d March. The English fleet passed the Sound
on the 30ih. History will unveil the connexion between these events.”
Alexander, who succeeded on the throne of Russia, inclining to policy
adverse to France, the Baltic confederacy was dissolved, and the Eng­
lish maritime pretensions received, in 1801, the sanction of success.
In the fourth and last stage, under which the rule of ’56 has displayed
itself, as in the first, the United States have been a party, and our last
war with England is to be attributed directly to our denial of this rule
of marine law. It will be perceived that to a nation who denies the
VOL. i. — NO. II.
14



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Commercial R ights o f N eutral Nations.

doctrine that “ free ships make free goods,” or that neutrals may enjoy
the colonial commerce of billigerents in war, from which they are de­
barred in peace ; the right of search of neutral vessels is absolutely
essential. It is a necessary consequence of their primary pretensions ;
and although, under certain limitations, it has never been entirely de­
nied by the United States, it is to its universal application, and the preten­
sions of England, who applied it not merely to the search for enemies’
goods, but for their native seamen in our vessels, that the war of 1812
is to be ascribed.
When, after the short peace of Amiens, the wars of Europe re-com­
menced, and the death-conflict between England and Napoleon ensued,
which terminated only at Waterloo, the questions of colonial trade
speedily engaged the attention of diplomatists. The French fleets were
almost immediately annihilated at Trafalgar, and all the trade which
France, or the numerous countries in her alliance, or under her influ­
ence, could enjoy, was, through the utter predominance of the British
navy, limited to that carried on under neutral flags.
In the year 1806, a clever pamphlet was written by Mr. Stephens, an
English lawyer, afterwards an eminent member of Parliament, entitled,
“ war in disguise,” describing a state of commerce, natural enough, and
right enough to our neutral feelings, but well calculated to excite the
indignation of the English, to see that their treasure and blood had been
lavished to no effect. France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Austria, (reduced
to the single port of Trieste, and beaten down in the bloody fight of Austerlitz,) and Northern Germany, constituting the greater part of Europe,
were all excluded by the English squadrons from foreign commerce; but
Denmark and Prussia were ostensibly, and the United States of Amer­
ica were really, neutral; and this neutrality sufficed to cover the ocean
with commerce, which surpassed the English. “ Not a single merchant
ship,” says the pamphlet to which I have alluded, “ under a flag inimi­
cal to Great Britain, now crosses the equator or traverses the Atlantic.
With the exception, only, of a very small portion of the coasting trade
of our enemies, not a mercantile sail of any description now enters or
clears from their ports in any part of the globe, but under neutral colors.
But enormous is the amount of the produce of the new world poured
into the south, as well as the north, of Europe, under cover of the
neutral flag. At Cadiz, Barcelona, and other Spanish ports, neutral
vessels are perpetually importing the sugar of Havana; the cocoa, indigo,
and hides of South America; the dollars and ingots of Mexico and
Peru ; and returning with European manufactures, the rivals of our
own. Hamburg, Altona, and Gottenburgh, are glutted with the pro­
duce of the West Indies, and the fabrics of the E a st; and by the rivers
and canals of Germany and Flanders, they are floated into the ware­
houses of our enemies. They supplant, or rival, the British planter and
merchant, throughout the continent of Europe. They supplant even the
manufactures of Manchester, Birmingham, and Yorkshire, for the looms
and forges of Germany are put in action by the colonial produce of our
enemies. Antwerp has become the favorite haunt of the American
West-Indiamen. Beyond the Atlantic, Cayenne is prosperous, and the
Isles of France and Bourbon are becoming warehouses for the com­
merce of Batavia. The gigantic infancy of Cuba is aided in its porten­
tous growth by boundless liberty of trade, and the perfect security of
carriage. In short, all hostile colonies, whether Dutch, Spanish, or



Commercial Rights o f Neutral Nations.

107

French, derive, from the enmity of Gre^t Britain, not inconvenience, but
advantage. Happy has it been for them, that the naval superiority of their
enemy has been too decisive to be disputed. They may say as Themistocles to his children, when enriched, during his exile, by the Persian
monarch — ‘ we should have been ruined, if we had not been undone!’”
The author then shows that the rates of insurance, oh British vessels
sailing with convoy, are four times greater than those of neutrals.
While the latter are moreover insured at Lloyd’s Coffee-house in London,
and are insured, too, even against legal captures by his majesty’s cruisers,
upon which the author reads a moral lecture to that impracticable class,
the English underwriters, who, like our gentlemen of the Stock Ex­
change, will regard contracts of honor, though unsanctioned by law.
To restrict this trade by a rigid enforcement of the rule of ’56, be­
came the employment of the English Court of Admiralty, over which
then presided the celebrated Sir William Scott, the brother of Lord
Chancellor Eldon. These brothers, sons of a Newcastle coal-merchant,
became, it is well known, by talent and assiduity, the most accomplished
and richest lawyers of the age, and though plebeian in birth, effective
champions of the aristocracy of England. But Sir William Scott is
best known to us by his unremitted, though unavailing efforts, to control
the neutral trade of the United States.
There was reason enough to believe that this immense trade, of
which we have spoken, was carried on, in part at least, by the concealed
capital of the enemies’ countries. “ Merchants,” says our friend of the
pamphlet again, “ who, immediately prior to the last war, were scarcely
known, even in the obscure sea-port towns at which they resided, have
suddenly started up as sole owners of great numbers of ships, and sole
proprietors of rich cargoes, which it would have alarmed the wealthiest
merchants in Europe to hazard, even in peaceable times. A man, who,
at the breaking out of the war, was a petty shoemaker in a small town
of East Friesland, had, at one time, a hundred and fifty vessels navi­
gating, as his property, under Prussian colors. The cargoes of no less
than five East-Indiamen, composed of the richest exports of Batavia, were
the contemporary purchases of a single house at Providence, in Rhode
Island, and were all bound to that American port. One neutral house,
inconsiderable before the war, had contracted for all the merchandize of
the Dutch East India Company at Batavia, amounting to £1,700,000
sterling.”
The mode in which the litigation between the Courts of Admiralty and
the neutrals grew up, and was conducted, was something in this way: —
The English government dared not venture to exclude America, the near
neighbor to the West Indies, from buying her necessary commodities in
the colonial markets of France or Spain, while shut out by law from the
British islands. This would have been too harsh a monopoly; and
instructions were accordingly issued to his majesty’s cruisers, “ not to
seize any neutral vessels which should be found carrying on trade, di­
rectly, between the colonies of the enemy and the neutral country to
which the vessel belonged, and laden with property of the inhabitants of
such neutral country.”
Again, it was never doubted that a direct trade might, by the Law of
Nations, be carried on between America, a neutral nation, and the
mother countries, as France and Spain, direct, if no actual blockade
existed at the port of destination.
American ingenuity, out of these two permitted direct trades, soon



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Commercial R ights o f Neutral Nations.

constructed a circuitous trade quite as effective, and almost as con­
venient, as neutrals could desire.
The first method of the neutrals was to clear from Havana, or Mar­
tinique, for some port in the United States, and then, when examined
by a British frigate, though laden with coffee and sugar, instead of rum
or molasses, the ordinary home cargo, the letter of instructions protected
them from the hungry captors, and the vessel was allowed to proceed.
Arrived at Charleston, or New York, a new voyage was immediately
projected. The old ship papers were given up, not a document was
left disclosing the fact that the cargo was taken in at a colonial port;
and new bills of lading, invoices, clearances, and passports, were put on
board, all importing that it had been shipped in America; and the ves­
sel sailed for Europe, to slip into the first port she should find unguarded.
This practice went on very well, till a ship sailing from Havana to
Charleston was stopped by a British privateer, and her papers being
perfectly clear, was allowed to proceed. After a stay of a few days in
that port she sailed, apparently for Hamburgh, really, perhaps, to Spain,
with an entire new set of papers, but was unluckily encountered by the
same privateer, who recognised the ship, the crew, and the cargo. The
case came before Sir William Scott, who condemned the ship, on the
ground that the voyage was a continuous one ; and three circumstances,
he said, must concur to break the continuity of the voyage : — 1st, the
cargo from the colony must be landed in the neutral country; — 2d, the
duties, on importation, must be paid ; and, 3d, the insurance must ter­
minate in the neutral country.
The first requisite, of the landing of the cargo, was readily complied
with by the Americans, as the repairing of a vessel in the West India
trade, in their own ports, either on the outward or inward voyage, was,
if not necessary,1quite advantageous and convenient.
The second rule, as to insurance, was complied with in an equally
satisfactory manner; and where they had previously insured from Ha­
vana to Hamburgh, with liberty to touch in America, they now insure
for two voyages, first to America, and second from America to Ham­
burgh. This was not only a compliance with the English rule, but it
was found to be cheaper in point of premium, and John Bull’s wishes
were therefore readily obeved.
The third requisition, as to payment of duties, was equally well per­
formed. Our revenue laws allowed bonds for duties, on cargoes des­
tined for re-exportation, which bonds were discharged on the produc­
tion of debentures, and other instruments, certifying the re-exportation
of goods. Thus the duties were paid, in the eye of the law, and Sir
William Scott’s three requisites, so elaborately excogitated, left the neu­
tral trade exactly as it was found.
In vain did the British Courts vary their decisions to meet the evervarying ingenuity of the neutrals. Proteus himself never changed his
form more rapidly, until at length the Court gave up in despair the pur­
suit of the American merchant, and the panting lavvyer toiled after him
in vain. The English government was obliged to have recourse to the
sweeping tyranny of the orders in Council, which prohibited all trade
of neutrals, and which may be attributed, certainly as much to the
American trade, as to the Berlin and Milan Decrees of Bonaparte, to
which they profess to be merely retaliatory. And the conclusion of the
whole, was the war of 1812, in which, after three years’ hostilities, like
the last chapter of Rasselas, nothing was concluded. And the rule of ’56,



Commercial R ights o f Neutral Nations.

109

having passed through three eventful wars, undetermined, remains to fur­
nish aliment for the wire-drawn disquisitions of ambassadors, and the more
summary, but not always more effectual diplomacy of sailors and soldiers.
In ascribing to such causes the last war, it might also be added, that the
style and temper of the negotiations must have been productive of great
exacerbation of feeling in the United States, and in reading over the cor­
respondence of ministers, after more than thirty years have intervened, it
is impossible not to feel admiration at the ability, and a glow of indigna­
tion at the spirit, with which it was conducted on the part of England.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, during the most momen­
tous era of our negotiations, when the Chesapeake frigate was attacked
by the Leopard, and the embargo was lain, was George Canning, whose
name belongs to the history of the world, but is not favorably inscribed
in our own. Rarely does the individual talent of an ambassador display
itself under the most cumbrous drapery that ever enveloped the thoughts
of men, I mean, the conventional phraseology of diplomatists. Their
pompous periods, and swelling phrases, seem indeed invented (as one of
the most eminent professors of the art said of language in general) to
conceal their thoughts; and every thing vapid and dull, except the ludi­
crous etiquette, with which “ the undersigned seize every opportunity to
renew to each other assurances of their much distinguished considera­
tion.” The pungent sarcasm and varied talent of the author of the AntiJacobin surmounted those obstacles, and impressed his correspondence
with the qualities of his oratory.. His skilful statement of the question,,
his adroit evasion of argument, his glowing invective against the tyran­
ny of France, his half-uttered insinuation of our co-operation, the inge­
nuity of his logic, and the richness of language and allusion, will be
perceived in his negotiation as well as in his oratory; while the point
of his wit is felt by the American reader with vexation, divided by involun­
tary esteem for its keenness and its polish. Such, for example, was his
letter in September, 1808, much too long to be quoted, wherein, in an­
swer to some incautious remarks of Mr. Pinckney about the embargo,
which, it will be remembered, was intended as a measure of great se­
verity towards England — he says: “ His Majesty would not hesitateto contribute, in any manner in his power, to restore to the commerce of
the United States its wonted activity ; and he would gladly facilitate
the removal of the Embargo as a measure of inconvenient restriction
upon the American people.”
The same spirit manifested itself in 1826, in his correspondence with
Mr. Gallatin on the West India trade.
But the wit of diplomatists should be cautiously exercised. It falls
upon sensitive ears. And when excited nations hold parley upon real
or supposed rights, and felt or imagined grievances, a joke has been
known to cost a crown, or drench a country in blood. But peace to the
memory of George Canning! — When he sunk at last, he had few sincerer mourners than in America. It was not to the cajoling speeches
at Liverpool in 1824, that we forgave him, when he talked of England
and America “ as the mother and daughter,” for we remembered that
under his guidance the mother had been but a step-dame to the offspring.
It was not for the transient liberality of his late years that we forgave
him, for we contrasted it with a life devoted to the service of power.
We forgave him, for the genius which led him to victory in the cabinet
and debate— for his “ beautiful fancy, his elegant wit, his manly cour­
age, and all the splendors of his astonishing eloquence.”



Theory o f Money and Banks.

110

Nor is our patriotic pride wounded by the reflection that the cause of
our country was in those troubled times confided to inadequate hands.
Pride and exultation rather will be excited, as we observe the ability and
learning with which the arguments of peace were conducted by the
same distinguished statesman, who also wielded with discretion and
firmness the weapons of war. We are now in the position of posterity
to James Madison, and in an examination of his conduct, conducted in
entire freedom from party spirit, we look in vain for the materials of the
fierce hostility which was kindled against him, by some of his contem­
poraries. As a negotiator, he opposed foreign pretension with an inge­
nuity, learning, and talent, which Europe admired. President of the
Union, he resorted to arms only when war became inevitable, unless, in
his language to Congress, we should concede that “ on the element,
which forms three-fourths of the globe we inhabit, and where all inde­
pendent nations have common rights, the American people were not an
independent people, but colonists and vassals.” Through the war thus
produced, he conducted his country with external success, and with the
higher praise of never violating, in the smallest particular, the refined
constitutional liberty of the source of peace. Be this his praise ; and be
our feelings gratitude to him,
“

A rt.

The Pilot, who weathered the sto rm ! ”

II. — THE THEORY OF MONEY AND BANKS.

The Theory of Money and Banks Investigated. By G e o r g e T u c k e r ,
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Virginia, and
Member of the American Philosophical Society.
I n the necessarily brief account of this work, given in our last, we
were unable to enter into any examination of those points which involve
the disputed questions of the present day. For the purpose then in
hand, it was sufficient for us to express general confidence in the princi­
ples of the author and the spirit of his book, without foreclosing ourselves
from an opportunity, at a subsequent moment, of presenting our own
views upon some of the particular propositions contained in it. To the
end of doing this more satisfactorily, we have again gone over it, and it
gives us pleasure to state, that the second and more deliberate reading
has confirmed us in the favorable opinion created by the first.
In truth, an elementary work of this kind was much needed in the Uni­
ted States, where, notwithstanding the universally trading character of
our population, crude notions upon the subject are very prevalent. The
connexion between the currency and hanking, and the causes of the
fluctuations in the circulating medium, are very little understood; less,
perhaps, than they would have been, had not a large admixture of politi­
cal feeling, passion, or prejudice, taken place in every discussion respect­
ing them, of late years. The monstrous proposition of an exclusively
metallic medium has been started by one class of politicians, perhaps least
of all qualified to judge of its probable operation, with views not entirely
limited to the amendment of the currency; whilst another, and larger
body, have confined themselves to a more general denunciation of the
system of credit, carried on in a tone which appears, to a calm observer,
to partake quite as much of mortified pride as of disinterested patriotism.



Theory o f Money and Banks.

I ll

The fact cannot be denied by any one, that the pecuniary affairs of the
United States have, latterly, been subjected to most unnatural and exces­
sive irregularity of impulse— and that this has been most sensibly the
case ever since the subject has been subjected to the caprice of partisan
legislation. The truth must, sooner or later, make itself felt, even by the
obtusest sense, that money cannot be dealt with in a manner at variance
with the natural laws which regulate its movement, without producing
public embarrassment. It has a force of its own which escapes the power
of laws. If a body of men could be supposed arbitrary enough to decree
that gold and silver should be the only medium used in the settlement of
all debts, or payments of every kind whatsoever, they would decree no­
thing but an absurdity, which the first disposition of a debtor’s assets
would sufficiently establish. So if they were to declare, by statute, that
credit should be abolished, it would exist not the less firmly, by mutual
understanding. A horse, a cow, a bale of cotton, or an acre of land,
will serve, pro hac vice, the purpose of a tender, in payment of debt,
provided always, the creditor is satisfied in his mind that he shall not do
better by refusing them, and insisting upon gold or silver. We are stat­
ing extreme cases, because such only can be used to illustrate the ten­
dencies of our legislation. One of the lessons we have yet to learn in
America, is that of understanding the limit to which laws should go.
Nothing positively impracticable, nor excessively inconvenient, nor easily
to be evaded, nor purely of a moral nature, can be fairly regarded as
within the scope of a statute. We regard it as most dangerous to our
free institutions, to admit of a violation of any law with impunity. But
all trifling, or unjust, or capricious injunctions, will be violated, and that
violation will inspire a habit of disregard of all law, even of that which
is most essential to the general security. We have lately seen, in some
States, attempts to prescribe the quantity in which ardent spirits shall
be sold, and the highest price which shall be demanded for board and
lodging ; and if the present rates of all domestic commodities continue,
we shall not be surprised to find suggestions made of fixing, by law, the
maximum at which they shall be sold. To be sure, this is an antique
notion, exploded by the progress of knowledge ; but even antique notions
appear to return upon us with almost the regularity of our fashions.
Butchers are found to combine not to buy cattle of drovers, and citizens
combine not to buy meat of butchers, just as if these were the modes of
attaining the desired equality between demand and supply. People do
not reflect that if beef is very high, the profit of raising cattle will become
so great as to induce the only true remedy, a multiplication of them.
The dearer an article becomes, the smaller does the class of persons
grow who feel themselves able to afford it. Hence, whilst on one side
the demand diminishes, on the other the supply increases, until the price
graduates itself to the ordinary rate of living profit, which sustains every
interest in the community, far more unerringly than any laws or com­
binations can do. Exactly the same rule applies to the subject of money
itself, which is thus applied to commodities. Legislation will not regu­
late the demand nor the supply, though it may do much mischief in the
attempt. We think it would rarely be tried, if only a sufficient degree
of attention was paid to the principles which Professor Tucker has en­
deavored to extend the knowledge of in the present work.
In the first and least debatable part of the author’s treatise, we can
recommend, most particularly, that chapter which has for its title, “ The
circumstances which determine the amount of circulation in different



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Theory o f Money and Banks.

countries,” and those which treat of a single or double standard of value.
Perhaps the most unfortunate measure of Congress, that has lately been
adopted, was that commonly called the gold bill, by which a preference
was given to gold, as currency, though it cannot, in the nature of things,
serve as such in the United States, (or not, at least, until a great and
highly improbable revolution in our bank-note system shall take place,)
and inducements were presented to the rejection, or exportation, of silver,
which must have the effect of confining the extent to which that metal
might otherwise be expected readily to circulate. Half dollars form the
most convenient of all our pieces of coin — are least of all hoarded — and
most quickly adapt themselves to the channels of communication through­
out the Union. Had the national legislature adapted its system more to
what was practicable, and less to party visions, by assuming silver as the
only standard, whilst it admitted of payments in gold, according to its
value estimated in silver, and by charging a sufficient seignorage at the
mint for coining, to prevent the melting which now constantly takes place,
we think it would then have exercised all the beneficial influence over the
subject of which it is capable. But the reason why it did nothing of all
this, but a great deal that was contrary to it, probably was, that a majority
of the representatives not then having an impartial work, like Professor
Tucker’s, at hand, to teach them what to do, preferred, in their indo­
lence, to follow the bugle call of a political file-leader, rather than be at
any pains to investigate the truth.
In the fourth chapter of the first part, which treats of the cost of a me­
tallic currency, we perceive some observations upon the proportion which
the circulation of the United States bears to its income, or the annual
value of its products, which appear to us not to have been thoroughly well
considered. The topic is one which we regard, at all times, as rather
curious than useful to discuss, inasmuch as there is very great difficulty
in arriving at any facts upon which calculations can be safely based.
The author, in taking up such an estimate of the circulation as that made
by Mr. Webster, in a speech to the Senate, in March, 1838, for the pur­
pose intended, has adopted a course not free from objection. Neither of
the two years, 1837 and 1838, were years in which the currency could
be said to be in a natural or sound state ; because the first commenced with
a paper circulation, which had been swelled beyond all bounds by the
extension of the banking system ; and the second was the period of reac­
tion, when even the ordinary channels of trade were in a state of unex­
ampled stagnation. It is, therefore, obviously absurd to infer any thing
respecting the actual amount of the annual products of the country, or
of the capital used to produce them, from any valuations which could have
been made of them in currency during those years. The nett amount of
currency (paper and coin) circulating at the close of 1836, when the bank
issues had reached their maximum, did not probably fall below $150,000,000 — an amount more than double what it is supposed to have been
in 1830. Now if we were to attempt any inference respecting the in­
crease of the annual produce, and through that of the capital of the coun­
try, to any corresponding extent, to those issues, we should at once, by the
extravagance of the conclusion, become sensible of our error. For we
should have to affirm a proposition not much less extraordinary than this,
that that capital had accumulated from $2,803,704,945, which is the au­
thor’s estimate for 1834, to $15,000,000,000, within the space of three
years. Yet a hypothesis of this kind was made the basis of an explana­
tion of our difficulties, by Mr. Webster, in the Senate, not more than a



Theory o f Money and Banks.

113

year prior to the suspension of specie payments. Such facts as these should
warn us to be very cautious of forming’our calculations upon incompetent
materials to sustain them. No idea of the actual property of the United
States, considered as a nation in a healthy action of its system of currency,
can be formed from the estimates of 1836, or later. It is not impossible
that such might be derived from a review of the years between 1822 and
1832, when, if ever, the circulation was in a healthy and prosperous condi­
tion. But least of all could it be drawn from a year of convulsion, like that
of 1837-8. In the first place, the disposition to make any contracts which
required money, was much diminished by the suspension of the use of the
legal standard; whilst in the next, that suspension itself had prevented the
prices of all commodities from settling to the level of the natural demand.
As a consequence of this state of things, the actual sum of currency was
not, in fact, so much reduced as it was changed in its character. The nett
amount of paper issued by the banks, upon the call of the business men,
was, it is trae, seriously diminished, and nearly all the coin, which usually
answers the purposes of change, went out of circulation; but, on the other
hand, a great quantity of spurious local currency was substituted, which,
however little possessed of the attributes of money, did, for a time, serve
the purpose, and must therefore be calculated in every estimate. This
local 'paper, which went under the vulgar denomination of shinplasters,
was created by individuals, as well as corporations and towns, for sums as
small, in some instances, even, as sixteenths of a dollar, and circulated for
no other reason than the necessity of the case. Although it had no effect
upon the commercial interest, which ordinarily sets in motion the greatest
portion of the currency, and which was at that period greatly depressed, it
contributed, doubtlessly, very considerably to the artificial maintenance of
a brisk exchange of domestic commodities, and consequently of their prices.
It is impossible to give any estimate of the amount of this shinplaster cur­
rency; but when we consider that it circulated most largely in all those
States where the banks were prohibited from issuing notes below five dol­
lars, and that in Philadelphia alone, the sum uttered in one single year, by
corporations only, was equal to nearly $1,000,000; it may, at once, be per­
ceived how important a part of the currency this paper must have been
throughout the Union. When, therefore, Mr. Webster estimated the
circulation of the country, both paper and metallic, as equal to $130,000,000, in March, 1838, we are inclined to believe it was an under­
statement, and that the actual amount of substance, of every denomination,
passing as money, was not very much below what it had been the year
before. We should not otherwise be able to account for the continuance
of the high prices of all commodities, provisions, and labor, which could
not but have been much more affected than they were if we are to believe
twenty millions to have been taken out of a circulation of $150,000,000,
within a space of only twelve months.
But we repeat, that we are not of those who think that because the cur­
rency has swelled, within a few years, from $70,000,000 to $140,000,000,
it is indispensably necessary to infer that the sum of the produce of the
country, or its capital, has increased in a like proportion. A great deal may
be allowed for a difference in valuation. Cotton andflour, land and negroes,
have all partaken of the influence, and have not, as yet, subsided to the level
of the foreign rates. They are, however, doing so, notwithstanding all the
artificial contrivances adopted to prevent it, and in the process, must operate
a reduction of the valuation, productive of great personal sacrifice. In the
v o l . i. — n o . n .
15



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Theory o f Money and Banks.

mean time, however, a great deal more currency is necessary than was for­
merly the case. A laboring man must receive twice as much for a day’s
work as he did ten years ago, to pay for just the same daily wants. He is
little better off by the change than he was, yet he puts in motion twice as
much money as he did, and the estimate of his labor made by his employer
necessarily doubles also. We are, therefore, not so much surprised as the
Professor appears to be, at the magnitude of the sums to which the annual
income of the country would amount, if it was estimated in the ordinary
proportion to the money it sets in motion. The error seems to us to lie in the
supposition that it is now possible to make any estimate of the country,
from the present valuation of its produce. In the first place, it is necessary
to deduct from the former an enormous foreign debt, not probably less in
amount than $400,000,000, which does not affect the latter. In the second,
the assessed valuations of capital in the United States, bear no proportion
to the amount of annual produce like that which he assumes. All new
lands yield far more than ten per cent upon the capital and labor employed
upon them, and old lands are assessed very low, usually to only half their
actual value. Thirdly, the amount of circulation required by the annual
prod uce, is equal to the gross amount of that produce, without any deduction
for the cost of creating it. Lastly, the prices of produce in 1837 bore no
proportion to the valuation of capital made in 1S34. For these reasons, we
think it perfectly fair to consider the annual produce of 1837 as having been
equal, in value, to ten times the amount of the currency of that year, with­
out, thereby, being understood to affirm that the capital of the country has
increased in any similar ratio. In other words, our opinion i« that the in­
flation of the currency, which took place in 1836-7, has put us into a
very improper condition for calculations of the kind which the author
has attempted to make, and which can only be good for any thing in
those moments when neither partisan politics, nor gambling speculation,
have any control over the issues of money.
That the proportion of ten per cent between the currency and the annual
produce of the country was, however, preserved, we have some trifling data
to show, at least in one State. For in the year ending April 1,1837, Mas­
sachusetts required a return of the value of the product within its limits,
during that year, and this gave, as a grand total, $86,282,616, without in­
cluding any portion of the value of the agricultural proceeds of the State,
which, though not embraced within the scope of that call, must yet be ad­
mitted into our estimate. The circulation during about the same period,
was equal to $10,892,249, in bank notes, without any allowance for the
coin current for the purpose of change, under one dollar. We think, from
this view, if we were to add the agricultural products, and allow for the
admitted incompleteness of the return, and on the other hand to deduct
something for the amount of notes in transitu, while we add the coin, it
would not be very unfair to consider the produce of the year 1837, accord­
ing to the valuation then made in Massachusetts, as just about in a tenfold
proportion to the currency required to sum it. If in any thing there is
error, it is in understating the produce, and yet the author of the present
work appears to consider it impossible that the annual produce of the coun­
try, generally, should have equalled $15,000,000,000. But if we consider
the relative importance of Massachusetts, the facts that she has none of the
great staple articles of the country, and is not among the largest states of
the Union, either in population or resources, it surely is not so incredible
that the twenty-five others, including the cotton and flour, the tobacco, rice,
and sugar regions, should produce, together, fourteen times as much as she



Free B anking Law.

115

did. We repeat, then, that the error is not so much in maintaining the
currency to continue in a proportion of ten per cent to the valuation of the
annual produce, as in supposing that any inferences can now be drawn of
the amount of capital used from the valuation put upon that produce. We
are, as yet, under the operation of the extraordinary expansion of the years
1834 to 1837; and no judgment can be formed of our real condition, until
it is satisfactorily proved that the circulation can be permanently establish­
ed upon the footing of that expansion.
After all, we are not very sure that the discussionis a useful employ­
ment of time; for there is so much difficulty in arriving at any definite
results, and so many elements, not easy to be calculated, enter into the
demand for currency in a country at any given moment, that no conclu­
sion respecting it can reach much beyond the dignity of conjecture.
Credit has, of late years, exercised such a power of expanding and con­
tracting the circulation of the great commercial countries of the world
within very short spaces of time, that it becomes far more important to
look at it in the light of a cause, than simply to study its effect. The
great question which is now agitated by all the political economists of the
age, is, whether any effective restraints can be placed upon the use of
credit in banks of circulation. We do not perceive that Professor Tucker
has gone into this quite as fully as we should have expected. It is a
subject of serious consideration for all countries where the currency is in
a great part made of paper of private corporations, which is only the
representative of value, whether any system can be devised by which the
danger of loss to the communitj'-, from the failure of its representative
character, can be avoided. Many of the writers in England, where the
whole subject is better understood than in any other country, now incline
to the opinion, that the power to issue bank notes as money cannot, in
any manner, be made safe in private hands, and that it should remain
exclusively with the sovereign authority of the state. Without assenting
to the reasoning that brings them to this conclusion, we cannot at the
same time avoid admitting, that with all the legislative precautions recom­
mended by our authority, and with all the foresight which can be reason­
ably anticipated to be exercised by the wisdom of our governments, whether
state or national, the recurrence of occasions when our bank-note currency
must cease to be convertible into gold and silver, cannot, in all probability,
be avoided. The event of 1837 has thus far given rise to nothing in the
way of amendment of the errors which caused it, unless, possibly, we
should consider the free banking law of the state of New York as of that
character. We are, therefore, exactly as much exposed to the course of
events which brought on that catastrophe, as we were before it happened,
with the single exception of that law. Here, again, we had hoped the
Professor would have grappled with the subject, and explained his views
of the probable operation which the law would have in preventing the
dangers of a redundant circulation; instead of which, he has simply con­
fined himself to a calculation of the profits which may be gained by indi­
viduals who avail themselves of it. To the community, the free banking
law is of no consequence, if it does not provide a better safeguard against
losses by notes which pass current as money, than they had before.
From all the reflection it has been in our power to give to the subject,
we should incline to believe that it does attain this object in a degree,
but not to so great an extent as was expected by its framers. The defect
of all the New York legislation upon banking, of late years, appears to us
to be, that it has been framed with an eye to the probable disorders occa­



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Theory o f Money and Banks.

sioned by partial and local errors of banking in single places, rather than
to the possible disorganization of the whole system. The safety fund,
for example, may make good the paper of one or two broken banks; but
it can never be expected to supply the loss occasioned by the depreciation,
in a moment of suspension, of the entire bank-note circulation below specie.
Just so the free banking law will answer very well to secure the public
from the occasional failure of an association or two to redeem its bills,
but it does not provide for the possibility that all the associations may be
forced to refuse the specie redemption of their notes at once, and hence
the entire, amount of their circulating medium may instantly become a
charge upon the state. Professor Tucker says in his book, and says
very truly, that “ laws themselves but reflect the passions and feelings of
m e n a n d we have found out more than once in America, that those
passions can unmake a law with the same rapidity that they made it.
But the catastrophe of 1837 first proved to the United States the fact that
those passions could venture to take the initiative step, and break the
law before it was unmade, with perfect impunity. We say this in no
spirit of reproach, and under a perfect consciousness of the necessity of
the case. But the question cannot and ought not to be overlooked by
any person who desires to estimate the force of any injunction of law,
whether it is calculated to stand against the combination of private inter­
est which circumstances may be expected to form into opposition. We
see nothing in the free banking law which will enable it to carry any
more binding force than belonged to any of its predecessors, on the same
subject.
This is the true difficulty of the credit system, for which neither Pro­
fessor Tucker, nor any other writer that we know of, has yet entirely
devised a remedy. The popular feeling will make null the law — it will
make odious the attempt to avail of all restrictive provisions— and there
is no resource. An irredeemable paper currency becomes, for the mo­
ment, the interest of all the debtors of the community, and through them,
of the great majority of creditors; and these give the tone to public
opinion. This is an evil to which we who live in a republican govern­
ment are most particularly exposed, and against which it is our duty in
moments of ease to endeavor to discover a remedy. We frankly confess
we know of nothing at all likely to answer the purpose, short of an in­
crease of the national power over the currency, much more considerable
than any party in the United States would be willing to advocate. We
do not consider the notion of security by pledges of stock and land, which
constitutes the new feature introduced into our system by the free bank­
ing law, as well founded to the extent required, for reasons which we
propose now, very briefly, and very respectfully, to submit to public con­
sideration.
The free banking law requires no evidence from the associations or­
ganized under it of the actual payment of capital beyond the extent of
the sum pledged for bills to put into circulation, nor does it contemplate
giving any additional security to that species of circulation which goes
under the name of deposites in bank. It provides for no specie redemp­
tion of the bills beyond twelve and a half per cent, and the old precaution
of double interest in case of failure, which was found to be of little ser­
vice in 1837. Now, supposing, for the sake of illustration, that on the
first of January of that year, the entire circulation of New York had
been carried on under the new law instead of the old one, and that the




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117

twenty-four millions of bills then current had been secured by mortgage
of stocks and lands to the comptroller of the state.
We will, for the sake of brevity, set the sum down at
$24,000,000
to which the deposites may be added in round numbers at 30,000,000
making the sum of immediate liability
. . .
$54,000,000
which might be considered as secured by $9,500,000 of specie, and
24,000,000 of property pledged. We know that a steady drain set in from
that date, which, by the first of June, reduced the circulation to $15,400,000
and the deposites t o - “ 23,400,000
making in all - $38,800,000
being a reduction within five months of $15,200,000, at the cost of five
millions, or more than half of the specie resources on hand— and a neces­
sity of refusing the payment of any more. Yet, at the very moment of
refusal, the proportion which the specie actually bore to the bills remain­
ing out, would have been nearly equal to 30 per cent, without being
sufficient to resist the pressure. What shall we then think of the safe­
guard in the new law, which releases associations from all obligations to
keep on hand in specie more than twelve an^ a half per cent of their
circulation, and not even that sum for periods of twenty days together ?
But it may be said that the bills would still have remained good. We
propose to consider that point hereafter, for the sake of directing our more
immediate attention to another important view of the subject. It will be
perceived by the preceding figures, that the actual amount of liability from
the demands of depositors at both the specified dates, exceeded that, arising
from the bill-holders, and that the reduction of both were nearly, if not quite,
with equal rapid ity. Now, if the new law had been in operation, it is very
certain that the depositors, conscious of the little safety of their position,
would have been most anxious of all to convert their demand, which stood
without security, into bills for which they would have had the pledge of
stocks. But the amount of bills secured by these stocks never would have
exceeded $24,000,000, for which the banks would have been liable to other
creditors; besides, the depositors, who alone would have had their addi­
tional claims, equal to 30,000,000. Hence, any serious drain from the
depositors must have been productive of a suspension of specie payments
on the part of the free banks, just as certainly as the drain of 1837 was
upon the chartered ones. And the probability of such an event at any
future day may readily be estimated by the risk which, as the law is,
depositors who do not draw out their money must run, of coming in last
on the list of creditors, in cases of bankruptcy.
But it may be urged, that the amount of liabilities incurred by the banks
in 1837, would never have been so great, if they had been organized under
the new law. The necessity of giving security for all the notes issued,
would have checked the excessive expansion of credit which brought on
the catastrophe itself. We should concede much to this argument, if the
actual note circulation of New York had proved to be ill-secured by the
old charter system ; but it did not; ninety-six out of ninety-eight banks
managed to contract their liabilities within twelve months, in a manner
which they never could have done if they had not been doing business in a
manner substantially safe. F or example, the sum of circulation and depo­
sites was, on the first of January, 1837, as we have seen,
$54,000,000
but on the first of January, 1838, they equalled about
28,000,000
making the extraordinary contraction within a year of
$26,000,000
a contraction which, we repeat, none but sound banks could have endured.



118

Theory o f Money and Banks.

It is then plain,thathowever great theexpansion of credit might have been,
it was not more than would be likely to happen under any unrestricted sys­
tem, and that however severe the drain of specie may have proved, it was
not caused so much by any well founded apprehension of the character
of the bank notes, as by the inevitable course of trade, the high rate of
foreign exchange, and consequent necessity for specie. To which con­
tingencies, it may be added, the free banks will be no less liable for the
future than the chartered ones have been heretofore.
But it is maintained that a suspension of specie payments by the banks
ceases, under the new system, to be attended with the evils which have
heretofore marked its occurrence under the old one; and that if such an
event is unavoidable at certain stages of the credit system, it must be
admitted to be a great thing, that its most injurious tendency, the depre­
ciation of the paper, from the mere force of panic, has been prevented.
The public will now be perfectly satisfied, that however difficult it may
be at some single moment to convert the paper bills of the free banks
into gold and silver, yet that these have a substantial and positive value,
independently of their immediate convertibility, which no former notes
of the same kind possessed, and which render it perfectly unnecessary
for any body to be uneasy in the possession of them. We are inclined
to the opinion, that there may be some foundation for this reasoning;
and that, to a certain extent, the danger of excessive panic may be reme­
died by this new feature of banking. But the reasons why we do not
believe it entirely remedied are these: In fimes of scarcity of money,
the great pressure upon the commercial community commonly arises from
a necessity to pay foreign debts. Bills of exchange are not to be had,
and specie must then be resorted to. Now the value of bank notes in
the hands of merchants consists in their instant convertibility into a means
of paying their debts equally abroad as at home, and when that conver­
tibility ceases from any cause or other they must necessarily be losers.
So long as the banks can meet their engagements by furnishing the
medium wanted to pay these debts, so long will the machinery of the
credit system work easily; but the moment that they do not, the moment
that it becomes impossible for them to redeem their paper with silver or
gold, that moment the whole train of calculations based upon their ability
to do so is dispersed. The demand for specie is not the more remitted
on account of the failure of the banks, unless we are to suppose all the
merchants to fail too, which they never will while they can help i t ; and
the supply of it to meet that demand becoming, by the act of the banks,
who take out all their stock of the article from the market, so much the
more limited, a monopoly necessarily takes place in the hands of the
holders, which they are not slow to improve. The price of specie rises,
that is, a silver dollar becomes more valuable than a paper dollar. The
currency of the community, which is paper, becomes depreciated to the
extent of the difference, and the free banking law is exactly to the same
extent of no avail. The comptroller of the state can do nothing to check
this state of things, for he is not supposed to possess a single dollar of
specie; on the contrary, he holds securities which it is his business to
try to convert into specie, at the time the catastrophe happens. Hence
he comes into the market as a competitor to purchase the very article
for which too great a demand for the supply to be had exists in other
quarters already. His interference must aggravate the disorder rather
than cure it, inasmuch as he must sell his securities at a sacrifice, or he
must withdraw without gaining his object, in either case weakening to
«




Free B anking Law.

119

some extent that degree of confidence which alone induces the public to
give equal currency to free bank paper money with the precious metals, and
by weakening it, also confirming a scale of depreciation between the two.
It is true, that if it were possible for the comptroller to possess property in
his hands as collateral security, which never fluctuates in value to the
extent of more than one or two per cent even in the worst of times, it
would be very easy for him, and for the banks whom he represents, to .
calculate upon the ultimate redemption of their notes in specie. But'
the experience of the past distinctly teaches us, that there are moments,
in the commercial world, when no property of any kind can be negotiated; 1
even in Great Britain, where the national funds possess so very fixed a !
value in comparison with any thing we have, and where so much more
private wealth exists to be drawn out in cases of great emergency, end
where such resources for raising money exist in the neighborhood of
the other wealthy countries of Europe, it was clearly shown in 1825-6
that at one moment even exchequer bills could not be negotiated upon
any terms. And if in Great Britain, with all her advantages, and with
a credit system so much less elastic than ours is in the United States,
this is occasionally the result, what can we expect from any attempt to
convert securities, such as we possess, upon any similar contingency ?
Here lies, in short, the great obstacle to the success of the new experi­
ment of free banking, as adopted in New York. The state is made to
hold securities for paper bills, which are liable to be affected in value
nearly as much as the bills which they propose to secure. No suspension
of specie payments is very likely to take place, unless after every expe­
dient to raise money has been resorted to by private individuals and com­
panies in vain. It is not the want of property to offer, which ever creates
a general suspension, but it is the impossibility of finding money into
which to convert property. The comptroller here has no advantage
over and above any one else, and he is subjected to the serious incon­
venience of coming into the market only after it has been tried already
to exhaustion. How can he expect to convert his securities, then, except­
ing at a most ruinous sacrifice ? and if he does not so convert them im­
mediately, who is to judge of the period to which it can be postponed,
and of the goodness of the bills which rest upon their convertibility in
the interval ?
The whole plan is now, it is true, in its infancy, and as yet we cannot
at all judge of the extent to which it may be pushed ; but even now we
can form some slight idea of the difficulties to which the comptroller
would be subjected, if compelled at any moment to redeem any conside­
rable amount of bills in circulation. By a return made up to the 30th
of April last, it appears that state stocks had been offered and accepted
to the amount of $2,137,090, and lands had been mortgaged to the value
of $851,316 13. This sum is trifling, unless we regard it as the mere
outset of a system, which, if it has even a moderate share of temporary
success, must extend itself to the supply of a much greater proportion of
the currency. But even of this sum, $877,000, or more than a quarter
part, consists of the six per cent stocks of the state of Arkansas, and
518,000, or over a sixth part, is of the six per cent stocks of Michigan;
while the remainder is in a great degree composed of the stocks of
Missouri, Maine, Alabama, Indiana, and Kentucky, and the mortgaged
lands. Now, without meaning to express a doubt of the ultimate value
of all this property, we must be allowed to question whether, in a time
of panic, out of the whole three millions pledged, the comptroller would



J20

Theory o f Money and Banks.

be able to sell at par more than at farthest 84,000 of United States stock,
which we presume to be Treasury Notes, and $25,090 of the 5 per cent
of the state of New York. It is but very lately that the new states of
the Union have had any credit at all. They have neither fixed popula­
tion, nor accumulated capital, sufficient to authorize any steady estimate
to be formed of their character in meeting their engagements, and although
it may be admitted that they have the capacity of enlargement to an extent
which older states are not readily susceptible of, yet this is rather an argu­
ment in favor of the withdrawal of their stocks into the hands of capital­
ists, who never want to convert them, than to make them the basis of a
fluctuating credit system, the changes of which affect them as much as
any species of existing property. We hardly think it ought to be pre­
tended, even by the most enthusiastic believer in state stocks, that in mo­
ments of panic, when the wealthy business men of our commercial cities
shall have exhausted all means of raising money, even with the offer of
property in ordinary times of the highest negotiable value, the State will
have any means of redeeming the circulation of the free banking compa­
nies, by the offer of such securities as those which have now been named.
The tendency of this law to increase the disposition of the states to make
loans, is a feature of the system which has scarcely yet been sufficiently ob­
served. The whole creation of the permanent debts of the states has been
so much the work of a moment, that hardly time enough has elapsed to see
its practical operation. One hundred and eight millions of dollars have
been contracted for within three years. Of this sum, as indeed of the whole
amount, all which is in the best credit, has a tendency to find its way to
London, whilst that which will not do there will be retained as material for
domestic banking. So long as it is practicable, under the law, to carry on
the business of lending money profitably, so long will there exist a demand
for State stock, which would never have existed if it had not been for the
law. And if, ultimately, that stock should, for any cause, not necessary
to be stated, fail to be redeemed, we do not perceive that the loss would
be likely to fall upon the bankers, who will have enjoyed the value of a
paper currency, co-extensive in amount; nor upon the State which
authorized them ; but it would fall almost exclusively upon the very
holders of the bills, who were sought, most especially, to be secured.
Moreover, the intimate connexion which is thus forming between the
states and the banking system, through the operation of these large loans,
is another incident which has not as yet met with the consideration which it
appears to deserve. Of the entire sum borrowed under the authority of the
states, up to this time, estimated to be equal to one hundred and seventy
millions of dollars, fifty-two millions have been raised for the purpose of
banking. And it would be a curious circumstance in our history if, whilst
in Louisiana, for example, the money borrowed by the creation of stock, is
used as capital for the banks there, the stock itself should be made the basis
for other banks-, under the law of New York. Yet we see nothing impossi­
ble, or even improbable, in the supposition. How much the interests of
Louisiana and New York are thus made to depend upon the success of the
credit system of the former State, fully appears. Indeed, upon further
examination, we perceive that the case we state hypothetically, has already
happened. For the states of Missouri and Arkansas have created no stock,
excepting that which has set in motion their banks; and this very stock, to
the amount of $69,000 of the former State, and $877,000 of the latter State,
making more than a full quarter part of the whole capital in the hands of
the Comptroller, has already been made the basis of double banking opera


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121

tions, under the free law of New York. It is thus easy to perceive what a
stimulus must be given to overaction, throughout the country, when the
same capital can he used for so many different purposes; and when once
used, and the edifice of the paper system is once made to rest upon the
substratum of State credit alone, the inducements operating upon the
State to keep up that system at all hazards, rather than to meet the re­
sponsibility which must ultimately, in case of its failure, fall upon them,
can easily be estimated.
We have, as yet, said little of those more obvious objections to the law,
which have already occurred to the minds of mosfsensible and reflecting
persons among us. Yet we cannot pass the subject without, at least, re­
marking upon the difficulty likely to arise under our popular system of
government, from combining the interests of private individuals into
masses, by throwing their lands, to a great extent, into the hands of the
State government, subject, in case of trouble in the pecuniary affairs of
the public, to be levied upon, summarily, at a ruinous sacrifice to the
owners. The notion of making land the basis of a currency is not a new
one. It has often been attempted in times past, and in various shapes,
but so far as we have the means of knowing, with uniform want of suc­
cess. Now, we are at a loss to perceive why the operation, again pro­
posed, should be likely to be any more fortunate than its predecessors
have been. The indispensable attribute of money is convertibility into
any and every article wanted, whether by the pleasure, or caprice, or
convenience of the holder. In order to this, it must also be divisible to
the extent necessary to accommodate a purchase, whether it be very small
or very large. Neither of these qualities can ever belong to land ; but,
on the contrary, land itself is always the article which stands in the most
need of the aid of money, in order to become transferable at all. A laborer
can buy neither bread nor meat for the day with an acre of land, but must
first proceed to sell that acre for money, and with that he gets what he
wants, exactly in the quantity required. So the comptroller of New
York, with fifteen or twenty millions of landed estate, mortgaged for the
redemption of bills to that amount, would be utterly unable to convert a
five dollar bill without coming into the market to get the coin. But fif­
teen or twenty millions of landed property cannot be brought into the
market at any one time in any part of the United States, without at once
reducing the value of the whole of that species of property in the vicinity
of where it is situated. Hence the difficulty of conversion, and a neces­
sity of sacrifice or delay. Sacrifice will be ruinous to the owner, while
delay will prove injurious to the bill-holder, especially to that poorer class
who cannot keep money for any length of time on hand. The alterna­
tive is disagreeable, for on either side great popular uneasiness may
reasonably be apprehended: on the part of the combined land owners,
if their property is sold at much less than its value ; and on the part of
the bill-holders, if it is not, and they suffer by the consequent deprecia­
tion of their bills.
After all, it is not unlikely that the effect of any public disaster, if such
should happen, would simply be to compel the State to guarantee the
circulation in the first instance, and reserve to itself an opportunity, sub­
sequently, to convert the assets in such manner as completely to indem­
nify her for the advances she would be compelled to make. This would
not probably be severely injurious to her prosperity, although it might be
embarrassing. For ourselves, we hope that she will never have occasion
VOL. i. — NO. II.
16



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Theory o f Money and Banks.

to be driven even to this; and that the dangers w e, have thus under­
taken to foresee from the free banking law, will prove imaginary. If it
were not for the extensive injury to result from all errors committed in
this department of science, we should always be in favor of testing the
value of new theories by experiment. We believe there is something
yet to be learnt, and if the state of New York shall prove fortunate
enough to establish, by her present law, the possibility of securing even
the stability of that portion of the circulating medium within her limits,
which has heretofore been subject to injurious fluctuations; we think
the rest of the country, and the commercial world generally, will have
reason to be grateful to her, for risking so much in the attempt.
But whether the free banking law is an improvement, or is not, there
is no probability that it will afford any solution of the great problem pre­
sented to the world by the credit system: which is, whether any issue
of notes to serve as money, by private portions of the community, can
be so restricted as to prevent the fluctuations in property, which are found
at present in pretty regular recurring intervals to take place. In England,
the writers upon the subject are gradually retreating to the position that
there should be but a single source of issue. We are not yet prepared
to admit the superiority of that plan in practice, however fair it may
seem in theory. And even if we were, a single glance at the condition
of the United States would show that at least for them the idea is not
feasible. Whatever may be the political bearing of the subject, no one
acquainted with the past experience of the country can fail to admit that
a national bank has hitherto been the only remedy in our power which
has answered any useful purpose, and we think Professor Tucker has
done nothing more than strictly his duty in submitting to the public, as
he has done, the reasoning which, upon purely financial ground, has
brought him to this conclusion. A national bank, with powers more
divided than they were heretofore, in some respects restricted and in others
modified, is the only device which we have ever yet been able confidently
to believe a means of preserving the currency in the Union perfectly sound.
It is with some surprise that we perceive the author to maintain the ex­
pediency of more than one national bank. This idea appeared to us so en­
tirely at variance with the habitual good sense which reigns elsewhere in
his work, that we were curious to see the reasoning by which he endeavors
to support it. That no injustice may be done him, we will now extract it.
“ Whatever may be the benefits of a national bank, they would all seem
to be increased by having more than one, except that the profits to the share­
holders would be somewhat diminished. This division of the privileges
and duties of a national bank is recommended by the following considera­
tions :
“ First,— whatever may be the power and influence which may be pos­
sessed by a bank that has a large capital, with branches dispersed over every
part of the Union, and is the fiscal agent of the government, it would obvi­
ously be lessened by being divided. Though this power and influence
have been greatly overrated by popular jealousy and party antipathies, yet,
as it is still honestly believed by a large mass of our citizens to be formida­
ble, their fears are entitled to respect, and should be quieted if possible.
The feelings of a large portion of the people will never he disregarded by a
v wise and a just government, even when they are founded on prejudice.
“ Secondly, — the plan would secure to the public the benefit of com­
petition in all those functions in which a national bank has any advan­
tage over state banks; as in domestic exchange, in furnishing a more



National Banks.

123

uniform currency, and in fiscal services to the government, both at home
and abroad. Their profits, then, on the purchase of bills, and the sale of
their own drafts, would not only be less than would be charged by the
state banks, but at the lowest rates at which they could be afforded.
“ Thirdly,— the two or three national banks would be salutary and ef­
fective checks on each other. We have seen that the state banks, whose
excessive issues are so effectually controlled by a national bank, are also
a reciprocal check on the latter; but their power could never be so great,
both from defect of concert and unity of action, and for want of the im­
portant aid that would be afforded by the funds of the government. The
national banks, thus equal in capital, in credit, and resources, in all parts
of the Union, would give the public the same security against the redun­
dant issues that a single national bank has hitherto afforded against those
of a state bank; and thus a further answer could be given to those who
have objected to a national bank, that, while it restrained the operations
of the state banks, it was unrestricted itself.”
We must be pardoned for expressing an opinion that this argument is
nothing more than a weak concession to the principles of the Virginia
school of statesmen. For as to the question of power, if we give it up
at all, we may as well give it up entirely, as to receive it in such useless
portions. The only value of a bank is in its ability to do good, and the
argument against it from its abuse of power, is only the common one
which applies to the use of all the great agents of the universe. Now it
is plain if we take three banks instead of one, because three are not so
likely to act with equal vigor as one, and because they will check one
another; we may find that while we have multiplied the sources of abuse,
we have, in the same ratio, been diminishing the ability to benefit the
public. For in regard to the matter of competitions, which constitutes
the Professor’s second reason, that is not what we want to create in
America from legislation. It springs up of itself wherever it can be used,
and it never will be wanting where any sources of pecuniary profit are
to be found. The State banks compete with each other, and would do
so with a national bank more than enough. The great object is to keep
that competition within bounds : and this can never be done by multiply­
ing national banks. For if the argument in favor of three be good, we
know not how that in favor of four could he resisted, or any superior
number beyond one. We consider one necessary, exactly as we consider
one State government, or one national government, necessary, and not
tw o; because the object is to control and to regulate what can be con­
trolled or regulated in no other manner. But to do this well, it must
he done simply. A single agency is the most effective instrument imagi­
nable, as well to avoid the one extreme of regulating too much, as the
other of not regulating at all.
Neither do we perceive how two or three banks would be such salutary
and effective checks upon each other, as the author pretends. Each would
exercise its power of contraction to a certain extent, and no more. It could
not prevent the expansion of one of its equals, nor establish any uniformity
of action throughout the country. In moments of prosperity, to be sure,
the competition for business would be likely to tempt them all to go to
the outside of a safe line of conduct in accommodating the public, but we
see no evidence to prove that any similar motive would exist in common
to prompt a contrary course when it was needed.
Yet, after all, the great obstacle to the Professor’s plan would arise




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Theory o f Money and Banks.

from its failing to supply some general system of regulation. It is now
pretty well ascertained that the difficulties most likely to befal the cur­
rency must be foreseen by a thorough analysis of the elements which
form the foreign exchanges of the country ; and that a season of pros­
perity, and extended domestic trade, is often apt to terminate in a drain
of specie from abroad. At these moments it is that a national bank can
do good by exercising a counteractive power over the circulation in a
' system of steady and uniform preparation at all exposed points at once.
This system necessarily bears upon the state banks at those points, and
turns their attention to the expediency of following suit. The machine
of credit, then, moves harmoniously, and the danger apprehended is thus
in a way to be avoided. But if there were two or three national insti­
tutions, with each a different head and management, and each directed
from a different point, as, for instance, from New York, Philadelphia, and
New Orleans ; it may be doubted whether the president of the New Or­
leans bank would see the state of the currency with the same eyes that
he of Philadelphia did, or whether the latter would be always prepared
to concur with his rival in New York. Hence, a difference in policy,
and the fatal consequences of a disagreement. One institution would
rapidly undo the work of the other, and the State banks, thus freed from
restraint, would act exactly as they pleased ; and the currency would be
left to its fate, very much after the same fashion that it now is, when
there is no national bank at all.
The great want of the country, then, is of some single power which
shall think of the state of the currency, and of that only, and which shall
always keep itself prepared to act in cases of emergency. This power
should not be entirely under the control of the commercial interest, though
it ought to sympathize with i t ; and it should be wholly separated from
political influence of any kind. Nothing but the very highest grade of
personal integrity should be called into the management, — no suspicion
of personal interest should be admitted ;— above all, politicians of every
denomination should be rigidly excluded from either the direction or the
participation of the favors of the institution. This may seem harsh and
unreasonable, but it is indispensable. The currency has suffered too
much already from the connexion that has been made between finance
and general politics. The two should be kept separate ; not, to be sure,
in the manner contemplated by the present government of sacrificing the
one to the other, but by preventing any collision between them. The
commercial division of the country ask nothing better than to be let alone.
In consideration of the advantages they would derive from a sound cur­
rency and a well regulated system of exchange, they would almost too
readily consent to retire from the field of political action ; and in so doing,
they would be more likely to be benefitting the community in their par­
ticular province, than those mock patriots ever can, who combine, so very
closely, the professions of attachment to the people’s interest, with the
most active zeal in promoting their own. A respectable merchant, who
minds his own business, is a better and more useful man than a factious
president. And an upright and independent bank direction, out of poli­
tics, would promote the good of the nation much more than any partyridden house of Congress.




Commercial Sketch o f Boston.

CHRONICLES
A rt . III. — COMMERCIAL

OF

125

COMMERCE.

SKETCH OF BOSTON, W ITH
STATISTICAL FACTS, AND NOTICES OF EM INENT
MERCHANTS.
T he state of Massachusetts, it is well known, was settled by the puritans
in the early part of the seventeenth century; men of stern minds and great
inflexibility of purpose, who abandoned their native country, and sought in
the wilderness for that religious toleration, which was denied them at home.
There they reared their temples to the Almighty, and worshipped, as they
believed, in the manner most primitive and apostolic, abjuring all such rites
and ceremonies as conflicted with their peculiar tenets. From the com­
mencement, the settlers were men of different classes and occupations in
life, and some of them were traders or merchants, and naturally turned
their attention to those pursuits to which they had been accustomed.
Others were mechanics, but the larger portion were cultivators of the soil.
In September, 1628, two years after the first company settled at Salem,,
the number of inhabitants exceeded two thousand; the greater part of these
arrived with Winthrop, in June, 1630, and settled at Charlestown, Watertown, Boston, Dorchester, and Roxbury. So large was the annual increase,
that, including the few removed to Hartford and New Haven, the population
of Massachusetts, in 1641, amounted to twenty-one thousand. This would
justify, and naturally excite, the commercial spirit, and the inhabitants
were too active and enterprising to leave the trade of the colony in the
hands of the British merchants. In the first eleven or twelve years, dating
back from its earliest settlement, two hundred ships had arrived at Boston
and Salem, with large quantities of goods and provisions, of various kinds and as we have before remarked, bringing large numbers of emigrants, toencourage and strengthen the earlier adventurers; and we find them soon
competing with the English merchants for the trade of the colony. Ves­
sels were early purchased for this purpose, and employed in voyages tothe West Indies, and to Great Britain. Several were built for the coast­
ing trade to'Virginia, returning with cargoes of com— and one ship of
three hundred tons, for more distant voyages. Governor Winthrop early
had one built of a smaller size, and one was built at Plymouth, by sub­
scription among the inhabitants.
Maverick, who was settled on an island, or more properly a peninsula,
in Boston harbor, now called East Boston, was among the first who
turned his attention to navigation; and, on the arrival of Winthrop and:
his company, in 1630, was a merchant, and the owner of a small vessel
engaged in the West India trade.
Edward Gibbonsbecame connected with him at an early period, and visit­
ed the islands for the purposes of trade. They also traded with the French
near the bay of Fundy, where the French had two places fortified and a con­
siderable settlement; but Gibbons, trusting De La Tour, a French resident
there, with goods to a large amount, which he had imported from the West
Indies, and purchased of British merchants, trading to Boston; by the fail­
ure of De La Tour to pay, Gibbons became embarrassed, and eventually
a bankrupt, when he was somewhat advanced in life. Gibbons appears
always to have sustained a high reputation, as he was a representative
for Boston in the general court, for several years, and commander in
chief, under the governor, of the militia of Massachusetts.
As population increased, commerce and navigation became extended.



126

Chronicles o f Commerce.

Twenty or thirty years before the settlement of Boston, say from 1600 to
1610, the English and French had engrossed the fisheries on the coast of
Massachusetts and Maine, and large quantities were taken and exported to
the West Indies, and to Europe; but in twenty years after the first settle­
ment of Boston, they engaged in an active competition in the fisheries; and
furs, to a large amount, were sent to Europe, and disposed of at handsome
profits. Sarsaparilla was also shipped to England, and found a ready
market, on account of its supposed medicinal qualities, and the charm of
novelty attached to the early shipment of the article. But, with all their
exertions, the balance of trade could not be otherwise than in favor of the
mother country, and the colonial merchants, from want of adequate capital,
being obliged to purchase on credit, and at high prices, realized far less
profits on their adventures, than their British competitors.
From the first settlement of the colony, carpenters, masons, and smiths,
were sufficiently numerous for ordinary purposes, but most articles, com­
posed of iron and steel, were imported from necessity. Shoemakers and
feltmakers were few, and shoes and hats were imported in large quantities.
The manners of the inhabitants at that time were simple, and their means
small— they had not the taste or the ability for the luxurious indulgences
of modern times; and the demand for many foreign articles now considered
indispensable, was necessarily very limited. Wine was used sparingly, silks
were worn by few, and mere ornamental articles, always the most expensive,
were very nearly, if not wholly, proscribed. In fact, a law was long in force,
prohibiting the common people from wearing gold and silver lace, &c.
The rapid growth and prosperous state of the colony, in its steady and ad­
vancing steps in trade and navigation, was perceived with a spirit of rivalry
and dislike by the mother country, and measures were taken to arrest its pro­
gress by the passage of the navigation laws in the British parliament. As
early as 1661, on the restoration of Charles the Second, this spirit began its
odious manifestation, and the idea of ra ising a revenue, by duties on the com­
merce of the colonies, wasfirst developed. The court of Great Britain, pro­
fligate and needy, wanted money; and though the colonies in New England
had never been nurtured by the parent government, or received any favors
or indulgences from the crown, and had borne all the expenses of their early
settlement, and defence against the Indian tribes, it was thought politic to tax
the industry and enterprise of those whom their wants of conciliation, in
matters purely of a spiritual nature, had driven to take shelter in a wilder­
ness, there to raise their altars to religious liberty, and to worship God, as
they believed, in spirit and in truth. These laws were extensively evaded
for a long time, and gave rise to a practice generally destructive to public
morals, and only justifiable by the injustice of the requisition. Smuggling
was extensively practised, the duties enjoined were not paid, and the prac­
tice justified on the ground of oppression and injustice, in taxing the
colonies for the support of a government, who demanded every thing and
yielded nothing, and gave them no protection. Besides, it was asserted
that their charter recognised, or at least inferred, the exclusive right of
the colonial assembly to lay taxes and duties on the colonists, as there
they had a voice in the representation, which they had not in the British
parliament, and there was reason and justice in the plea; but whenever
the power of the mother country could enforce the law, it was carried
into execution, and the fatal foundation laid for the loss to the British
empire of one of the brightest jewels of the crown.
During the civil war in England, and the protectorship of Cromwell, the
colonial trade was entirely free, and the commerce of the country increased



Commercial Sketch o f Boston.

127

as its resources were developed, and they paid no duties on their products
exported to Great Britain; but from 1675, the British navigation acts
were strictly enforced, and often illegal fees were exacted by the arbitrary
Randolph.
Among the earlier merchants in Boston, we may also name Keayne,
Usher, Vassall, Newgate, Hibbins, Tyng, and Richards; and in the former
part of the last century, Belcher, Hutchinson, Savage, Brattle, Welles,
Cheekley, Winthrop, and Fitch. In Plymouth, were Allerton, Hatherby,
Paddy, Attwood, Doane, and W illett; in Salem, Hawthorne, Brown, and
the Rev. Hugh Peters encouraged navigation arid trade.
So'much, however, were the colonists attached to trade, that notwith­
standing the duties on commerce were often vexatious, and always a
subject of complaint, yet many of the inhabitants, allured by the gainful
pursuits, and indisposed to part with the conveniences procured by its
means, continued to engage in it under all its restrictions and taxes, up
to the time of the revolution.
Some adequate idea may be formed of the rapid growth of the New' Eng­
land colonies, from the following extract from New England entries, in the
plantation office in England, in 1673, which we find in one of the volumes
of the Massachusetts Historical Society: — “ One hundred and twenty thou­
sand souls, sixteen thousand capable of bearing arms; thirteen thousand fa­
milies; twelve ships of between two hundred and one hundred tons; one hun­
dred and ninety between twenty and one hundred tons; five hundred fishing
vessels, (many of these only large boats of six to eight tons.”) The greater
part of these belonged to Boston, some to Salem, and a part to New Haven.
At this period, and for nearly half a century after, the greater portion of
foreign goods and products, imported into the New England states, were
landed at Boston, and were for account of the merchants at that place, ex­
cepting only a portion shipped for sale on British account. From thence
they were transported to Plymouth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hamp­
shire, and Maine; but Boston early became the central point of trade and
navigation, and increased rapidly during the period we have just mentioned.
The rigid deportment introduced by the first settlers, and followed by
their descendants, under the influence of increasing wealth, now began to
give way to more courtesy of manner, and greater luxury and refinement in
living, and more display in dress and furniture. It was, however, of a dif­
ferent description to the fashionable demeanor of the present day; which,
in attempting to be easy, often oversteps the bounds of propriety and
decorum; for it was exhibited in that profound courtesy and respect, and
that deference to the opinions of others, and that reciprocal and delicate
attention, which marked the finished gentleman of the sixteenth century,
and which left an impress on the manners and habits of the citizens of
Boston, which has never been obliterated.
The merchants then, as now, were justly praised for liberal sentiments,
and their patronage of the fine arts— of literary, charitable, and religious
institutions— and several of them were early donors to Harvard College. It
may gratify curiosity to quote further from the work we have j ust mentioned.
“ There were ten to fifteen merchants whose aggregate property amounted
to £50,000, or about £5,000 each— five h undred persons worth £3,000 each
— 1,500 families, then in Boston, containing about eight individuals each,
or about 12,000 inhabitants, nearly a tenth part of the population of New
England. No house in Boston with more than twenty rooms; some of
these were probably very small, sufficient only for a single bed— not more
than twenty houses with ten rooms. The poorest cottages are lofty, (so that



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Chronicles o f Commerce.

a man could stand upright without stooping, probably.) No beggars —
very few drunkards; (the striped pig was then unknown.) No musicians
by profession— a dancing school was set up but soon put down. All cord­
age and sail cloth came from England— no cloth made worth more than
3s. 6d. a yard— no linen above 2s. 6d.” As early as 1710, Boston pos­
sessed two fire engines, how much before that period does riot appear;
but at that time there were five iron works in the state of Massachusetts,
and some of them had been in operation for thirty years.
The following naive reply of a committee of the General Court of Con­
necticut, to the inquiries of the British Commissioners for the trade of the
colonies, is here preserved for the gratification of the curious in such
matters, and as giving additional light on the early trade of the colonies :
“ We have little traffic abroad— our chief trade for procuring clothing is
by sending provisions to Boston, where we buy goods— and we have some
trade, also, with Plymouth, and with New York, since the arrival of Major
Andros. Our commodities are provisions, lumber, and horses; — the most
are transported to Boston and bartered for clothing;— some small quantity
is sent to the Caribbee islands, and sold for some money, but chiefly products.
Two or three vessels have been sent to Fayal and to Madeira, and the car­
goes bartered for wine. We have no need of Virginia trade, as most people
plant as much tobacco as they want. The value of our annual imports is
£9,000. We have about twenty petty merchants who trade to Boston, but
foreign merchants trade here. There are but few servants— and fewer
slaves;— only twenty-four small vessels belong to this colony; and few
vessels come here except from Boston and New York, to carry off our pro­
duce. Commerce would improve if New London, New Haven, and Fairfield were made free ports. Labor is high, 2s. to 2s. 6d. a day. Provisions
are cheap; wheat, 4s., corn, 2s. 6d., pork, 3d., beef, 2 |d ., butter, 6d.”
The period of 1690, and 1745, afford proof of the extent of the shipping
belonging to the port of Boston, and the attention bpstowed on navigation.
In 1690, when an armed expedition was fitted out against Quebec; and 1745,
when Louisbourg was attacked and taken, Boston furnished a large number
of vessels, either armed or as transports. We may go farther back, and
state, that in 1667, when a British fleet in the West Indies was in distress,
the people of Boston, by consent of the General Court, sent several vessels,
loaded with provisions, for their relief, and some with masts and spars.
Amidst their other pursuits, the science of legislation was not neglected;
and by a happy adaptation, it seemed that the most enterprising and expe­
rienced merchants and navigators made the best and most efficient mem­
bers of the General Court, and were the best qualified to decide the
differences arising among a population composed of agriculturists,
mechanics, merchants, and sailors; and there was that blending of all
classes, and that freedom of intercourse, and expression of opinion, which
has always formed such a distinguishing trait of New England manners.
Their legislators, taken from among themselves, were not only more satis­
factory to the people, but better understood, and could, therefore, better
provide for the protection and encouragement of branches of business
with which they were practically acquainted, and prescribe rules for a
people with whom they were in familiar intercourse.
The business of ship-building was pursued at an early period of the set­
tlement. At one time it appears that there were twenty-seven places for ship­
building in Boston only, and sixty ships a year were built, twelve in one
yard. In Salem, and other places, this lucrative occupation was pursued,
and a large number of persons found occupation, as carpenters, smiths,



Commercial Restrictions.

129

caulkers, and spar-makers. Naval stores were exported to some extent, but
salted codfish and lumber were the principal articles of export; and continue,
particularly the former, to be the great staple articles for exportation. The
best cured fish was shipped to Portugal, Spain, and the Italian States,
Catholic countries always affording the best market. Those not so well
cured were sent td the West India islands, where it was used chiefly by the
negro slaves and laborers. The cod-fishery, in 1760-65, employed 4,000
seamen, 28,000 tons of shipping, and produced 350,000 quintals of fish,
the value of which was estimated at a little over a million of dollars.
In 1750, the number of vessels entering the port of Boston was four
hundred and ninety, foreign and American; the clearances, five hundred
and four. The entrances were chiefly vessels with cargoes from Great
Britain and the West Indies; but a number were from ports in Portugal
and Spain. From this period, to 1773, there does not appear to have
been much, if any, increase; certainly not as much as the growth of the
country would lead us to expect. If is stated that in 1773 five hundred
and eighty-seven vessels entered the port of Boston, and four hundred
and eleven cleared; a pretty even balance with 1750.
The impolitic measure of deriving revenue for the mother country, by
duties on the trade of the colonies, was most unhappily persisted in by the
British government. The duties were increased, and the collection rigidly
enforced, which probably discouraged many enterprising men from engag­
ing in commerce, and may satisfactorily account for the stationary situation
of Boston in regard to foreign trade, from 1750 to 1773. Complaints of
alleged oppressions, grievances, and interferences with the rights of the
colonial government, became loud and frequent. As early as 1764, the
duty on molasses and sugar, imported into the colonies, was increased
so much as to amount, almost, to a prohibition. Molasses was then in
general use in the distilleries, and by the fishermen. The duty on tea,
nails, glass, and paints, was also raised, and operated as a heavy burthen
on the people. To enforce these oppressive and odious exactions, troops
were stationed in Boston, and Parliament asserted the right of legislating
for the colonies in all cases. The spirif of resistance was roused, and
after eight years of sacrifice, suffering, and fierce and bloody contention,
national independence followed.
For a period of 150 years the British government not only had neglected
and declined all support to Massachusetts, and the other New England
colonies, but had directly oppressed and restrained them in their trade, and
greatly checked their growth and prosperity. Besides the weight of im­
posts laid upon them by the parent State, which pressed heavily on the in­
fant colonies, they were arbitrarily restricted in their commercial enterprises,
and could no more avail themselves of favorable channels for lucrative trade,
than a fettered man could perform the profitable labor of which he is natu­
rally capable. This restrictive, injurious, and unjust policy, towards the
colonies, was adopted at an early period. In 1699, it was enacted by Par­
liament, that no wool yarn, or woollen manufactures, of the American colo­
nies, should be exported from them to anyplace whatever. In 1719, they
declared “ that factories in the colonies tended to lessen their dependence on
England.” A few years later, some envious individuals complained to the
British ministry, that the colonists were not only extending their trade, but
setting up manufactures, which must prove prejudicial to the interests of the
parent country; and the Board of Trade was soon directed to learn what
laws had been made respectingmanufactures in operation in the colonies, or
VOL. i . — NO. II.
17



130

Chronicles o f Commerce.

allowed trade to be pursued injurious to the trade, navigation, or manufac­
tures of Great Britain. These laws and orders were directed principally
against Boston and Massachusetts; here, commercial enterprise and manu­
factures had been most successful, and were encouraged and pursued.
The next year, the board reported, “ that the general court of Massa­
chusetts encouraged the manufacture of paper, which will interfere with
the profits of the British merchants who send paper there.” “ Many fami­
lies make coarse woollen and linen cloths for their own use; but this
seems proper, as they keep sheep and raise flax; yet, it were to be wished
that some way may be devised to divert them from increasing their manu­
factures.” It is stated in the report, “ that hats and shoes were made to a
considerable extent, though many of the former were imported.” Hats
were exported from Boston long before the revolution, to Spain, Portugal,
and the West India islands ; of which the company o f hatters complained,
and their complaints were not disregarded. An act was thereupon passed,
which forbade the exportation of hats from any American colony, and
limited the number of apprentices for hatters; and the same law pro­
hibited the sale in one colony of hats made in another.
Several iron works which had been long in operation in Massachusetts,
were declared a nuisance, and parliament ordered that no mill or engine
for slitting or rolling be erected or used; but allowed pig and bar iron
to be imported into London from the colonies. By these, and such like
acts of impolicy and oppression, the minds of the people in Massachusetts
and the other provinces were alienated from the mother country, and
prepared for the successful resistance of the tyrannical acts of the British
parliament, which ended in the establishment of their rights, and the
overthrow of the attempts made to enslave them.
Soon after the war of the revolution, and as early as 1785 or 1786, com­
merce revived, and the navigation of Boston and other ports of Massa­
chusetts was greatly extended. The trade with the West Indies was pro­
secuted by many with great advantage; but Salem, Newburyport, and Port­
land, considering their relative population, were more extensively engaged
in it than Boston. The principal articles of export were lumber and fish,
and occasionally horses; the returns consisted of sugar, molasses, rum, cof­
fee, salt, and fruit. The quantity of molasses imported was very great, and
distilleries were multiplied ; but happily for the morals, comfort, and re­
spectability of the people, they have been generally discountenanced within
a few years. The trade to the Mediterranean, to Spain, to Portugal, to
France, Holland, the Hanse Towns, and places farther up the Baltic;
and to England, as commerce revived and capital accumulated, was pro­
secuted with increased zeal. The cod-fishery was resumed, and pursued,
in most of the seaports in Massachusetts, extensively, and with great
success. It continued for several years, and furnished an article for ex­
portation to various points, and was one source of national wealth.
In 1789, vessels were sent from Boston to the East Indies, and to China,
and soon became a very profitable commercial enterprise. In proportion
to its population, Salem took the lead of Boston in the East, as it had done
in the West India trade. Teas, silks, nankins and other cotton cloths,
sugar, coffee, and spices, were imported ; and cargoes of East India pro­
ducts were, by the enterprising merchants of Salem and Boston, exported
to ports in the north of Europe. Ginseng formed part of the cargoes ship­
ped to the East Indies, but specie, generally silver current coin, was sent
to a large amount to Canton and Calcutta, &c., &c. The merchants who




Notices o f Em inent Merchants.

131

first engaged in the East India trade at Salem, were, Derby, Gray,
Cabot, Thorndike, and Crowninshield.
The eminent mathematician, Nathaniel Bowditch, made two voyages
to the East Indies in 1795 and 1796; on the first, he was twenty-two
years of age. He was then a great proficient in nautical calculation, and
perfectly acquainted with the science of navigation. Being very indus­
trious, he instructed the seamen of the ships in the science of navigation,
of which most of the common hands were ignorant.
Derby’s first ship to China was in 1787. Mr. Gray was more engaged
in trade to Calcutta. Mr. Derby’s ship visited the Isles of France and
Bourbon, Batavia, Calcutta, and it is believed the vicinity of the Red Sea.
Among the earliest in the East India trade, at Boston, were Messrs. J.
Barrell, S. Brown, D. Sears, T. Lyman, J. &T. H. Perkins, S. Higginson,
S. Shaw, J. Lloyd, the Messrs. Lee, and E. Prebble; and among others
who were esteemed for intelligence and enterprise as merchants, were
Messrs. Thomas Russell, J. C. Jones, S. Eliot, Mason, Smith, Phillips,
Cabot, Parsons, Mackey, Green, Andrews, Breck, Jackes, Babcock, Wat­
son, Sears, Sargeant, Doane, Brown, Parkman, Hatch, Joy, Bussy, Fra­
zier, and Head, some of whom had been in business before the revolution.
Thomas Russell was one of the most enterprising and successful mer­
chants of Boston, from 1786 to 1798. His charities were great, and he
was a friend to the clergy and to religious institutions. He was for
many years a member of the church in Brattle Square, and president of
the society for spreading the Gospel among the Indians.
Mr. Phillips acquired a large property by honorable trade, and by a
very liberal donation laid the foundation for the Massachusetts General
Hospital, a most useful institution; and his son, late lieutenant governor
W. Phillips, added largely to the original donation.
The Boston Athenseum buildings were the gift of one of the Messrs.
Perkins; and the large house in the city, for the blind, of another of
those liberal, spirited merchants.
The honorable James Lloyd was probably one of the most intelligent
merchants in the country. He well understood the principles, its course,
and operation, in his time. He extended his views to politics, and was emi­
nent also as a legislator. The law of the Commonwealth, on bills of ex­
change, passed in 1819, was framed by him, and adopted through his influ­
ence, and he was several years a useful member of the U. States Senate.
J. C. Jones was a merchant of extensive and liberal views, and was
also for several years a member of the legislature. We might embrace
many others, but our biographical remarks must he restrained, and we
have already exceeded the limits which ought to confine them.
The first ship which sailed from Boston to China, was built at Hart’s
ship-yard, in Boston, in 1785 or 1786, and was owned part in Boston and
part in New York. She was commanded by James Magee, who was cap­
tain of the ship of war wrecked in Plymouth harbor, in 1779 ; and it is be­
lieved she took her final departure from New York. The following year,
Messrs. Barrell, Brown, Hatch, and others, sent the ship Columbia, Captain
Kendrick, attended by the sloop Washington, Captain Gray, to the North
West Coast, and thence to China. On their voyage, they visited the
mouth of the Oregon, on the Pacific, which they called Columbia, after
their ship. This was a long voyage. S. Shaw and Doane were engaged
in the China trade; the former was the first American consul at China.
In 1790, Messrs. J. and T. H. Perkins fitted out the brig Hope, Cap­
tain Ingraham, for the North West Coast, to collect peltry, for the China



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Chronicles o f Commerce.

market. In this voyage, Captain Ingraham discovered several islands,
in about eight degrees fifty minutes south, and one hundred and forty
west from London, not noticed by any nautical adventurer, or in any map
of the Pacific ocean. To these he gave the names of Washington, Adams,
Lincoln, and Federal; and a few days after, in eight degrees three min­
utes south, and one hundred and forty-one west, two others, which he
called Hancock and Knox. These enterprising merchants have from that
time pursued the China trade. They have long had a house in Canton,
one or more of the firm usually residing there, and for more than forty
years they have had one or more ships there every year. Theodore
Lyman, Messrs. Lamb, Boardman, and Pope, and many others, engaged
in the China trade, and some of them are still, or were very lately, em­
ployed in it. The trade to China was pursued far more extensively in
Boston, for several years, and till the war of 1812-T5, than from any
other port in the United States. The Messrs. Perkins, it is believed,
were interested in more than thirty voyages round the world, going by
the way of Cape Horn to the North West Coast of America, in search
of peltry, for the Canton market, and thence returning to Boston and
New York, with China goods.
Messrs. Bryant and Sturges, of Boston, have been long and largely
concerned in these last-mentioned voyages. Much time is necessarily
absorbed in their accomplishment; the hazard is also great, but they
have generally been profitable.
We have already mentioned that ginseng and specie were the princi­
pal articles of export to the East Indies. The former was shipped in
small quantities from Boston and Salem, and in larger from New York
and Philadelphia. Specie formed the principal dependence for return
cargoes from Canton, and $600,000 have been sent out in one ship.
Assorted cargoes of lumber and provisions, &c. were sent to many places
beyond the Cape of Good Hope.
It is curious to mark the changes which time works in trade. For­
merly, a part of the return cargoes from Canton were coarse cotton cloths.
Now, and for some years past, cotton cloths are shipped from Boston for
Calcutta and Canton. They usually cost here from eight to ten cents
per yard, and have been exported to a large amount. They are found,
in most cases, a better remittance than dollars, or bills of exchange.
“ When I was in China, in 1790,” said a gentleman largely engaged in
the trade for a long period, “ I purchased, as part of my adventure home,
cotton shirtings, at four times the cost at which such cloths are hence
furnished to the Celestial Empire.”
“ We have to contend,” he added, “ with British competition in the
China market; but as we use a superior raw material for the same num­
ber of goods, and make them heavier than the long cloths of England,
I think we shall continue to export.” On the same authority we may
state, “ that in some years, the American trade to China has caused the
exportation of four to five millions of dollars annually in specie; but, at
the present time, very little is sent there, and that for the purchase of
rice, at Batavia and Manilla, for the Canton market.
Very few American vessels have visited any ports in the island of Japan.
The Dutch usually send an annual ship from Batavia, as they are the
only European nation permitted to trade there. Whale ships sometimes
put in for provisions and water, but the crew are not allowed any inter­
course with the inhabitants. In 1798, Messrs. Perkins sent a ship to
Batavia, for coffee, and she was taken up by the Dutch, as the annual



Trade and Manufactures o f Boston.

133

ship to Java. The cargo was sugar, and the ship carried back to Batavia
pig copper and camphor. In 1801, they fitted out a large ship to Java,
which was taken up there by the Dutch, and made a similar voyage to
the other; and soon after, a vessel was sent from Salem on a like voyage.
These are supposed the only vessels from Massachusetts to that jealous
people. One belonging to Baltimore, called the “ Samuel Smith,” also
visited that island. Captain Hutchings, of the Massachusetts, went to
the residence of the governor, but he observed nothing which differed
much from the customs and manners of the Chinese.
■ In one of the volumes of the collections of the Historical Society of
Massachusetts, it is mentioned, under date of 1794, that the manufactures
in Boston were candles, soap, rum, loaf sugar, cordage, duck, lines and
twine, cards, combs, fish-hooks, stained paper, glass, stoneware, and
chocolate. The manufacture of some of these articles was on a larger
scale than before the revolution; they were also made with more facility
and of a better quality. There were in 1794 more than thirty distilleries
in Boston; twenty of them in operation to manufacture poison “ for the
comfort of the poor and laboring people.” At present, there are but few,
probably not over one fourth of that number. Then the population was
twenty-four thousand; now it is eighty thousand. The writer of the
article says, “ it is contended this manufacture is a public benefit, as it
adds to the revenue ; but many consider it a public evil, and that it tends
to prevent population, and greatly injures the morals of the p e o p l e —
he adds, “ the bad effects of the free use of distilled spirits are very
apparent on the morals of the inhabitants, and the attendants on it are
idleness, debility, poverty, disgrace, and crime.” It is an important
question, whether this prevailing evil may not be greatly restrained by
the interference of legislative authority.
There were at that time seven establishments for refining sugar, and
fourteen rope-walks. A duck manufactory was established near the
south side of the common, and sail cloth of durable quality and texture
was made, said to be-superior to the canvass imported from Europe, and
cheaper. In 1792, four hundred hands were employed in this manu­
facture, a portion of them females.
Paper staining was extensively followed, and a sufficiency prepared
for home use, and some was exported; before the revolution, it was
chiefly imported.
Within a few miles of Boston, the following articles were made : Tow
cloth, cotton and linen shirtings and sheetings, checks, thread, bed ticks,
striped flannels, cotton and worsted hose, gloves, diapers, Ac. &c., and
sent to Boston for sale.
There was always an extensive trade between Boston and the southern
states; for a large quantity of corn and flour for the sea-port towns in Mas­
sachusetts was imported from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, &c., &c.;
and this intercourse was not without its benefits, in a social and political
point of view, as a union was more readily effected, when the contest
with Great Britain called for the formation of the federal union.
In 1784 the first banking company was formed in Boston, and called
the Massachusetts Bank. A national bank had been established in Phila­
delphia, in 1781, under the direction and control of Congress. The
charter of the Massachusetts Bank had no limitation as to time, and little
or none as to management. And the bills in circulation, before any
other bank was incorporated, were of great extent.



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Chronicles o f Commerce.

In 1790 the federal government incorporated a national bank at Phila­
delphia, the former one being discontinued ; and a branch of that bank,
for discount and deposit, was opened in Boston in 1792.
The Union Bank was established in Boston in 1798, as it was said at the
time, for the accommodation of the agricultural interest. From 1800 to
1832, banking institutions were greatly multiplied— there being no less
than thirty banks in Boston, including those in South Boston, and making
no allowance for the five which were discontinued in 1827-8.
The incorporated companies for insurance on property, by sea and land,
and against fire, are about equal in number to the banks. Commercial
enterprise and prosperity have been the leading causes of the increase of
these corporations, and have resulted in an enlargement and improvement
of the city of Boston, within the last forty-five years, in a ratio which
could not have been accomplished without it. The city of Boston would
otherwise have slowly advanced in population, wealth, and social refine­
ment, and the state of Massachusetts would have been far less respecta­
ble and powerful in 1740, or in 1775, than it was, when compared with
the other American provinces. The soil is generally rocky, or sterile,
and unfitted to afford great returns to the labor of the husbandman,
(though a better system of cultivation, pursued of late years, proves that
greater products may be gathered from it than it was supposed capable
of producing,) and the, inhabitants have been generally indebted to com­
merce for their opulence and improvement.
The establishment of the federal government proved highly propitious
to the commercial interest of Boston. Freedom breathed new life into
commercial pursuits, and nautical enterprises were greatly extended by
her ship-owners. A large number of vessels were built in 1790, here,
and in the ports adjacent; and mechanics, of all descriptions, found con­
stant and lucrative employment. Within the last half century, Boston
has greatly increased in population, business, and wealth; from 15,000
in 1783, and 18,000 in 1790, to 80,000 in 1838. The buildings are now
generally composed of brick and granite. The dwelling-houses are spa­
cious and elegant, and many large and splendid public edifices have been
erected ; and the streets have been straightened, widened, and improved.
Large tracts of land, where the tide waters formerly flowed, have been
redeemed, and are now covered with buildings. Bridges have been
built, so that there are now seven avenues to the city, from the country,
where formerly there was only one. The wharves have been extended
and increased, so that there is probably double the number of feet, at
present, to that the city possessed thirty-five years since. The carrying
trade has proved very profitable to the merchants, and a great many ves­
sels are employed in it. A large branch of this business is in the freight
of cotton from Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans,* to Europe,
employing ships of from three hundred to six hundred tons burthen.
According to Pitkin, the tonnage of Boston, in 1832, amounted to 171,045;
next to New York, the highest in the United States. Philadelphia, at
* The trade with New Orleans has greatly increased within a few years. The im­
portations from New Orleans, into Boston, for three months, ending March 31st,
amounted to 2,489,000 dollars ; many cargoes of cotton being brought to Boston for
the supply of the manufacturing establishments in the interior of the country. The
mercantile intercourse with New York has been vastly extended within twenty years,
and must be followed by advantageous results to both cities. It is found that the trade
is mutually beneficial; and the single fact that instead of forty-eight or sixty hours’
time on the way, between those places, the distance is now passed in fifteen hours,
must be highly favorable, and be a strong inducement to increase the intercourse.



Mercantile Biography.

135

that time, was 77,000 ; New Bedford, 70,000 ; Baltimore and Portland,
each, 47,000. The imports into Massachusetts, chiefly Boston,-in 1821,
were nearly fifteen millions; into New York, twenty-three and a half
millions of dollars. In 1833 it was twenty millions in Massachusetts,
and eighty millions into New York.
The rail-roads, connecting Boston more easily with Lowell, Salem,
Haverhill, Nashua, Worcester, Providence, and Taunton, have added
greatly to the business and prosperity of the city; and when that to
Worcester shall be extended to the Connecticut river, and through the
western part of the state to Albany, the growth and prosperity of Boston
must be great, beyond calculation. There is also a plan in Boston for
a direct intercourse with Liverpool, (England,) by steain navigation.
The project has excited a great deal of interest, and its importance is
appreciated by intelligent and enterprising men.
We have dwelt longer on these reminiscences and statistical facts than
perhaps the patience of our readers will make allowance for. We there­
fore close with the hope, that with so much to be thankful for to the past, and
with so much to anticipate from the future, that her merchants, and all en­
gaged in trade, will bear constantly in mind, that to deserve their high des­
tiny, they must continue to pursue the path of honor, enterprise, and integ­
rity, so firmly trod by their predecessors. And we wish that they may al­
ways be pointed to as the honorable and intelligent of our country, and that
luxury and extravagance, and licentiousness of manners, too often prevail­
ing in large and old cities, may be unknown; while scientific, literary, hu­
mane, and charitable institutions, may be liberally supported and multiplied.

MERCANTILE

BIOGRAPHY.

A rt. IV .— THOMAS W ILLETT, THE FIR ST MAYOR

OF

N EW YORK.
M ercantile biography properly claims a place in a work of this de­
scription, where every thing that can excite the young to an honorable emu­
lation should be set forth; that seeing how a consistent and praiseworthy
line of conduct has elevated those who have preceded them, they may, in
turn, endeavor to transmit a fair and untarnished name to posterity.
T homas W illett, the first mayor of the city of New York, after its

delivery over to the English by the Dutch authorities, in 1664, was origi­
nally a merchant or trader. As a man, he was possessed of uncommon
activity of mind, and deeply imbued with the spirit of enterprise and
adventure. He was one of the early settlers at Plymouth, but not among
the first. He was there, however, as early as 1640, and appears to have
been justly appreciated, and to have possessed a great deal of influence,
as, after a few years’ residence, he was chosen one of the assistants in
council, a post, at that early period, of much honor and responsibility.
Immediately on his arrival, he appears to have turned his attention to
commerce and navigation, as he was one of twelve who built the first
vessel at Plymouth, in 1641. She was about fifty tons, and cost about
£200 sterling; and Willett was one of the committee to superintend the
building of the vessel. With a few enterprising spirits like his own, he
formed a company, and hired, for the colonial government, the Cape Cod
fishery, the proceeds of which were applied to the public expenses, and




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Mercantile Biography.

at one time appropriated to the support of common schools in the colony.
He early formed a connexion in business with Isaac Allertorj, one of the
first settlers of Plymouth, and among the most respectable and honorable
of the pilgrims, as they are now termed. Allerton was sent to England
several times, as agent for the colonies, which he also made to promote
his views, as connected with commerce, in the colony. Willett and
Allerton traded, for several years, with the French in Acadie, and with
the vessels from Europe engaged in the Maine fisheries. Allerton after­
wards traded at New Amsterdam, and the probability is that Willett was
concerned with him. Willett was one of the committee who, in 1655,
purchased Agawam, (now Wareham,) in Buzzard’s Bay, of the Indians,
for the town of Plymouth. There had been, for years, carried on an active
trading intercourse from this point with the Dutch at Manhattoes; and
the enterprising spirit of Willett, who had early and often engaged in it,
as well as his friend Allerton, led him to detect and appreciate its value.*
Of all the residents in the colony, with the exception of Willett, Allerton
appears to have been the most devoted to commerce; but devoting too
much of his time to carrying out his plans, as connected with the trade
of the colony, he lost the confidence of the Plymouth court, in conse­
quence of which he removed to, and resided some time at Marblehead,
Nantucket, near the entrance of Boston harbor, and afterwards, between
1645 and 1655, at New Haven, from whence he pursued the trade with
New Amsterdam, and died at New Haven.
The Commissioners appointed by Charles II. to act as a Court of Ap­
peals, for the settlement of all disputes between the colonial government
and individuals who had complained of unjust and arbitrary treatment,
arrived at Boston in 1664. They visited Plymouth — Rhode Island —
and New York, then in possession of the Dutch. A part of their instruc­
tions was to raise troops in New England, to take possession of New
York by force, as it was pretended that the English had the best right
to 'it. At Plymouth, the Commissioners were received with more courtesy,
respect, and consideration, than in Massachusetts; and they requested
some one to attend them from Plymouth to the Manhattoes. Thomas
Willett, who had often been there, and was well acquainted with the
place and the people, their language, customs, and manners, and highly
esteemed for intelligence and fidelity in every thing which he undertook,
was recommended to the Commissioners as the most suitable person to
attend them, and on the surrender of New Amsterdam into the hands of
the British Commissioners, they appointed him the Mayor, a strong
proof of his capability, and popular talents, and address;— and he ap­
pears to have possessed a singular aptitude for business, as, preceding
his joining the Commissioners, he had, for thirteen years, viz., from 1651
to 1664, been one of the Executive Council of Plymouth colony, at the
very time he was most actively engaged in commercial pursuits. After
remaining for several years in New York, he returned to his estates
near Bristol, where he owned a large tract of land, where he died. His
grave-stone was lately, and, perhaps, may still be seen on the land he
possessed when living; but the rage of modern improvement sweeps away
the memorials of the dead, to clear the ground for the palaces of the living.
* Willett had also pushed his traffic as far as the Delaware, where there was a con­
siderable settlement, composed partly of Swedes, who had early fixed their abode there,
before the settlement of Maryland by Calvert.




137

The Good Merc/iant.

The materials for a biography of Thomas Willett are but spare, nor
have we time to expand them, or to become his eulogist. His prominent
characteristics were intelligence, enterprise, and fidelity, traits most hon­
orable to a m an; and his success as a merchant shows that he was pos­
sessed of prudence and foresight, wanting which, the very essentials of
prosperity are absent — they form the foundation; without them, how­
ever imposing the edifice may, for a time, appear, it rests upon the sand
— and the heaving of the commercial billows will soon agitate and de­
stroy the unsubstantial structure.
At the time Willett was made Mayor of New York, Colonel Nichols,
one of the royal Commissioners, said “ he found a few handsome-built
brick and stone houses,but most of the buildings were small and poor;”
insignificant, indeed, when compared with its present size and expanded
foreign and domestic commerce. He, however, predicted the future
greatness and prosperity of the place. He said “ it combined remarka­
ble advantages for navigation and trade.” Its rapid growth has out­
stripped prophecy, and carrying our view forward, as far as we have
been looking back, what New York will be two centuries hence, who
can presume to calculate ? All this has been owing to the enterprising
spirit of our merchants — revulsion has followed revulsion — generation
after generation has sunk into the grave — but the sons of the pilgrims
have trod in the steps of their sires; and as long as they possess the
intelligence, prudence, and fidelity to their engagements, so honora­
bly and eminently conspicuous in the early settlers, as in the case of
Thomas Willett, they will be successful in life, honorable in death, and
unitedly, each in his own proper position and sphere of life, carrying on
the transactions of commerce, in just appreciation of their own rights, and
with a proper regard to the rights of others, it is impossible to put any
limitation to the future greatness and power of our common and happy
country.
A et. V. — t h e

g o o d m e r c h a n t . — w il l ia m

parso n s.

“ His youth was innocent; his riper age
Marked with some act of goodness, every d ay ;
And watched t>y eyes that loved him, calm, and. sage,
Faded his late declining years away.
Cheerful he gave his being up, and went
To share the holy rest that waits a life well spent.”— B r y a n t.
T h e good merchant is scrupulously just and upright in all his trans­
actions. Integrity, good faith, exactness in fulfilling his engagements,
are prominent and distinctive features in his character. He is a highminded and honorable m an; he would feel a stain upon his good name
like a wound, and regards with utter abhorrence every thing that wears
the appearance of meanness or duplicity. Knowing that credit is the
soul of business; he is anxious to sustain the integrity of the mercantile
character. Accordingly, his word is as good as his bond. He stands
to his bargain, and is faithful to his contract. He is like the good man
described by the Psalmist,
“ Who to his plighted vows and'trust
Hath ever firmly stood;
And though he promise to his loss,
He makes his promise good.”

VOL. I .— NO. II.



18

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Mercantile Biography.

He would rather at. any time relinquish something of his lawful rights,
than engage in an irritating dispute. He would rather be the object
than the agent in a dishonorable or fraudulent transaction. When one
told old Bishop Latimer that the cutler had cozened him in making him
pay two pence for a knife not worth a penny, “ No,” said Latimer, “ he
cozened not me, but his own conscience.”
The good merchant is not in haste to be rich, observing that they who
are so are apt to “ fall into temptation and a snare,” and often make
shipwreck of their honor and virtue. He pursues commerce as his cho­
sen calling, his regular employment. He expects to continue in it long,
perhaps all his days, and is therefore content to make small profits and
accumulate slowly. When he first entered into business, he was deter­
mined not to be a drudge, nor be chained to the desk like a galley-slave,
nor make his counting-room his home. He recollects that he is not merely
a merchant, but a man ; and that he has a mind to improve, a heart to
cultivate, and a character to form. He is therefore resolved to have time
to develop and store his intellect, to exercise his social affections, and to
enjoy in moderation the innocent and rational pleasures of life. He ac­
cordingly sets apart and consecrates a portion of his time, his evenings
at least, to be spent at home, in the bosom of his family. He will not,
on any account, deny himself this relaxation ; he will not, for any con­
sideration, rob himself of this source of improvement and happiness.
He is willing, if need be, to labor more years in order to obtain the de­
sired amount of wealth, provided he can improve himself in the mean
time, and enjoy life as he goes along.
The good merchant, though an enterprising man, and willing to run
some risks, knowing this to be essential to success in commercial adven­
ture, yet is not willing to risk every thing, nor put all on the hazard of a
single throw. He feels that he has no right to do this — that it is mo­
rally wrong thus to put in jeopardy his own peace and the comfort and
prospects of his family. Of course he engages in no wild and visionary
schemes, the results of which are altogether uncertain, being based upon
unreasonable expectations and improbable suppositions. He is particu­
larly careful to embark in no speculation out of his regular line of busi­
ness, and with the details of which he is not familiar. He is aware,
that although he knows all about the cost of a ship, and can determine
the quality and estimate the value of a bale of cotton, he is not a good
judge of the worth of wild lands, having had no experience therein.
Accordingly, he will have nothing to do with any bargains of this sort, how­
ever promising they may appear. He will not take a leap in the dark,
nor purchase upon the representations of others, who may be interested in
the sale ; fearing lest what is described to him as a well-timbered town­
ship may turn out to be a barren waste, and what appears, on paper, a
level and well-watered district, may be found, on inspection, a steep
and stony mountain, of no value whatever. He therefore deems it safest
for him to keep clear of these grand speculations, and to attend, quietly
and regularly, to his own business. Above all, he makes it a matter of
conscience not to risk in hazardous enterprises the property of others
entrusted to his keeping.
The good merchant, having thus acquired a competency, and perhaps
amassed a fortune, is liberal in dispensing his wealth.
At the outset, he is careful to indulge in no extravagance, and to live
within his means, the neglect of which precaution he finds involves so
many in failure and ruin. Simple in his manners, and unostentatious in



The Good Merchant.

139

his habits of life, he abstains from all frivolous and foolish expenditures.
At the same time, he is not niggardly or mean. On the contrary, he is
liberal in the whole arrangement of his household, where every thing is
for use and comfort, and nothing for ostentation and display. Whatever
will contribute to the improvement and welfare of his family, or what­
ever will gratify their innocent tastes, be it books, or engravings, or pic­
tures, he obtains, if within his means, though it cost much; knowing that
at the same time he may foster the genius and reward the labors of
our native authors and artists, an estimable class, of men, whose works
reflect honor upon their country, and who consequently merit the pat­
ronage of the community. But whatever is intended for mere parade
and vain show, he will have none of, though it cost nothing. He thinks
it wise and good economy to spend a great deal of money, if he can
afford it, to render home attractive, and to make his children wise, vir­
tuous, and happy. Above all, he never grudges what is paid to the
faithful schoolmaster for their intellectual and moral training; for a
good education he deems above all price.
Having thus liberally provided for all the wants of his household, the
good merchant remembers and cares for all who are related to him, and
who may in any way stand in need of his aid. And this aid is adminis­
tered in the most kind and delicate manner. He does not wait to be soli­
cited ; he will not stop to be thanked. He anticipates their wishes, and by
a secret and silent bounty removes the painful sense of dependence and ob­
ligation. He feels it a pleasure, as well as a duty, to help them; he claims
it as his privilege to do good unto his brethren. He would feel ashamed
to have his needy relatives relieved by public charity or private alms.
But our good merchant feels that he has duties, not only to his imme­
diate relatives and friends, but to a larger family, the community in which
he lives. He is deeply interested in its virtue and happiness, and feels
bound to contribute his full share to the establishment and support of all
good institutions, particularly the institutions of learning, humanity, and
religion. He is led to this by the expansive and liberalizing spirit of his
calling. It is, unfortunately, the tendency of some occupations to narrow
the mind and contract the heart. The mere division of labor, incident to,
and inseparable from, many mechanical and manufacturing pursuits,
though important and beneficial in other respects, yet serves to cramp and
dwarf the intellect. The man who spends all his days in making the heads
of pins, thinks of nothing else, and is fit for nothing else. Commercial
pursuits, on the other hand, being so various, extensive, and complicate,
tend to enlarge the mind, and banish narrow and selfish feelings. The
merchant looks abroad over the world, puts a girdle round the earth, has
communications with all climes and all nations, and is thus led to take
large and liberal views of all things. The wealth which he has acquired
easily and rapidly, he is consequently disposed to spend freely and mu­
nificently. It has been beautifully said of Roscoe, the distinguished Liv­
erpool merchant, “ Wherever you go, you perceive traces of his footsteps
in all that is elegant and liberal. He found the tide of wealth flowing
merely in the channels of traffic ; he has diverted from it invigorating rills
to refresh the gardens of literature. The noble'institutions for literary and
scientific purposes, which reflect such credit on that city, have mostly been
originated, and have all been effectually promoted by him.” In like man­
ner, our good merchant encourages learning, and patronizes learned men.
He is particularly liberal in endowing the higher seats of education,
whence flow the streams that make glad the cities and churches of our God.



140

Mercantile Biography.

The good merchant is, likewise, a munificent benefactor to all institu­
tions which have for their object the alleviation of human wretchedness,
and the cure of the thousand ills which flesh is heir to. He lends, too, a
substantial support to the institutions of religion. He feels the need of
them himself, and he understands their unspeakable importance to the
peace, good order, and virtue of society. He thinks that he sleeps sound­
er, and that his property is more secure, in a community where the sanc­
tions of religion are superadded to the penalties of the law ; where the
stated inculcation of religious principles and sentiments diffuses a healthy
moral atmosphere, which, though unseen, presses, like the weight of the
surrounding air, upon every part of the body politic, and keeps it in its
place. Accordingly, he contributes cheerfully and liberally to the sup­
port of public worship, and moreover, as Fuller says of the good parish­
ioner, “ he is bountiful in contributing to the repair of God’s house, con­
ceiving it fitting that such sacred places should be handsomely and
decently maintained.”
Such we conceive to be the character of the good merchant. It may,
perhaps, be thought by some, that the character is a visionary one; and
that, amidst the competitions of trade, the temptations to unlawful gain,
the eager desire of accumulating, and the natural unwillingness to part
with what has been acquired with much labor and pains, there can be no
place for the high-minded and generous virtues which we.have described.
We might have thought so too, if we had never seen them exhibited in
actual life. The portrait which we have attempted to draw is not a
fancy sketch, but a transcript from nature and reality.
W illiam P aksons was born at Byfield, Massachusetts, on the 6th of
August, 1755. He was the son of the Reverend Moses Parsons, the cler­
gyman of that town, and was one of eight children, three daughters and
five sons, among the latter of whom was the late distinguished chiefjustice
of Massachusetts. After receiving a good education at Dumraer Acade­
my, he became an apprentice to an elder brother who was engaged in trade
at Gloucester. Before coming of age, however, he entered upon the hard
and perilous life of a sailor, which he pursued for five years, having the
command of a vessel, and making many successful voyages. Like many
other of our rich merchants, who were the architects of their own fortune,
he took his first lessons in industtyand enterprise amidst the hardships,
privations, and dangers of a sea life; than which, there is no better school
for the development and exercise of intellectual and moyal energy.
In 1780, at the age of twenty-five, Mr. Parsons quitted the sea, and
married the lady who, for forty-seven years, by her congenial spirit and
the similarity of her views, by sympathizing in all his benevolent feelings,
and co-operating in all his plans and deeds of charity, contributed so much
to make his life tranquil and his home happy. In the-same year he entered
into business, and removed to Boston, where he remained till his death, a
period of fifty-seven years, actively engaged to the last in commerce and
navigation, having, at the time of his demise, one vessel upon the ocean,
and dying, at the age of eighty-one, the oldest merchant and ship-owner
in Boston.
The prominent traits in the character of Mr. Parsons, were his un­
bending integrity, his uncompromising adherence to truth and right, his
conscientious regard for duty, his entire freedom from selfishness, and his
tender and comprehensive benevolence. These qualities shed a daily
beauty on his life, and spread a sacred fragrance over his memory.
In the mercantile community, no one stood higher than Mr. Parsons;



William Parsons.

141

— his very name was synonymous with integrity. In all his transactions
he was systematic, exact, high-minded, honorable. By a regular, yet not
slavish attention to business, he amassed a handsome fortune, which would
have been much larger, had he made business the sole end of life, or had he
not distributed his wealth, as he went along, with such a free and liberal
hand. His losses, which at times were great, never disturbed his singular
equanimity; he regretted them only as curtailing his means of doing good.
To his honor it should be mentioned, that he never had a dispute with the
numerous mechanics and laborers whom he employed. He might some­
times, indeed, think himself wronged, and perhaps say so; but yet he
would pay the bill, and leave the man to settle the matter with his own
conscience.
The wealth he had thus honorably acquired, he spent in the most gen­
erous manner. He had an open heart and an open hand. Considering his
first duty to be to his own family and relatives, he gathered them under his
wing, and overshadowed them with his love. His house was like a patri­
arch’s tent, or the gathering-place of a tribe. He was a sort of universal pro­
vidence, remembering the forgotten, and attending the neglected. The ab­
sent were not out of his mind,nor the distant beyond the reach of his care.
But his good feelings and charities were not confined within this cir­
cle, large though it was. The destitute, the sick, the afflicted, resorted
to him for aid and solace, and never applied in vain.
“ His secret bounty largely flowed,
And brought unask’d relief.”

Was any new charity contemplated, any humane object set on foot in
the city, Mr. Parsons was one of the first to be applied to, to give it the
sanction of his approval and the encouragement of his purse. And such
applications, frequent though they were, he always attended to most cheer­
fully, and responded to most liberally, deeming it a favor that the oppor­
tunity was adored him of doing his part in promoting a good object.
His house was long the seat of a generous, but quiet and unostenta­
tious hospitality, where there was nothing for display, but every thingfor the comfort of his guests. His doors were open for his friends to
enter at all times, and they were sure to be received with a cheerful
welcome and a placid smile.
He departed this life in the spring of 1837, full of years, full of use­
fulness, and full of honors. As has been beautifully said of another,
“ Death, which harmonizes the pictures of human character, found little
in his to spiritualize or to soften. Kindness of disposition was the secret
but active law of his moral being. He had no sense of injury but as
something to be forgiven. The liberal allowance which he extended
to all human frailties grew more active when they affected his own in­
terests and interfered with his own hopes; so that however he might rep­
robate evil at a distance, as soon as it came within his sphere, he desired
only to overcome it by good. Envy, hatred, and malice, were to him
mere names, — like the figures of speech in a school-boy’s theme, or the
giants in a fairytale, — phantoms which never touched him with a sense
of reality. His guileless simplicity of heart was preserved by the happy
constitution of his own nature, which passion could not disturb, and evil
had no power to stain. He diffused the serenity of a good conscience, and
the warmth of unchilled affections, through a large circle of relatives and
friends, who were made happy by his mere presence. Such was he to




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New Commercial Field.

the last, amidst the infirmities which age had accumulated around him—
the gentlest of monitors and the most considerate of sufferers.”
“

Of no distemper, of no blast he died,
But fell like autum n fruit that mellowed long;
E ’en wondered at because he dropped no sooner.
Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years,
Yet freshly ran he on two winters more :
Till, like a clock worn out with eating time,
The wheels of weary life at last stood still.”

A rt. VI. — N EW COMMERCIAL FIELD.

Travels in South-Eastern Asia, embracing Hindostan, Malaya, Siam,
and China, with a fu ll account of the Bur man Empire ; with Disser­
tations, Tables, fyc. By Rev. H oward M alcom. Boston: 1839.
Gould, Kendall, & Lincoln. 2 vols. 12mo.
H ere is one of the few books of travels which is to he bought and
studied, and referred to in future, not borrowed and read. Its pages are
crowded with facts respecting things, as they are not with incidents which
happened to the traveller. The botanist, politician, geologist, geographer,
and merchant, will each find his own department rich in information.
The advocate of missions will find more, both of information and encour­
agement, than he can obtain any where else, respecting these countries;
and the mere miscellaneous reader will enjoy it as well as any novel, or
narrative of the day. The style is what it should be, grave and dignified,
yet sprightly and neat, coming directly to the point, without waste of words,
and making the reader forget the author in his interest in the subject.
It would occupy too much space to condense and arrange, for a single
number of our work, all the important commercial information contained
in the volumes before us, as too many of the facts, prices, &c., are stated
in an insulated manner; but we take pleasure in gathering some para­
graphs, and giving the substance of others. It is very desirable that our
enterprising merchants should scrutinize this field afresh. With some
sections of the East, such as Batavia, Calcutta, Sumatra, Canton, etc.,
we are intimately engaged in a lucrative and honorable trade ; but with
Burmah, Siam, and the Malay peninsula, we are doing almost no busi­
ness, while the prices of various articles, stated by Mr. Malcom, furnish
strong inducement to feel our way in these places.
To avoid the trouble of constant quotation, we have thrown into our own
language the facts and reasonings of the author of the work above named.
From Burmah might be imported paddy,* lac, anatto, turmeric, to­
bacco, tea, and black varnish, beside rubies, sapphires, noble serpentine,
and bullion. Rice and bullion are not allowed to be exported from Bur­
mah Proper, but there is no restriction at Maulmain, Akyab, Ramree,
Rangoon and other places under British sway. Rice is therefore dearer
at Rangoon and Bassein. Paddy was selling at Rangoon, during Mr.
M.’s visit, for the almost incredible low sum of two dollars and thirty
cents per hundred bushels! The best of cleaned rice retailed in the
Bazar, at the same time, for a fraction less than twelve cents per bushel,
*

Rice in the husk.




Cleaned rice will hardly do well for so long a voyage.

New Commercial Field.

143

or about a quarter of a cent per pound ! At Maulmain, and the other
places named, it is three or four times as dear ; but even at this rate may
be imported at a large profit. The black tea of the western provinces
of China is brought by caravans to Ava, and thence finds its way to all
parts of the kingdom. At Rangoon it costs but twelve cents a pound.
It comes in hard round balls of about a pound each. The flavor is pe­
culiar, but those who use it a few times prefer it to any other.
Stick lac is largely exported from Burmah to Calcutta, for England.
It is of the finest quality, and if it can be sent to England with profit, it
can be sent here. Indigo is indigenous to Burmah, and might be raised
in any quantities ; but the monopoly of the East India Company, in Ben­
gal, prevents all demand for it in Burmah by the resident merchants, and
none is exported. The black varnish may be had for a song, and ac­
cording to Mr. M.’s description would be an invaluable addition to our
present list of foreign importations. It is the gum of a tree found abun­
dantly in the forests, and possesses several very important qualities. It
is so impervious to water that a single coat makes an article water-tight.
It is, when thinned, a beautiful black varnish, and is used in the manu­
facture of the wooden-ware, and strong lacquered cups and boxes. It is
the tact with which Burmans gild pagodas and idols, and gold leaf, put
on with it, stands the weather till wholly worn away. On travelling
trunks and harness it would be admirable. The rubies of Burmah are
the first in the world, and the tobacco is equal to the Havana.
Tobacco grows wild in many places, and is cultivated in most parts of
the country. There are several kinds, some of which is not surpassed for
smoking by the finest Havana. The best sorts and qualities sell at about a
rupee a viss; the middling sorts, about half that price; and the poorest, four
or five viss for a rupee. The best is raised on the rich levels of the maritime
districts, and water-courses. The culture of this article might be almost
indefinitely increased; but it has not become an article of export. From
a thousand to twelve hundred pounds are yielded per acre, on an average.
A little is used for chewing ; but the consumption for smoking is very
great, not in pipes, but in cigars or chiroots, with wrappers made of the
leaves of the Then-net tree. In making them, a little of the dried root,
chopped fine, is added, and sometimes a small portion of sugar. These
are sold at a rupee a thousand.
The tea-plant grows indigenous in all the upper provinces,and is raised
in large quantities for exportation to the rest of the country. Part of it is
prepared as a pickle, in which form it is a favorite article of food among
all classes; and part is dried and put up in hard round balls. Mr. M. used
the latter during his whole’residence in the country, and coincides with all
the missionaries in pronouncing it equal to the best black teas of China.
The taste, however, is somewhat peculiar, and few are fond of it at first.
It is generally supposed to come from China, being mostly brought by the
Chinese and Shyan caravans; but several of the chief men at Ava assured
him it is the product of their own territories, purchased on the way. It
sells at Ava at about one rupee a viss, (twelve cents per pound.) In the
lower provinces, it brings double that price. But even at the latter rate,
it is exceedingly cheap. There is no obstruction to its exportation.
Black pepper is indigenous, and in some places small quantities are
cultivated. It might be made a great article of export; but the natives
do not esteem it as a condiment, preferring the long red pepper, or chilly.
The latter article might also be made an exportant article of commerce,




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New Commercial Field.

and is now imported to some extent. With it, the people of the upper
districts purchase rice, etc., from the lower districts. It is found wild in
great quantities. Cultivation seems to increase the size, but not the
pungency of the plant.
The sugar-cane attains its full size and richness in certain spots, and
sugar might be exported to a great extent. Millions of acres, adapted to
its most successful cultivation, lie wholly uninhabited. Though almost
every Burman raises a little sugar-cane, it is merely to be eaten in its natu­
ral state, and none, that we know of, resort to it for sugar. The Chinese
round Umerapoora make a considerable quantity of excellent light-brown
sugar, which is sold very cheap. They also clay some of it, and produce
an article as white as our loaf-sugar, but much abridged of its sweetness.
Indigo grows wild, and is cultivated also to some extent. The mode
of extracting the dye is unskilful, and the whole product is used in the
fabrics of the country. The high price of labor will forbid the exporta­
tion of this article.
The import of rice to this country is not the only aspect in which the
low price of that article in Burmah is to be regarded. It will do to carry
to China, better than from Batavia, whence our vessels now obtain it.
Thus the cargo carried to Burmah may be converted into rice, silver,
lac, edible birds’ nest$, sharks’ fins, sea-slugs, ivory, cotton, and sapan
wood ; and taken to Canton for a load of tea.
At Maulmain, Kyouk Phyoo, Akyab, and Mergui, on the Burman
coast, there are no restrictions; vessels pay no tonnage, and merchandise
no duty. At the first of these places there is a regular establishment of
pilots, at low charges ; and such as choose to dispense with a pilot
pay a small sum for the buoys. The city stands twenty-five miles up the
Salwen river, with black buoys on one side of the channel, and red on
the other, all the way. At the mouth of the river stands Amherst,
where the pilots are stationed. Vessels making this port will find pretty
good direction in Hosburg. The channel is narrow, but deep and safe.
The coasting trade of Maulmain is thus described by Mr. Malcom:
“ The imports from Tavoy and Mergui are principally attaps, or dennees, (leaves stitched upon strips of rattan, ready for thatching,) damar
torches, cardamoms, sapan wood, gnapee, rattans, preserved doryans,
mats, salt, yams, and ivory. In return are sent to these places, cotton,
oil, English goods, paddy, beef, lime, and tamarinds.
“ From Rangoon are imported cutch or catechu, stick lac, gram, oil­
seed, earth oil, sesamuin oil, lappet, (tea,) wheat, ivory, lackered ware,
glazed pottery, jaggery, (black sugar,) Burman silks, tamarinds, chillies,
garlic, etc.; and in return are sent areca-nuts, cotton, dates, English
goods, cocoa-nuts, etc.
“ From Penang are brought umbrellas, muskets, torches, dates, coffee,
etc.; and in return are sent chiefly paddy and rice.
“ From Calcutta are brought specie, English goods, wines, ginger, steel,
rose-water, sugar, and almost the only important return is teak timber.
The same may be said of Madras. This is about the whole commerce of
Maulmain. From eight to twelve vessels enter and clear per month.”
The ports of Rangoon and Bassein, the former on the western, and the
latter on the eastern mouth of the great river Irrawaddy, are the only good
harbors now belonging to Burmah Proper. The commerce of the former
place was formerly very considerable, but the latter now is more fre­
quented by foreigners. Of Rangoon, Mr. Malcom informs us, that, “ The




New Commercial Field.

145

exports are teak wood, cotton, ivory, wax, cutch, and stick lac, and in small
quantities, lead, copper, arsenic, tin, edible birds’ nests, indigo, amber,
tobacco, honey, tamarinds, gnapee, gems, sharks’ fins, orpiment, sapan
wood, and sea-slugs. The nine last-named articles are of such limited
amount as scarcely to deserve notice. By far the most important item is
teak, which is chiefly sent to Calcutta and Madras. The value of this
article alone amounted, in former years, to £200,000 per annum. It is
now not more than a fifth part of that quantity. About two million
pounds of raw cotton are sent to Dacca, where it is_used in the manufac­
ture of the fine muslins for which that place has been so celebrated. The
Burman collector informed a merchant at Ava, that about thirty million
pounds are sent up the Irrawaddy, annually, to China; but Colonel
Burney estimates it at about four millions. Nearly four millions per
annum are sent to Arracan. None is exported in the seed. The seaslug is derived from the coasts of Mergui. It is commonly called Biche
de mer. It is a large marine worm, somewhat resembling a leech, which,
when properly cured, is regarded as a great luxury by the Chinese. The
mode of curing is to boil them in salt water, and then dry, or perhaps
smoke them. There are three principal kinds— black, red, and white.
The white sell at ten to twelve dollars per tical, (one hundred and thirtythree pounds,) the red for twenty-five dollars, and the black for fifty dol­
lars. Of each of these there are various sizes. Some, when dried, are
seven or eight inches long, and one and a half in diameter; others are
not larger than a man’s finger. The shark’s fins have a skin which is
valued for polishing substances in the manner of fine sand-paper. Their
chief value is for the tendons, which are an article of food with the Chi­
nese. They are drawn out and dried, resembling in this state silver wire,
and are used in soup, as the Italians use vermicelli. Gnapee is made
from prawns, shrimps, or any cheap fish, salted and pounded into a con­
sistent mass. It is frequently allowed to become partially putrefied in
the process. It is sometimes called in commerce Balachong.”
The proper articles to carry out to Burmah, are, cotton jean and shirt­
ings, gingham of gay colors, Scotch book muslins, coarse green and red
cloth, cotton twist, cotton handkerchiefs, (gaudy colors, in which red pre­
dominates,) gunpowder, muskets, and pine spars of moderate size. In
small quantities the following articles also may be disposed of: writing
paper, lead pencils, slate paper, slate pencils, black bottles and common
vials, horse pistols, flints, pelisse cloth, or cassimere of light texture and
very fine, for noblemen’s shawls, yellow soap, small Liverpool bowls,
cups and saucers, common country thread, bar iron and steel, raw silk,
moulded glass saucers and small plates, blue and green cotton umbrellas,
two and three inch augers, fine tooth combs, small brass kettles with
handles.
The same articles suit the Siam market, and from thence a vessel is more
sure of obtaining a cargo, as the great staple is sugar, which can always be
purchased at a safe price. Besides this, the Siamese export frankincense
and gamboge,in large quantities. Besides these articles, tea and other
productions may generally be bought at Bankok cheaper than at Canton.
In essaying this new direction to trade, vessels should be fitted out
with principal reference to Calcutta or Singapore, and so take Burmah
on the way to the former, or Bankok in connexion with the latter.
Some specie should be put on board, as this is always sure of command­
ing goods at the lowest prices.
VOL. i . — NO. II.
19



146

New Commercial Field.

We close our notice of these interesting volumes with a few paragraphs
relative to the coinage and currency of Burmah :
“ The country has no coinage. Silver and lead pass in fragments of
all sizes, and the amount of every transaction is regularly weighed out,
as was done by the ancients. (Gen. xxiii. 16. Ezra viii. 25.) It is cast
by the assayers in thin round cakes, weighing two or three ticals, hut is
cut up with mallet and chisel to suit each sale. The price of a thing,
therefore, is always stated in weight, just as if we should say, in answer
to a question of price, ‘ an ounce,’ or 1a drachm.’ When an appearance
like crystallization is upon the centre of the cake, it is known to be of a
certain degree of alloy, and is called 1flowered silver.’ Of this kind,
which is called Huet-nee, the tical is worth fifteen per cent more than the
Sicca rupee. The Dyng has the flowered appearance over all the cake,
in larger and longer crystals; and is cast into cakes weighing about
twenty ticals; but varies exceedingly in fineness, being of all qualities,
from Huet-nee to ten per cent purer. It is assumed to be five per cent
purer.
“ An inferior kind of silver, even to twenty-five per cent alloy, circu­
lates freely, for smaller barter. The people, however, are not deceived
in its quality, for the degree of purity is detected by them with great
readiness, chiefly by the appearance left on the cake at cooling.
“ Silver, in passing from hand to hand, becomes more and more alloyed,
so that, when a man is asked the price of a thing, he says, 1Let me see
your money.’ He then regulates his charge by the quality of the silver,
and a piece is chopped off to meet the bill; change, if any, being weighed
in lead.
“ Gold is scarcely used as a circulating medium, being absorbed in
gilding sacred edifices, or in jewels. By Burman estimate, gold is
eighteen times the value of silver. It often rises to twenty or more,
when the people are compelled to obtain it at any price, to pay their tax
toward the gilding of some pagoda.
“ Small payments are made in lead. Each vender in the bazaar has
a basket full of this lead. Its general reference to silver is about five
hundred to one. It varies exceedingly, however, in its proportion;
sometimes fifteen viss of lead is given for a tical, and sometimes only
seven or eight, at Ava. In distant parts of the country, where the silver
is more alloyed, three or four viss is given for a tical.
“ The late king, Menderagyee, attempted to introduce small silver coin,
which he made with a mint establishment imported from England. But
he required his ticals to pass for sixty per cent above their real worth, and
the copper for nearly three times its worth. The consequence was a uni­
versal stagnation of business; and, after urging his law so far as to execute
some for contumacy, he was at length obliged to let silver and lead pass
by weight, according to their real worth, as before. The people are not
anxious for coin. They cannot trust their rulers ; they love higgling in
bargains ; they make a profit on their money, as well as goods, by increas­
ing its alloy; and a numerous class of assayers, or brokers, called Pwazahs, (by foreigners, Poy-zahs,) subsist by melting up silver, to improve
or deteriorate it as they are desired. This they do before the owner’s
face, and have only the crucible and scoriae for their trouble.
“ At Rangoon, the Madras rupee circulates generally for a tical; and
along the rivers up to Prome, it is known, and will be received. But at the
capital, and throughout the interior, it is weighed, and deemed an inferior




Mercantile Law.

147

silver. In Arracan and the Tenasserim provinces, rupees, pice, and pie,
now circulate as in Bengal, and money is scarcely ever weighed.
“ The common rate of interest, when collateral security is deposited,
is two or three per cent a month; when there is no security, four or five
per cent. If the interest become equal to the principal, the debt is can­
celled. Creditors, therefore, exact new notes from their debtors every
few months, if the interest be not paid.”

MERCANTILE

LAW,

A rt. VII.— POPULAR SUGGESTIONS OF THE PRINCIPLES

OF CO-PARTNERSHIP.
H aving, in the previous number, considered the condition of co-part­
ners towards the public, we next proceed to notice their position as to
each other. The rights and duties of partners between themselves,
depend chiefly upon the co-partnership agreement, and in matters where
that is silent, they are governed by rules of law, growing out of plain
equity and the dictates of natural justice.
The co-partnership agreement is sometimes drawn up in great detail;
sometimes is a mere memorandum, in which those particulars only are
noticed which happened to be thought of at the moment; and in other
instances, probably the most numerous, the facts and details of the co­
partnership are left to be inferred from the parties transacting their
business jointly, and the entries in the joint books of account. Although
a formal agreement of co-partnership is far the most convenient, espe­
cially when it provides for the events growing out of a dissolution, yet the
agreement evidenced in any other form is equally valid. When the
agreement is formally drawn up, it usually specifies the commencement
and intended duration of the co-partnership; the kind of business to be
pursued ; the proportion of capital to be brought in ; the manner in which
the gains and losses are to be divided; whether interest on capital is to
be charged, and at what rate; the allowance which the co-partners may
withdraw yearly for their private use, and the disposition which is to be
made of the joint property in the event of a dissolution. The latter is
the most important of all the stipulations, and it is one of the first sug­
gestions of a prudent circumspection, to provide, at the commencement
of the union, when there is mutual confidence and good feeling between
the parties, and when the uncertainty as to which party shall fall under
the adverse operation of any stipulations ensures the adoption of such as
are mutually and reciprocally just, for the disposition of property in the
event of a dissolution; an event upon which it becomes so peculiarly
situated, from the equal and conflicting rights of dissenting owners, that
the only administration of it which the law can sanction, is to take it
from all.
Where the co-partnership agreement is explicit, the co-partners must, in
all cases, conform to it. A breach on either part, except where otherwise
provided, is generally a good ground of dissolving the co-partnership; or
the unoffending partners have a right to put all the consequences of the
default of the offending party to his individual charge, or if it is likely to
result advantageously, to claim the benefit of it. Thus, where it is stipu­
lated that each, or any partner, shall devote all his time and efforts to the



148

Mercantile Law.

advancement of the joint interest, or that neither shall engage in any busi­
ness on his own account, the other co-partners on discovering a violation
of this obligation, have their election, either to claim the benefit of the
business done in violation of the agreement, or to leave it to the offending
party; they have also the right thereupon to dissolve the union ; and in
case any injury results to the joint interest, to charge it to the account
of the offender. The right to adopt the profit of the separate business,
results from the stipulation by which all the time and efforts of the part­
ners are devoted to the joint benefit; and the offending partner is pre­
cluded from setting up that his speculation shall stand for his own benefit,
when, if such were its intent, it was a violation of his own agreement
and of the rights of others.
Often co-partnership agreements provide against the co-partners becom­
ing bound as surety, or otherwise, during the co-partnership, except for the
business of the firm. The violation of this stipulation gives the right to dis­
solve the co-partnership. This stipulation is exceedingly useful; not that
any such contracts of suretyship bind the co-partnership, for, ordinarily,
they do not, and being private stipulations between the parties, they do
not affect the public; but this stipulation acts as a salutary admonition
and restraint upon co-partners, especially the younger members of houses,
from the indulgence of a heedless kindness, and relieves them from soli­
citations for favors, which it is often difficult to refuse, and always wrong
to grant. Besides, the co-partnership interest cannot hut suffer from
every thing which burdens the-- respective parties, either as to time or
fortune, or which tends to divert their minds from the pursuit of the
common interest to which they all stand pledged. Again, if by such
implications an individual co-partner becomes embarrassed and insol­
vent, his interest in the co-partnership becomes subject to the claims of
his creditors ; his co-partners are obliged to wind up their joint business,
and to settle it, at gredt loss and inconvenience, with parties adverse to
them both in feeling and interest. Such stipulations, therefore, are not
only useful, but ought to be most rigidly adhered to, and their violation
regarded as unjust and treacherous.
Where the co-partnership agreement does not specify the ratio of
division of the profits or losses, they will be equally divided among the
partners; where the ratio of the division of profits is specified, but that
of the losses is not, the latter must generally be divided in the same ratio.
A case sometimes occurs, where a partner is taken into a firm, who is
merely to contribute his services, and who notoriously has no other means
of meeting losses than what his proportion of the profits of the business
may supply ; supposing that it is not prescribed that he is to bear losses,
what is the rule of law on this case ? Can his co-partners be deemed
as looking to him, in entering into the union, for the loss of more than
all he is to contribute, namely, his time and labor ? Can they be deemed
to look to him for a contribution of property, which he obviously has not,
and will not have, if the joint business be unsuccessful ? The case is not
without difficulty, and is not fully settled by authority. At the same time,
there seems to be not sufficient reason to exempt such a co-partner from
bearing his share of the losses as in other cases ; by the union, the busi­
ness is one for benefit; if he is to bear no part of the loss should the business
at any time afford no profit, his interest would cease, when a losing period
arrives, and his motives to exertion would become weakest, when the exer­
tions of all are requisite to diminish the effect of adversity, and to prevent the



Position o f Co-partners to each other.

149

business, which has become a losing one, from becoming ruinous. Policy
and even-handed justice would seem to require that he should stand the
eventual risk on the gaining and losing sides, and if the result be to
involve him in insolvency, it is a result which ought to have been looked
at as possible, when the union was formed. In such cases, however, and
indeed in all cases, every dictate of prudence requires that the division
of profits and losses should be always distinctly agreed on.
, Every co-partner, during the co-partnership, has a right to be consult­
ed, and to be kept informed of all business transactions of the firm: he
has a right always of access to the co-partnership books and securities.
These are principles too obvious to need illustration.
He has also a right to dissent from any operation about to be entered on by
the firm ; it being the law that each partner has a veto upon the conduct of
the others, so far at least as to discharge himself from any loss accruing by it.
Otherwise, his right to be consulted would be merely nominal; besides, the
co-partnership gives the co-partners an authority, which is, in its legal
nature, revocable ; a co-partner cannot, against his consent, be carried by
his firm into an operation from which he persists in dissenting. If the co­
partnership articles have provided that a majority should decide, still it is
questionable if they can compel the dissenting partner to bear his share of
the less; since an authority, which, in its very nature, is revocable, cannot
by agreement be made otherwise. But, doubtless, in such a case, a mere
wanton dissent and refusal would afford just ground for a dissolution.
A co-partner, also, has a right to be indemnified out of the co-partnership
effects, for all balances due to him, from the co-partnership, or eitherco-partner, growingout of his advances or liabilities, as co-partner; the rule being,
that neither co-partner has any separate right to any part of the joint proper­
ty, until after the joint debts, and the debts or balances to the co-partners
themselves, are paid. A co-partner, therefore, in such cases, is entitled by
law to a preference for his debt, upon his co-partner’s balance, over all indi­
vidual acts of the co-partner, by assignment or otherwise, and over the
claims of the individual creditors. This right is quite generally understood
as to general and permanent partnerships. Its most important application,
however, is to be seen in the special adventures on joint account,or partner­
ships for a single adventure. Thus,if persons engaged in a joint shipment,
or as joint owners of a ship, are induced or compelled to advance more, than
their share to one of their co-adventurers, who either attempts to defeat him
of his payment by a different application of his interest in the joint property,
or whose creditors attempt to divert it, this right of preference becomes
vitally important; it frequently ought, at the outset of the adventure, to
determine the merchant as to engaging in it. In such cases, it is well set­
tled, that if the joint ownership be such as to constitute a co-partnership,
general or particular, then the right of retainer and indemnity exits; other­
wise, it does not. Every joint ownership, however, does not constitute a
co-partnership. Joint owners of a cargo, or of any other personal property,
of a race-horse, of a flock of sheep, of ships, are not, of course, co-partners;
to constitute such an ownership co-partnership, it is necessary that there
should be either an express agreement that a special co-partnership in such
property should exist, or that it should have been purchased with the funds
of an existing co-partnership, as a part of its business property, or that the
loss or gain upon the sale of it should have been agreed to be for the joint
account. When these cases occur, then the joint obligations, in relation
to the joint property, spring up, and the rights of preference, between
each other, over strangers, arise along with them.



150

Mercantile Law.

In relation to ships, these principles need to he far more generally un­
derstood than they are. From the necessity which ships are subject to
of expenses for repairs and maintenance, joint owners of ships are always
jointly liable; and the freights, also, are very frequently received by one
of the joint owners, who is denominated the husband of the ship. It
often, therefore, occurs, that one part owner shall, from the failure of his
co-proprietors, be obliged to pay more than his share, or that the ship’s
husband has received more than his share of her earnings. The expec­
tation of the merchant, in such cases, generally is, that he can claim,
upon the delinquent owner’s interest in the ship herself, for the balance
owing by him, or which he ought to bear. This, however, is not so;
and such owner may defy the other owners, either refusing to apply his
share of the ship to the indemnity of the others, or he may defeat it by a
transfer, or his creditors may by an execution. It is only in the cases
where a partnership exists as to the ship, in some of the modes above
described, that this right of indemnity and preference, so important and
apparently so just, arises. A mere joint interest is like any other indi­
vidual property; it is subject to no other liens than are expressly given
by the owner, and merely becoming a joint contractor does not give one.
Joint speculations in land, either for the purpose of the profit on a re­
sale, or for the accommodation of the co-partnership business, are not
unfrequent. As to land, at law it never is a co-partnership subject; and,
in all such cases, the land does not become subject to the co-partnership
principles; the several co-partners cannot, by acts not united in by all,
subject it for the debts of their firm ; they cannot, as co-partners, sell it;
it is not subject, at law, to the co-partnership debts, in preference to indi­
vidual debts; the widow and heirs at law of a deceased co-partner,
become entitled to it, only subject, as to the heirs at law, to the ordinary
liability of land for debts. And this is all true, although the property
have been purchased in such a manner as would, if it were personal
(movable) property, be clearly co-partnership property. The rules of
law, as to lands, are of a kind too precise and rigid to admit of the
various implied rights and powers, resting upon the mercantile law of
partnership.
In such cases, however, courts of chancery, in the application of cer­
tain principles, implying a trust for the benefit of those with whose funds
lands are purchased, will, to some extent, give relief. But the condition
of land is so peculiar, in its relation to co-partners owning it jointly, as
always to require deeds to be very specially penned, to secure its appli­
cation, according to the convenience of the co-partners, and to the dic­
tates of justice, as by them understood.
The only other right of a co-partner, during the co-partnership, need­
ing notice, is, whether he possesses that of assigning the co-partnership
property, on 'its insolvency, in payment or security of its debts. The
existence of such a right is not very clearly or decidedly recognised in
the law ; there are principles which seem to require its existence and
acknowledgment. Unless it exists, in the case of absent co-partners,
there is great difficulty in securing a just disposition of the property
among the creditors, either by way of preference, according to received
usages and expectations, or by way of a ratable and equal distribution.
Executions may be obtained by'urgent creditors, which would defeat all
equality or propriety of payment. It would seem, however, that, ordina­
rily, the power to make such an assignment does not exist, because the
powers implied in co-partners are powers for carrying on the business,



Position o f Co-partners to each other.

!51

and not for its final termination. But in the absence of a co-partner, or his
inability to execute an assignment, in an emergency, necessity might
give rise to the authority. The refusal of a dissenting partner, however,
seems, upon general principles, to be fatal, if given before the execution
of the assignment, upon the general principle of his right to dissent, as
above considered. The whole of this branch of the subject is one of
difficulty, which is pointed out rather as containing dangers, than with
the pretence of indicating a clear channel to pass through them. The
ever numerous accidents of commerce in this country, will, no doubt,
present cases for the final clearing up of this subject, and disperse the
clouds now resting upon it.
The next branch of this subject is the dissolution of the co-partnership :
the union must come to an end; death interferes, dissension interrupts,
or time brings it to a close.
The dissolution by death is the most simple in its effects. Notwithstand­
ing the fixing of a term for the continuance, death intervening, triumphs
over this branch of the agreement. The co-partnership terminates, as to
the public; and it also ceases as between the parties, unless by special
stipulations, which are, in this respect, very convenient, and often necessary,
the continuance of the property under co-partnership control be provided
for. Upon death, the co-partnership property goes to the surviving part­
ners, or partner, who hold it for the settlement of all the affairs of the firm,
and then to account to the executors of the deceased for the balance due to
him. The property does not go into the hands of the executors of the de­
ceased ; and the surviving partners, being owners in law, have the full right
of applying it, according to their discretion, in the payment of the debts,
according to such views of preference or equality as they think fit; the pro­
perty is held by them, not as trustees, but as accountable owners. Should
the surviving co-partner be an unsafe depositary, or exhibit any fraudulent
misapplication or waste of the property, the creditors may pursue him at
law, or the executors of the deceased in equity; and the property may be
taken out of his hands, or securities for a faithful accounting compelled.
The property is to be accounted for according to its just value, as ascer­
tained by a sale, and by actual collections, and the survivor is allowed
to make no separate profit for himself in the settlement.
When the co-partnership terminates by the expiration of the term agreed
on, the situation of the property, if the agreement of co-partnership has
been so carelessly drawn as not to provide specially for it, is mainly as fol­
lows : the property held in co-partnership is now merely held jointly, with­
out the right of the parties to dispose of it, except by joint consent, or the
order of a court. Each partner has an equal right to the possession of
it, and therefore neither can take it from the others, nor compel by law
its redelivery to him, if by them taken out of his hands. Each has the
power to receive or release the debts, without consulting with his co­
partner. Neither has the right to pass away negotiable paper, except in
payment of the debts of the co-partnership; but he may have the oppor­
tunity to dispose of it, if in his actual possession, to bona-fide purchasers,
and thus put himself in funds subject only to the liabilities of an account­
ing party, with a balance in hand. In short, the whole property is in a
situation of the greatest embarrassment, and unless by the aid of a court
of equity, the civil death of the co-partnership would ordinarily work the
destruction of its property. The consideration of the extent and charac­
ter of this court’s interference will, however, be for a moment deferred.




152

Mercantile Laic.

The next mode of dissolution is by the dissension of the partners. Co­
partnership consisting chiefly in the mutu ally delegated authority or agency,
and all authority being in its legal nature revocable, either co-partner, not­
withstanding his agreement of co-partnership, may dissolve it, by declaring
his intention to his co-partners, and making it known to the public. This
revocation, although it may paralyze the other co-partners, as to making
joint contracts, would not probably deprive them of the right of holding the
property for the purpose of closing their affairs, although this would pro­
bably depend upon the justice of the cause of the dissolution. Upon
dissolutions, the most embarrassing dissensions frequently arise.
During the co-partnership, the pursuit of a common interest, the advan­
tage which the firm derives from harmony among its members, and the for­
bearance towards each other’s faults and imperfections which these circum­
stances produce, all tend to suppress the rising complaint, to strangle an en­
vious rivalry, to stifle the coming reproach; but on a dissolution, these bonds
are cut asunder, separate interests come to be satisfied in the arrangement of
the joint property, the rivalry likely to take place between separated co-part­
ners about to pursue their business on their separate accounts, the strife to
bear away the advantages of the former establishment— all tend to awaken
the remembrance of long passed grievances, as well as to sharpen every
angry feeling, and to whet the eagerness of short-sighted avarice. The
parties then are apt to disagree about the mode of distributing the goods and
debts, the rates of val uation to be affixed to them, the custody of the property
during the time that the joint debts remain unpaid, and the amount and
sufficiency of the security to be offered by one to the other. Perhaps one
of the co-partners may project the buying out of the interest of the others,
or may ascertain that their circumstances render a speedy settlement very
important to them; he then throws difficulties in the way, is unwilling to
enter upon mutual concessions, or to treat upon terms of reciprocal justice;
and very often does it happen, that each assumes the attitude and expresses
the menace of seeing which can do the other the most harm. Without en­
larging upon the base and detestable exhibition of such feelings, and upon
their inconsistency with honor or good faith, mutual interest, or common
justice, let us consider now how the law (the dernier resort, as well of the
quarrelsome as of the injured) deals with the property.
The dissolution generally finds the debts unpaid; the property with
its ownership balanced among dissenting parties, so as to be rendered
incapable of application to its purposes; the debts liable to be seized by
each partner, as he can persuade the debtors to pay him ; the creditors
left to suits exhausting the funds with expenses; while the co-partners
are striving for their own interests, or the gratification of angry passions.
If none of the co-partners resort to a court of equity, the creditors reco­
ver their judgments at law for debts, and pursue the co-partners individ­
ually, exhausting first the man of most property, or whose effects are
most accessible. It therefore becomes at once his interest to have the
property put into a train of proper administration, and he applies, in a
suit in chancery, for a settlement of the partnership accounts, for the
appointment of a receiver to whom the partnership property and debts
shall be delivered, and for an injunction against the partners respectively,
from receiving or interfering with any of the effects until distributed by
order of the court. This course secures the property from the wanton
waste of the co-partners, but subjects it to heavy expenses, and to those
losses which invariably attend the closing of estates by others than those




Position o f Co-partners to each other.

153

immediately interested in them as owners. This course also involves
some delay, and it is therefore in many cases resorted to or threatened
as a menace, by (those who would be ashamed and restrained by public
opinion from producing the same injuries in a more direct manner. But
it is to be remembered by all such, that the court of equity, while it acts
according to principles well settled, yet acts in modes ever varying ac­
cording to circumstances. If a case of oppression or great injury to the
property occurs, it will, under suitable precautions of security, appoint
some one of the co-partners receiver; may allow advances to be made
out of the collections by the receiver, in case suitable securities are offered,
and the apparent safety of the creditors’ interests allow i t ; and generally
it will so adapt its remedy, as to create the least possible injury to the
contending parties, acting on the reverse of the warlike principle. The
man resorting to it, in preference to an amicable settlement on terms of
mutual concession, may therefore sometimes find that, although he has
inflicted on his former associate some wounds, his blows have chiefly
recoiled upon himself. The court will cause the property to be sold for
the payment of the debts, unless a specific division can be agreed on,
and funds supplied from other sources than a sale for the payment of the
debts ; cases of specific division, by legal proceedings, are not to be found.
No right exists in any party to take the property on appraisal. The court
will also cause the co-partnership accounts to be settled under its own
direction, and by its own officers, according to the co-partnership books
and other suitable evidence. The final termination of the affair thus
becomes somewhat protracted, and exceedingly troublesome and expen­
sive. Still it is a better resort than submission to the threat of its incon­
veniences. A threat of the kind once submitted to, invites to every
other possible unjust pretension, and of all courses is, considering its
consequences, generally the most expensive.
But it is not very often that parties are so forgetful of their interests, in
the vehemencyof their desires to do injury to each other, as to stand out
to these disastrous measures, and most frequently an amicable dissolution
is agreed to. The parties divide the property by arrangements among
themselves, assume their proportions of the debts, give securities to each
other for the payment of the debts assumed, and so terminate their joint
connexion. Of course, the modes of such settlement are very various;
but it seldom happens that a disposition to mutual concession, without
which opposing interest never can be reconciled, and the aid and ad­
vice of judicious friends, cannot bring a dissolved partnership to a better
termination than a lawsuit will yield.
Sometimes a question is made as to what is called the good toill of
the firm, that is, its correspondence with the customers or dealers with
the firm ; and this is often supposed to be affected by possessing the old
seat of business of the firm, or retaining its name. These advantages
are perhaps real, but of a kind so indefinite that the law cannot easily
deal with them. If the seat of the firm be real estate, it can be sold by
partition proceedings, and its intermediate possession regulated by the
law ; if it be a lease with an unexpired term, it must be brought to sale,
and one cannot keep possession of it in defiance of his co-partners. The
name of the firm cannot commonly be retained after the dissolution, as
the law of this state now requires the true names to be expressed in co­
partnerships. The correspondence with customers, or the connexion with
them, must be kept or obtained, as accident or enterprise shall determine.
VOL. ' i . — NO. II.
20



154

Mercantile Law.

When the dissolution has taken place, public notice of it must be given
by advertisement in the places where the firm has had its houses of trade ;
and a further particular notice, to every one with whom the firm have had
previous dealings. Without this, the partners may still act in the name
of the firm, and create liabilities on its members in favor of all who shall
not be actually proved to have known the dissolution.
The partnerships hitherto treated of, are partnerships under the com­
mon law, and the principles developed are of general application in all
the United States and commercial countries. In this state, a law has
been passed allowing the formation of limited partnerships, in which a
silent, or, as this law calls it, special partner, puts in part or all of the
capital, but takes no active part in the business, and is permitted to be
exempt from all liability as partner beyond the capital he has paid in.
The conditions of this co-partnership are, that the capital put in, and the
nature of the partnership, be acknowledged before a magistrate, recorded
in the counties where the business is to be transacted, and oath made of
the actual payment of the cash capital in cash. The name of the special
partner must not appear in the firm, nor may he act in its affairs, except
as the adviser of the others, who alone must be the ostensible parties;
and the special partner can receive back from the firm in no manner,
directly or indirectly, any part of his capital put in, until the expiration
of the co-partnershipand in the case of insolvency, no preference can
be given of any creditors of the firm over others, nor can the special
partner be paid until all the creditors are fully satisfied.
Great advantages have resulted from this law, especially to young men;
and such are its conveniences as to induce the expectation of a constant
increase of its use. The advantages and dangers of ordinary co-partner­
ships are alike striking. On the one hand, capital can be thus accumu­
lated by the contributions of the co-partners; skill and capital united;
skill in different branches of commerce made to co-operate; and capital,
by the force of mercantile enterprise and combination, carried to its ex­
treme of power. A banking co-partnership in Europe, is the financier,
the convenient lender to the chief monarchies of Europe, and seems to
have a voice in the decisions of its cabinets ; although of a proscribed re­
ligion, its members are ennobled by sovereigns, and received with dis­
tinction by nations. Let them separate and form the best possible sys­
tem of agencies, and how would their consequence shrink up ! Partner­
ships are more effective than agencies, in consequence of the greater in­
terest of the partners to promote the common advantage, and the greater
confidence and power necessarily reposed in co-partners. Partnerships
in our country, where capital exists chiefly in small quantities, and in
many hands, are the very basis of our commercial operations. Without
them we could not enter into any competition with the richer or more
skilful commercial nations ; without them, too, not only would the com­
merce of the country dwindle, but the instruments of it would be ranged
into the classes of masters and servants, of rich capitalists enjoying a
monopoly of trade by means of their enormous wealth, and of mere de­
pendents, in the form of clerks and agents trembling at their nod, and
falling not only by their misfortunes, but by their caprice. The great
stimulus to fidelity and enterprise, in the hopes of the young man with­
out fortune, would be greatly lessened, if not wholly destroyed.
On the other hand, we must present the reverse to the sanguine tem­
peraments. .The trust reposed in co-partners, notwithstanding all pre­




Mercantile Law.

155

cautions, is wholly indefinite and unlimited. And when one thinks of
forming a co-partnership with another, he should ask himself if he is
willing to trust him with the power to ruin him ; for such and no less
is it. He will therefore be careful to consider not only his business ca­
pacity as a man of shrewdness, of skill, of experience, hut will need to
look into his social and moral qualities. Is he a man of good temper,
with whom difficulties will not be likely to arise ? Is he placable, one who
will not lay up the memory of an accidental slight, of a heated expres­
sion, or of an unintentional wrong, which you have done every thing in
your power to redress ? Is he a man keen in the pursuit of his own in­
terest ? Will he listen to any candid views adverse to his own ? Will
he, in a difference with you, be willing to unite with you in consulting
mutual friends as mediators ? Are you sure of his principles ? Do you
know hi$ associates ? All these are questions not merely of taste and
curiosity, but entering into the very essence of your decision as to a part­
ner. And let it never be forgotten, that well to sustain this useful
relation, requires not only the qualities of sagacity and enterprise, indus­
try and economy, which will enable one singly to do well; but also the
social and moral virtues, which in all associations alike form their com­
mon bond and their common honor.
A rt. VIII. — MERCANTILE LAW CASES.
CHEATING---- BILLS AND NOTES----- GUARANTY, OR LETTERS OF CREDIT-----USU­
R Y ---- INSURANCE, MARINE AND FIRE-----VALUE OF THE FOUND S T E R L IN G COMMISSION MERCHANTS.

I t is no disparagement to the judiciary of any other state in the Union
to aver, that in Massachusetts mercantile cases are investigated with an
industry, an earnestness, and zeal, no where excelled ; and that the opin­
ions of the several courts there are promptly given, and abound with co­
pious learning, profound reflection, and liberal views. The Supreme
Judicial Court of Massachusetts consists of five judges. The court sits for
jury trials and to hear law arguments, in Boston, about six months in
each year. At the jury trials but one judge presides, but all questions of
importance are reserved for the consideration of the full court, and are
adjudicated upon by that learned bench, after solemn argument at the bar.
Mr. Justice Story, of the Supreme Court of the United States, also
holds sessions of the Circuit Court from time to time throughout the
year, and the legal opinions of that accomplished jurist, it is hardly ne­
cessary to say, are highly valuable as repositories of sound legal learn­
ing, expressed in an elegant and flowing style.
Judge Davis, also, of the District Court of the United States, is an
excellent admiralty judge. Indeed, he has been called by Mr. Webster
the very best in the country.
CHEATING.

Confidence being the soul of trade, there is no class of men in the
community who so often suffer from an abuse of it, as those for whom our
Magazine is intended. And this, in our country, is often the fault of the
law ; for it is well known, that in some of the United States the merchant
has no means of adequately punishing the knave who has abused his
confidence, by obtaining goods without any reasonable expectation of
paying for them, or with the express design of having them attached as



a

156

Mercantile Laic.

soon as they come into his possession. The legislature of Massachu­
setts have made it a high offence for any person to obtain, designedly,
by any false pretence, or by any privy or false token, and with intent to
defraud, any money, or any goods, wares, merchandise, or other property.
Any person so offending maybe imprisoned in the state prison, not more
than ten years, or be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars. Perhaps
the most effective feature of this law is, that it is not necessary to a con­
viction that the government prove an intention to cheat, on the part of a
person who makes false representations at the time of obtaining the goods.
If it be proved, that the purchaser, when he obtained the goods, actually
made use of false representations for that purpose, the burthen is on him
to show that his intention was not to cheat the seller ultimately.
There have been several convictions under this law, and persons are
now in the state prison who are suffering its penalties. The effect of it
has been salutary, and it has tended very much to restore confidence in
the fair intentions of those coming from a distance to purchase goods,
and of whose characters and standing little can be known, except from
their own representations. It is common for the merchants of Boston to
keep a book in which a stranger who wishes to purchase is requested to
make a true statement of his affairs, and sign it, as evidence against him
in case of any doubt of his integrity at a subsequent time. ,
By the common law, as received in most of the United States, the
seller is as much protected as he can well be by any merely civil remedy.
For many cases this is sufficient; and in Massachusetts, the harsher
remedy of calling in the aid of the government is not always resorted to.
The principles involved in the case of Thurston v. Blanchard, may be
of interest in other states than Massachusetts. It was an action of trover
for certain goods, which the plaintiffs alleged were obtained from them
by means of false and fraudulent pretences.
The goods were purchased in Boston by the defendant, who resided in
Lowell, in March, 1837, and amounted to $677 77, for which he gave his
note, payable in six months. It appeared, that at the time of the purchase,
the defendant represented to the plaintiffs that he was worth about $2,000,
and in a month afterwards he failed, and then stated to his creditors, that
his whole assets amounted to only $4,278, and his debts to 11,400, and
he proposed to pay his creditors twenty-five per cent on their debts.
The note, which, was given for the goods, was in the possession of the
plaintiffs at the time of the trial, and they did not offer to give it up be­
fore commencing this action. They did, however, offer to give it up at
the trial, which offer being declined by the defendant’s counsel, it was
placed on the files of the court.
The court decided the case in favor of the plaintiffs, and held :
1. That where goods are obtained by means of fraudulent representa­
tions, the vender may at any time rescind the sale as a mere nullity, and
may take the goods from any person who has them, except from bonafide purchasers, for a valuable consideration.
2. Wliere a note is given for goods, as in this case, and it is not ne­
gotiable, it need not be returned, for it is null and void if the sale is re­
scinded; and if the note is negotiable, and it never passes out of the
vender’s hands, it need not be returned before action brought.
BILLS AND NOTES.

The case of the City Bank v. John French, was an action on a check
for $1,400, drawn by John Thomson, payable to the defendant, and by



Guaranty, or Letters o f Credit.

157

him endorsed. It appeared that John Thomson received the money on this
check at the City Bank, near the close of business on the day of its date ;
that it was agreed that the check should not be sent in until the follow­
ing day; that the next day the check was sent to the New England Bank,
that being the place where the messenger of the Washington Bank (this
institution being at some distance from the other banks) paid their checks,
which were received during the day by other banks. The check was
not paid, and French was informed of that fact, and requested to pay it.
Upon these facts the defendant contended that he was not liable :
1. Because he was discharged by the agreement that the check
should not be presented until the next day. But the court expressed
themselves clearly of opinion that this did not affect his liability in the
least; because, in the first place, the check was presented within a rea­
sonable time, and in the second place, the understanding between Thom­
son and the plaintiffs, that the check should not be presented until the
next day, was not legally binding on the latter. It amounted to nothing
more than a request, which they might or might not regard.
2. In regard to the second point of defence, that there had been no
sufficient demand and notice to charge the defendant, the court thought,
that there was no evidence which showed any such usage as would ren­
der the demand and notice in the present case valid. Ordinarily, in order
to charge an endorser, a check must be presented at the usual place of
business of the bank, a demand made, and notice of that demand and of
a refusal given to the endorser. Whether any usage of presenting checks
at other places would he binding on the endorser, the court would not
undertake to decide, because there was no sufficient evidence of any
such usage here, and unless it could he clearly shown to exist, the de­
fendant would not be liable at all.
GUARANTY, OR LETTERS OF CREDIT.

In 1831, an individual named Menzius Rayner, Jr., of Portland, Maine,,
came to Boston for the purpose of purchasing books and stationery. He
brought with him a letter, of which the following is a copy:
“ To whom it may concern. The bearer, Menzius Rayner, Jr., son to.
the subscriber, is, with the advice of several gentlemen, Hon. J. C.
Churchill, Gen. Todd, and others, about to establish a store in Portland,,
of books and stationery, and now goes on to Boston to obtain an assort­
ment of stock for that purpose. He will commence on a limited scale,with the intention of enlarging the business next spring.
“ He wishes to purchase school books, &c., upon a credit of four or six
months, and miscellaneous books, paper, &c., on commission. For the
faithful management of the business, and punctual fulfilment of contractsrelating to it, the subscriber will hold himself responsible.
“ MENZIUS RAYNER,
“ Pastor o f the First Universalist Church
in Portland, Maine.”
This letter was delivered to B. B. Mussey, a Boston bookseller, who
engaged to let young Rayner have books, &c.
The first transaction between them was in October, 1831, and the last
in February, 1834. Rayner, Jr., made payments from time to time, and
they amounted, in all, to a larger sum than all the articles furnished or
sold him within six months from the time of the first purchase.
Mussey being unable to obtain payment of a balance due him, sued the




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father on the letter above mentioned, and the questions submitted to the
court were:
1. Did the letter make the defendant absolutely liable for the pur­
chases, or was it a mere guaranty ?
The court were of opinion, that the letter was a mere collateral un­
dertaking on the part of the defendant, and that he did not intend to
bind himself absolutely and at all events.
2. Was the letter a continuing guaranty?
The court decided that it was.
3. What was the effect of the letter?
On this point the court thought that if the plaintiff intended to rely on
the defendant as security, he ought to have given him notice of his ac­
ceptance of the guaranty in a reasonable time. What was a reasonable
time would depend on the circumstances of every case; but the court
were clearly of opinion, that the plaintiff, delaying to notify the defend­
ant of his acceptance of the guaranty, from October, 1831, till February,
1834, clearly discharged the defendant from all liability, and by agree­
ment of parties the plaintiff became nonsuit.
USURY.

In an action on a bill of exchange, the ground relied upon in the de­
fence was usury. The bill was drawn by Robert M. N. Smyth, and
accepted by the defendant, Thomas Hobart. The amount was $5,000,
and the time six months. At the trial, before Judge Dewey, the de­
fendant proved by one Whitney, that he was the agent of Smyth in ne­
gotiating the sale of this bill; that he sold it to the plaintiff for the sum
of $4,400, it being then agreed between him and the plaintiff, that a dis­
count of $600 should be made on the amount of the same; that he re­
ceived the said $4,400, and paid the same to Smyth. The case was
subsequently argued before the whole court, who held that a usurious
transaction in relation to a bill of exchange, between the drawer and the
holder, is no defence to an action against the acceptor.
In the recent case of Palmer Cleveland v. Benjamin Frelen and S.
Draper, Jr., the Chancellor of New York decided:
1. That if it is a part of an agreement for the loan of money, that the
borrower shall take uncurrent bills at a higher rate than their actual
value in cash or current funds, the loan is usurious.
2. That where a loan is secured by the transfer of stock, with a stipu­
lation that the lender shall have the privilege of taking a part thereof in
full satisfaction of the loan, the parties, at the time of agreement, antici­
pating a great increase in the value of the stock, the transaction is usurious.
3. That whenever the lender stipulates even for the chance of an ad­
vantage beyond the legal interest, the contract is usurious, if he is enti­
tled, by the agreement, to have the money lent, with the interest thereon,
repaid to him, at all events.
INSURANCE.

T otal Loss.— The case of Hall v. Ocean Insurance Company, Boston,

was an action on a policy of insurance for $2,000 on the brig Alvara, valued
in the policy (premium included) at $4,000. The risk was for one year, and
it was proved, that within the year, on the passage to the West Indies, sea
damage was sustained to considerable extent, which rendered it necessary




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for her to go to Bermuda in distress, to be repaired. Two surveys were
there had, and the result was, that the captain undertook to sell the brig.
And the question was, whether there was a legal necessity for the sale.
If there was, the plaintiff should recover for a total loss ; but otherwise
the defendants should be subject only to a partial loss. According to the
plaintiff’s estimate founded on the surveys, the amount fell short of one
half of the amount insured. But the plaintiff insisted that wages and
provisions, after the sale of the cargo on January 12, 1836, until a reason­
able time had elapsed for the repairs of the vessel, should be allowed and
added to the items of partial loss, to ascertain whether a technical total
loss had occurred in the case. With this addition there would have been
clearly a technical total loss. After full argument, the Court decided in
favor of the defendant, and made the following points, viz : —
1. Making the estimate to ascertain whether the loss amounts to that
sum, items, which should be carried to the amount of general average,
should not be included.
2. The expenses incurred to ascertain the extent of the loss should not
be included in the charges to make up the fifty per cent.
3. Wages and provisions of the officers and crew while the ship is un­
dergoing repairs, are not to be computed as part of the particular average.
4. A fair allowance for the superintendence and for the custody of the
vessel, if necessary, while the repairs are goingon, should be made, and is to
be charged to the account of labor from which one third is to be deducted.
5. The services of the officers and men may be rendered by them as
laborers in making the repairs, and their labor is chargeable as if other
laborers had been employed.
The case of Williams and others v. Suffolk Insurance Company, tried in
the United States Circuit Court, in Boston, was an action brought to recover
$2,000 for outfits on board the schooner Breakwater, of Stonington, Con­
necticut. Judge Story decided in favor of the plaintiffs, and held :
1. That the necessary sale of a vessel, in the course of a voyage, to
defray salvage, creates of itself a total loss of the vessel for the voyage.
2. Where the object of the voyage is entirely defeated, and the vessel
is obliged to return home, it cannot be treated as a case of a voyage to a
port of necessity for repairs, but there is a total loss.
The case of Cushing Bryant v. Ocea?i Insurance Company, of Boston,
was an action on a policy of insurance on the brig Hope, of Newcastle,
for one year, from January 5, 1837, for $9,000. The vessel was lost on
her first voyage to New Orleans. At the trial, before Chief Justice Shaw,
the defence was opened upon two grounds : first, that the vessel was unseaworthy, which was finally abandoned; and second, that the plaintiff,
when he applied for the insurance, made certain representations concern­
ing the manner in which she was to be loaded and employed, which had
not been complied with, namely, that he was taking in paving stones for
ballast, and should fill up with hay for New Orleans. Whereas, in fact,
he put on board a cargo of paving stones, and no hay; and the corres­
pondence between the parties was offered as proof.
C. G. and F. C. Loring, for the plaintiff, objected to the reception of this
evidence, unless it was intended to show that this was a false representation,
made fraudulently, for the purpose of inducing the defendants to execute the
policy; and they stated many reasons for the objection. And, after the re­
spective counsel had presented their views, the chief justice ruled, that the




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evidence was inadmissible, unless it was intended to prove a fraudulent
misrepresentation, made for the purpose of procuring the policy. He con­
sidered that there was a material and well established distinction between
the statement of an expectation, and a collateral fact then existing; and that
the former did not constitute a representation, which could be given as evi­
dence to avoid a policy, and that this was substantially nothing more. That
the correspondence was mere inducement, or preliminary to the contract,
and no part of it; and that the proposed evidence, if admitted, would mate­
rially alter and control the written contract finally made; inasmuch as, by
its terms, it covered the vessel in any lawful voyage she might be engaged
in, and with any proper cargo with which she might be loaded; while this
testimony, if admitted, would be to limit it to the performance of one par­
ticular voyage at that time, and with one particular cargo.
That the intent stated in such representation, though duly made, might
be subsequently changed of necessity, or in good faith, consistently with
the terms of contract applied for, and. that actually made; and if the in­
surers meant to insure for a particular voyage, or with a particular cargo,
it should have been so stipulated in the policy.
After full argument before the whole court, they decided that the
ruling of the chief justice at the trial was right, and rendered judgment
for the plaintiff.
G eneral A verage. — In the case last above mentioned, the court also
decided :
1. That no loss or expense is to be considered as general average, and
so applied in making up a loss, unless, in the first place, it was intended
to save and preserve the remaining property ; and unless, in the second
place, it succeeded in doing so.
2. The expenses and charges of going to a port of necessity to refit,
can properly be a general average only when the voyage has been, or
might be resumed. But the doctrine does not apply if the voyage has
been abandoned from necessity.

An important marine insurance case was decided in the Superior
Court in the city of New York, Justice Jones presiding, on the 15th of
April last, which occupied the court for three days.
It was an action brought by Brander, Murray, and Gallagher, against
the Washington Marine Insurance Company, for an average loss on 2,400
bags of wheat, imported in the bark Favorite, from Rotterdam, in the
'spring of 1837. It appeared in evidence, that the vessel sailed in January,
that in February she encountered a gale of eight days’ duration, during
which she leaked considerably, and the pumps were obliged to be kept
going the whole time. She arrived at this port on the 31st of March.
On the 4th of April, her hatches were opened, and Mr. Gallagher, one
of the plaintiffs, went aboard, obtained samples of the wheat, and, for
more than ten days, offered it for sale in the market (which was daily
declining) as sound, and was unable to dispose of it. About the 22d of
April, two gentlemen, dealers in grain, examined the wheat. One of
them went once on board the ship when she was two thirds discharged,
saw some damaged around the sides of the vessel, and examined some six
bags in the centre, the grains of which he found swollen and the smell
musty. On this examination he pronounced the cargo all damaged.
The other gentleman was twice or thrice on board the vessel, there made
a similar examination, and also, before the cargo was all discharged, went




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161

into the store, and examined some fifty bags indiscriminately, and he too
pronounced the whole damaged, because of its smell. The wardens were
on board the ship three times, and surveyed four hundred bags, which
they declared to be damaged by leaks, and one hundred and fifty bags
damaged by sweat of the hold; and, afterwards, in the store, certified the
whole to be musty and damaged. It seemed to have been admitted on both
sides, that the hundred and fifty bags were consigned to Messrs. Boonen,
Graves, & Co., who had some fifteen hundred bags of grain on board the
same vessel. The clerk of the plaintiffs testified, that he notified the
company of the damage, and intended sale; and Mr. A. B. Neilson
proved, that the average adjustment was made up accurately, if the data
were correct. Amount claimed, with interest, about $5,400.
For the defence it was contended, that not exceeding four hundred bags
of the twenty-four hundred were damaged; and because a part of a cargo
was injured by the perils of the sea, the plaintiffs had no right, either in
equity or law, to sacrifice the whole at auction, and claim upon the under­
writers. That the sound was mixed together, in two large heaps, with the
unsound, and in such a manner, that, at the sale, purchasers could neither
examine the article, nor see the lots on which they were bidding.
It appeared, on testimony, that Mr. Brander, one of the plaintiffs, called
at the office of the assured, on the 27th of April, after the cargo was all
discharged, and said that four hundred bags were damaged. By a cal­
culation made in his presence, the loss on that portion would not consti­
tute an average; that next day, Mr. Murray, another of the plaintiffs,
called at the office, and said the whole cargo was damaged, and was to
be sold on account of the insurers.
To prove the true condition of the wheat, the insurers produced all the
purchasers, except two, who did not buy to exceed one hundred bags in all.
Five purchasers, chiefly millers, who ground the wheat, bought one thou­
sand four hundred and seventy-two bags ; they testified, that it was good
and sound, and better in condition than a large portion of the foreign wheat
sold at private sale as sound. One testified it was by twenty-six the bushel
sounder than wheat which he, within a few weeks afterwards, bought from
the very plaintiffs, at private sale, as sound wheat. Two purchasers, whose
lots amounted to seven hundred and ninety bags, testified: One, that his
lot (one hundred and seventy bags) was not all damaged; some of the
bags were stained, how many, he could not tell; but he paid some fiftyeight cents per bushel, and considered it really worth $1 25. The other,
who bought six hundred and twenty bags, saw some of it emptied out,
and about one fifth part of that which he saw was swollen, and he con­
sidered the whole unmerchantable. A portion of his, however, was shown
to have been taken from that part of the store where the really damaged
grain was placed. That the balance of the lot, about one hundred and
thirty-eight bags, was admitted by the company to be damaged. Much
testimony was adduced, on both sides, as to the smell. All the witnesses
of the defendants, and several for the plaintiffs, said, that all foreign grain
had the ship smell— that no single cargo was free from it— that the grain
in question was old grain. And several witnesses testified that it was
the custom of the trade to separate the sound bags from the unsound;
and in offering the damaged for sale, it was usual to arrange the bags in
lots, so that at least one end of each bag could be inspected. That it
was unusual to heap a whole cargo in bulk, sound and unsound, in such
a manner that bidders could not see the article, and so sell it.
VOL. i. — no. ix.



21

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Mercantile Law.

The judge charged the jury to this effect: — That the assured is bound
to separate sound merchandise from unsound; and only the damaged is
to be sold on account of the underwriter. That such an examination as
was bestowed upon the grain in question was not enough, namely, to
examine cursorily a few bags here and there, and then pronounce upon
the whole; but each package must be examined. That if the wheat was
unmerchantable, it did not follow that that was caused by a peril for
which the underwriter was liable. That it did not look so bright as new
wheat, or that it had a smell, or because it would not make flour to pass
New York inspection, it did not follow that the underwriters were liable.
They were only responsible for damage arising from the immediate
perils of the sea. It was for the jury to decide how much of the damage
arose from that cause, and if it amounted to an average, then the plain­
tiffs were entitled to recover, to that extent, and no more. The chief
justice examined the evidence with great clearness and precision, and
showed that a large portion of the two thousand four hundred bags were
sound; that that opinion was expressed by the miller who examined it
closely, ground it into flour, and eat the bread made of that very flour,
which was sweet and wholesome.
The jury brought in a verdict for the plaintiffs, of $2,193, less the pre­
mium note, making the real amount of their verdict $1,808. Amount
claimed, $5,400.
F ire Insurance. — We give the following case, as it is interesting in
several points, and more particularly so in one, as showing that the
responsibility of the insurers is not avoided by a dispossessal of property
by force of law.
Hugh Findlay, to the use o f his assignee, A. B. Spence, v. The Franklin
Fire Fnsurance Company o f Philadelphia, in the District Court of Penn­
sylvania, January 10, 1839, before Pettit, president, and a special jury.
This was an action of covenant on a policy of insurance dated January
31st, 1831, for $8,000, on the stock of merchandise of the plaintiff, in his
store, in South Florence, Alabama.
The facts of the case were these : The policy covered a stock of goods,
of various descriptions, owned by the plaintiff, a storekeeper in South
Florence, and was obtained for a premium of $80 for one year. In the
summer of 1831, the insured became embarrassed in his concerns, and
in September, 1831, the sheriff of Franklin county, Alabama, made a
levy upon the stock, took possession of the store, closed it, barred and
nailed the windows and doors, and advertised a sale to take place on the
29th of September. On the 28th of September the building took fire,
and the goods were consumed; the loss was nigh, if not entirely, total.
The notice to the plaintiffs, and the preliminary proofs, were sent by mail,
and received by them on the 28th of October, 1831. On the 7th of
October, the policy was assigned by Findlay to Spence, and suit brought
shortly afterwards. The questions of law which arose in the case, were:
First, whether the levy of the sheriff so far divested the insured of his
interest in the goods as to defeat his right of reaovery. Second, whether
the levy increased the risk of the insurers so as to vitiate the policy.
And thirdly, whether the loss of the insured was to be estimated by either,
and which, of the following tests: the cost of the goods at either of the
usual markets, Philadelphia, New York, or Nashville, with or without
the actual expense of transportation; or their value, at sheriff’s sale, at
South Florence, or prospective profits on pttail sales of the stock.




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The charge of Judge Pettit to the jury enters so fully into the various
points raised upon the trial, that we give it in extenso.
This is an action of covenant, brought by Hugh Findlay, late of South
Florence, Alabama, to the use of A. B. Spence, his assignee, against the
Franklin Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, on a policy, dated 31st
January, 1831, for $8,000, on “ merchandise, such as is usually kept in a
country store,” in the plaintiff’s store, in South Florence. The contract is
in the nature of a contract of indemnity, given by the insurers against
such loss by fire as may happen to the insured in respect of the goods cover­
ed by the policy. The fire occurred on the 28th of September, 1831, and
a large quantity of goods in the plaintiff’s store were destroyed.
The facts in the case are not complicated and not disputed. A fire took
place, without any blame being attributed to, or fault of, the insured. It
may be asserted generally, that all the goods were destroyed; a suggestion
has been made to the contrary, in the argument, arising from the nature
of some of the articles, but the witnesses speak of entire loss, and it seems
that no fragments of any value were saved. If there was, or, by diligence
of the insured, ought to have been, any salvage of any part of the goods,
the jury will make a deduction accordingly.
There is no dispute as to the conduct of the insured at the time of the fire,
nor in regard to the preliminary proofs required by the policy. The Insu­
rance Company have, however, made defence upon grounds which present
some interesting questions of law. No censure has been imputed to the
company for the defence— none ought to be. A fair question of law in re­
gard to the interest of the insured is presented, and a question as to the mode
of estimating the loss, if the company be liable at all, is also fairly presented
The difficulty in the way of recovery does not spring out of the conduct
of the defendants, but grows out of the misfortunes of the insured.
The main question of law made by the defendants, goes to the whole
of the plaintiff’s case, and is extracted from the matters given in evidence
in the cause. It seems that the insured was much embarrassed in his
circumstances at the time of the fire ; that there were various judgments
against him ; and that a few days before the night of the fire, the sheriff
of Franklin county made a levy, by virtue of sundry executions in his
hands against the plaintiff, upon the identical stock of goods covered by
the policy. The sheriff made an inventory, caused the windows of the
store to he nailed down, and the shutters closed and secured; the inner
doors to the rooms containing the goods were fastened and nailed up, and
the outer door closed, locked, and the key taken into the possession of
the sheriff: “ By which,” the sheriff testifies, “ the said Hugh Findlay
was deprived of all custody and control of, and prevented of all access
to, the said goods.” The goods were burned on the night before the
day fixed for the sale. Upon these facts, the defendants contend, that
Mr. Findlay’s interest in the goods was divested, and the risk of the
defendants ceased from the time of the levy and possession by the sheriff.
This is an interesting question. The plaintiff has thrown out a doubt
that the levy and possession of the sheriff were not complete in the point of
facts; and if there be such a doubt, it is for the jury to decide, else the ques­
tion of law cannot arise; but it is to be remarked, that the sheriff is positive
in his testimony, and it is without contradiction; he says that he took charge,
and deprived the plaintiff of all custody or control of, or access to, the goods.
The question is, to my mind, clearly presented, how far a levy upon, and
taking charge of, goods by a sheriff, by virtue of an execution against the




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insured, affects the right of the insured to recover for a loss by fire, hap­
pening after such levy, and before a sheriff’s sale ? That the sheriff has
a special property, for certain purposes, is clear; he may maintain trover
or trespass for the goods against a wrong-doer, because he is answerable
to the plaintiff in the execution for them. This, however, is not enough
to sustain the defendants; it may be conceded, and yet the insured re­
tains certain rights also: he may pay the debt and resume possession.
That the right of a defendant in an execution to the goods levied upon,
is not entirely divested before actual sale, is manifest from the familiar
case of a reversal of the judgment; if reversed before sale, the goods are
restored, and he holds as by his original title; if reversed after sale, he
obtains restitution of the money, the goods having passed to the sheriff’s
vendee. Again, if the mere levy divests the whole interest of a defend­
ant, who is insured?— a levy for $1,000, on goods worth $10,000, may
do manifest injustice. Again, it is conceded all round, that, in case of
loss by fire after levy and before sale, the plaintiff’s debt is not extin­
guished nor decreased; nor is the sheriff the sufferer, unless he be in
actual default. If, then, the insured is to be held deprived of his goods,
and his insurance, and his debt not extinguished, the Insurance Company
is the only gainer: the debt remains, the goods are destroyed, and the
insurance is lost. The cessation of risk alluded to in the policy may
well apply to many cases, such as retiring from business, removing to
another store, etc.
Before establishing such a principle, great caution must be exercised.
Whether a sheriff, after levy, can insure, or whether execution creditors
can insure, are not material questions in this suit. Admitting that they
may insure, yet they are not bound to do so. The sheriff loses nothing
by omitting to do so, excepting his commissions in case there are no
other goods; the execution creditor loses nothing by way of extinguish­
ment of his debt; that remains, and he only suffers in case no other
property can be found. But, certainly, neither sheriff nor execution
creditor is bound to insure.
On the other hand, it is said, that, if the insurance continues after levy,
it ought to be for the creditors. Perhaps it ought; but should not the
contract be made so ? The creditor, however, does not lose his debt by
the fire ; the debt continues unaffected ; and I know of no mode by which
creditors can reach the Insurance Companies, except by making an in­
debtedness to the party insured, and then using some process of attach­
ment ; no mode, however, has been suggested by counsel. As the sheriff
cannot avail himself of the policy, nor the creditor, the underwriter must
go clear, unless the defendant in the execution has the right to recover.
And as he remains liable to his creditor on the judgment, there is little
hardship in this; certainly none to the company, as they are made to
pay but once; nor to the creditor, if his debtor be put in possession of
funds; at least his chance of payment is more improved than if his debtor
suffered a total loss of both goods and insurance. If the court in which
suit is brought had power to impound the money recovered, and pay ><,
to the execution creditor, all difficulty would be obviated; but the court
has no such power, and we cannot escape from the difficulty in that way.
Many other observations might be made, and I have thrown out these
to show that the point is a fruitful one, and requires grave consideration.
For the present, yielding to the actual inclination of my judgment, (but
reserving the point for future mature consideration,) and to enable the




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jury to decide on the merits of the cause, I hold that the levy, and subse­
quent acts of the sheriff, do not present a defence in law in this case.
The second question raised relates to the alleged increase of risk. It
is contended by the defendants, that the change of possession, and all the
circumstances of the levy, and the conduct of the sheriff, so increased the
risk, as to vitiate the policy. The contract must be construed in reference
to mutual good faith between the parties to it. If a levy and possession
by a sheriff are not, per se, enough to vitiate it, and I have ruled that they
are not, the defendants must be presumed to have- contemplated such an
event as an incident of property ; in other words, an underwriter engages
to encounter the ordinary incidents to which property is legally liable.
On the other hand, the insured is bound in good faith to see that no act
of his, or by his procurement, shall involve the property in risks not usually
and legally incident to it. If the conduct of the sheriff is so plainly un­
usual and irregular, as to endanger the property, and increase the risk
beyond the ordinary effect of a levy, the underwriter can make it a mat­
ter of defence. Here, however, the plaintiff alleges, first, that there was
nothing improper in the acts of the sheriff that every thing was done
by him that ought to have been done, and that during the custody of
the law the property was really safer from fire than before; and sec­
ondly, that the fire was altogether independent of the circumstances of
the levy. You will apply the legal principle I have stated to the facts
in proof.
If, then, you think that there was not such an increase of risk in fact as
to vitiate the policy, the concluding question is presented, as to estimating
the loss. The contract is one of indemnity; it is that fully and fairly,
and to be so interpreted for both parties; it is no more, it is no less.
The language of the policy is, that the insurers.“ shall, within thirty days
after certain proofs made, furnish the insured with a like quantity of any
or all of the said goods, and of the same quality, or make good the dam­
age or loss by paying therefor.” The contract refers to thirty days after
proofs furnished ; here, to thirty days after the 28th of October, 1831; and
it also clearly has reference to the place in which the goods were lost.
And, as in this case the company did not furnish the insured with a like
stock, the only rule to be observed is, to ascertain what sum of money
would, if paid to the insured at Florence, Alabama, within thirty days
from the 28th of October, 1831, have been equivalent to the damage or
loss sustained ; or what sum of money would have enabled him to have
purchased a similar stock, and thus reinstated himself.
All notions of prospective profits, to be earned in a year or two, by
skill, labor, and time, are excluded and inadmissible ; they might have
been the subject of insurance, but by a different form of contract. The
next evidence furnished by the plaintiff is, the amount of the investing of
the plaintiff and an appraisement made since the fire, predicated on the
cost at Philadelphia, with ten per cent carriage and interest thereon. A
third mode of estimating the loss is founded on the testimony of Mr.
Lindsay, and insisted on by the plaintiff, namely: a new stock, selected
at Philadelphia, would sell at Florence for cost, carriage, and 16f per
cent advance on credit, allowing 5 per cent to cover bad debts. This is
what such a stock would bring; but still leaves the question unaffected,
— what could the plaintiff buy for ? The same, if no market existed at
Florence to buy such a stock; then, the market to which resort is usually
had may be taken into view by the jury, to enable them to make an es­




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timate; in this way alone does Nashville, Philadelphia, or any other
place than South Florence, become of importance.
The jury will exclude the demand of plaintiff for the $80 premium;
it is what he paid to enable him to hold the defendants liable— the con­
sideration of the contract; and, surely, if he recovers for a loss, that con­
sideration belongs to the defendants.
The question of interest alone remains to be settled. It must be six
per cent, and no more; the contract was made here, and the plaintiff
must have contemplated our laws at the time, so far as interest was con­
cerned. If the contract had been made in Alabama, another rule might
prevail, a higher rate of interest being there allowed.
Verdict for the plaintiff, $3,685 92.
It was ascertained that the jury took the appraisement at Philadelphia
prices, made after the fire by competent persons, on the inventory which
had been carefully taken by the sheriff at the time of the levy; and then
added interest, at six per cent, from the expiration of the thirty days after
preliminary proofs were furnished, up to the day of the verdict.
Counsel for the plaintiff— J. P. Owens, H. J. Williams, and William
M. Meredith, Esqrs.
Counsel for defendants— T. J. Wharton and J. R. Ingersoll, Esqrs.
TARIFF DUTIES.

In the United States District Court, before Judge Betts— The United
States v. Four Cases Cutlery, Edward Leon and Theodore Myers, claim­
ants and defendants, trading under the firm of Edward Leon & Co.
This was one of the many cases of seizure made by the new collector
of the port of New York, under the act of 1830, on the ground of under­
valuation of invoice.
The amount of the invoice was,
£127 13 9
The valuation of the custom-house appraisers, 191 17 7
Difference, or supposed undervaluation,
£64 3 10
Various witnesses were examined, and a variety of opinions expressed,
as to the value of the goods. The weight of testimony, however, con­
verged to one point, namely, that on manufactured articles, of which
labor constituted the principal value, and this fluctuating in price from
ten to fifteen, and sometimes twenty per cent, and the articles, when
manufactured, being frequently sold by small dealers at reduced prices to
raise money, it was possible that the goods in question might have been
bought at invoice prices, and more than probable that they were so.
It is not, therefore, necessary to encumber our pages with a full report
of this case, and we give only the conclusion of Judge Betts’s charge to
the ju ry :
It is not enough for the government to show that goods are invoiced
at a low rate, but they are bound to prove that the invoice is made out
with the intent to defraud. It remains merely for the jury to decide,
1st, has this invoice been so made out? 2d, have the government shown
this either by proof direct or inferential ? or, 3d, have the defendants
shown that they were invoiced at their fair market value ? It is a sim­
ple question of fact which they are to decide.
The jury retired, and made up a sealed verdict instanter for the de­
fendants.




Value o f the Pound Sterling.

167

The following decision is important to dealers in marble, as it estab­
lishes the point, that marble cut into blocks for the convenience of trans­
portation, is not considered manufactured marble, and must be admitted
free of duty.
The case of The United States v. William T. Wilson and George F.
Darby, in the District Court of the United States, before Judge Betts,
was an action on two custom-house bonds, dated 2d September, 1837,
given by the defendants for duties to the amount of $554 68, on fortyfive blocks of marble imported here by them, which duties had been im­
posed by the custom-house on the ground that the marble was manufac­
tured marble, whereas it was contended by the defendants that it was
unmanufactured, and ought to be admitted free of duty. The bonds were
given under protest, and were now put in suit with the view to the ob­
taining a judicial decision.
By the tariff of 1832, unmanufactured marble is admitted free of duty,
but there is a duty imposed on all manufactured marble of 25 per cent.
The case was briefly stated by B. F. Butler, Esq., the District Attorney,
and the defendants called two witnesses, one a measurer of, and the other
a dealer in, marble, from whose concurrent testimony it appeared, that the
marble had been cut into blocks simply for the convenience of transporta­
tion, and that so badly and crookedly, as to occasion a waste of the article.
The protest was produced and admitted, and here the case closed, nei­
ther of the counsel summing up.
The Court charged the jury, that the only question for their considera­
tion was, as to whether this marble was or was not manufactured. A
thing may be considered manufactured if any labor has been put upon it,
changing it from the raw material, as with bar iron. When the term
manufactured is applied to a commodity, the question then arises, has it
been removed from its character of raw material? Another question is,
in what sense or acceptation is the term “ manufactured ” used among
dealers in marble? From the evidence of the defendants’ witnesses,
it does not appear that this is a manufactured article. If this was a
manufactured article, it is your duty to render a verdict for the United
States. If unmanufactured, then for the defendants.
The jury, without leaving their seats, found for the defendants.
VALUE OF THE POUND STEELING.

We are indebted to Daniel Lord, Jr., Esq., for the following opinion
and decision respecting the value, in this country, of the pound sterling:
In the matter o f the reference between Thomas Denny, Francis Griffin,
and Thomas C. Doremus, Trustees o f the estate of Joseph Brown and
Andrew Brown, non-resident debtors, and Thomas Taylor and Tho­
mas Edward Taylor.
In this case the referees understand from both parties that they are
not required to ascertain the amount due from the debtors to their credi­
tors, but to fix the legal standard of value by which a payment due in
Pounds Sterling, can be made in the city of New York, so as to dis­
charge the debt. In other words, they are to decide upon the amount of
coin which is to be tendered here, to cover the legal value of the pound.
The pound sterling is not a coin in England, but an arbitrary or im­
aginary sum, the value of which is ascertained by some other standard,
and in the country of its adoption that standard is the sovereign, each
being of the value of twenty shillings.



168

Mercantile Law.

In estimating the value of the pound here, we reject all fluctuations of
exchange, and decide that its standard is to be fixed by metallic value
exclusively.
The value of the pound in the United States has not always been reg­
ulated by one and the same law.
By the act of Congress passed in 1790, its value was fixed, so far as
the collection of the revenue was concerned, at four dollars and forty-four
cents; and our courts, upon the authority of that act, adopted the latter
sum in liquidating the debts due in sterling money. But by the act of
June, 1834, entitled, “ an act regulating the value of certain gold coins
within the United States,” it is provided that the gold coins of Great Bri­
tain, of not less than two carats fine, shall pass current as money within
the United States, and be receivable in all payments by weight at the
rate of 94 cents and eight tenths of a cent per pennyweight.
It seems to us, therefore, that when we fix the value of the sovereign,
we of course fix the value of the pound sterling; and this value of the
sovereign must be ascertained by its weight as fixed by act of Parliament.
That weight is ascertained to be, 5 dwts., 3 grs. and 5 mi., equal in
value to four dollars 85 cents and 8 mills, and this last sum therefore is
the true legal value of the pound sterling in the United States.
I saac Carow,
D aniel L ord, Jr.,
J. P rescott H all.

June 9, 1838.
Foot and Davies of counsel for trustees; Geo. C. Goddard and Geo.
F. Allen for Taylors.
COMMISSION MERCHANTS.

The case of Isaac Grant and others v. Mark Healy, decided in the
Circuit Court of the United States, in Boston, on the 13th ultimo, was an
action brought to recover a balance of accounts. The plaintiffs are mer­
chants at Trieste, in Austria, and the defendant is a merchant of Boston.
In December, 1836, the plaintiffs’ agent in Boston, Mr. Trueman, ad­
vanced to the defendant £4,565 Sterling, by a bill drawn on Baring,
Brothers & C o.; in consideration of this the defendant agreed to ship
and did ship a cargo of sugars consigned to the plaintiffs for sale. The
vessel sailed on the voyage, and at the time of her arrival at Trieste, in
March, 1837, the market for this kind of sugars (Manilla sugars) was ex­
ceedingly depressed in consequence of some changes in the Austrian tariff
of duties, and embarrassment of the money market in Europe. The su­
gars were sold in April, 1837, at a price less than half their invoice value.
In consequence of these disastrous sales, the nett proceeds fell far short
of the advance money. This suit was brought for the balance.
The defence at the trial was, that the sale was improperly made by the
plaintiffs, and that the sugars were sacrificed, in violation of their duty, if
not in breach of their orders. The parties agreed that if the jury found
for the plaintiffs, the amount should be agreed, or be ascertained by an
' assessor. The jury found for the plaintiffs, and the parties agreed as to
the amount, except as to a single item; and that was, whether the defend­
ant should be charged according to the par of exchange, or the actual rate
of exchange between Boston and Trieste at the time of the verdict.
Judge Story said the general doctrine was clear, that wherever a debt
is made payable in one country, and it is afterwards sued for in another




Bank Statistics.

169

country, the creditor is entitled to receive the full sum necessary to replace
the money in the country, where it ought to have been paid, with interest
for the delay. In the present case, he thought that the advances having
been made in Massachusetts, if the goods sent to Trieste did not fully reim­
burse the amount, the balance was properly due and payable in Massachu­
setts. Consequently, the plaintiffs were entitled only to the balance due
at the par of exchange.
BANK
A

rt.

STATISTICS.

IX . — B A N K

OF F R A N C E .

T he following translation of the report of the Governor of the Bank of
France, with the remarks thereon, are furnished by a correspondent of
the Boston Daily Advertiser. It gives an interesting and satisfactory
view of the state and the operations of the Bank of France, of which the
public in this country are not fully informed.

Report by the Count D' Argout, Governor o f the Bank of France, 31sf
January, 1839. General operations fo r the years 1S36, 1S37, 1838.
1836.
1837.
1838.
Commercial operations in Paris, /93S,467,900 914,275,700 891,414,400
by branches,
13,765,600 25,174,200 83,025,000
..
with the treasury,
20,623,200
Total,

972,856,700 939,449,900 974,440,300

Gross Gains o f the above Operations.
5,908,100 6,301,500
Paris,
branches,
79,400
124,000
treasury,
8S.S0O
accidental operations,
148,000
127,200
2,967,200 2,967,300
fixed benefits,

5,789,500
528,600
126,400
2,967,300

9,191,500 9,520,000 9,411,S00
The sums advanced to the public
in different ways amount to /9 7 2 ,000,000 939,000,000 9,740,000
Dividends on bank shares,
/II4
/1 2 6
/II
The number of Bills discounted has quadrupled since 1828. In 1S28
there were but 192,000, in 1838, 576,000.*
The average value of said bills has decreased one half in the same
time, or say from /2,516 to /1,390. The 576,000 bills in 1838, were
composed as follows : —
1,000 francs and upwards,
228,000
999 to 200 francs,
280,000
199 francs and under,
68,000
from which it will be seen that 348,000, or-J-^of the whole, were for less
than 1,000/ each. At the commencement of the year, the bills receivable
* In 1836, there were 406,000, and in 1837, 440,000. The quantity of bills re­
ceivable has also quadrupled; in 1828 there were 30,000, in 1838, 122,000.
VOL. I . ---- NO. H.




22

170

Bank Statistics.

amounted to 92 millions, and at the moment of this report amount to 192
millions. Augmentation 71 millions.*
The payment of the proceeds of notes on the day on which they are
discounted continues to have a beneficial influence, and the public has
profited largely of that facility, but the difficulties of its execution are
very great. Formerly a discount of 4,000 bills was considered large,
and they were credited the following day.t
In 1838, the discount committee decided at one sitting upon 11,500
bills, the nett proceeds of which were held subject to the disposition of
those offering them before the closing of the Bank the same day. The
collections have been still more laborious. The number of bills collected
the last day of one month was 41,000 at 16,000 different addresses or
domicils. Formerly, when the commercial movement was less, and the
average value of the bills was greater, the collections at the end of the
month never exceeded 20,000 bills.
In 1837, the Bank collected 599,000 bills, amounting to 802 millions
of francs, averaging/l,337.
In 1838, the Bank collected 680,000 bills, amounting to 948 millions
of francs, averaging/1,393.
The accounts current have somewhat diminished in 1838— that with
the Treasury has augmented. At the end of 1836, the Bank owed it
38 millions, 1837,63 millions, and in September last 170 millions. The
amount now due is 165 millions.!
The maximum of the circulation of Bank bills was 227 millions, and
the minimum 195 millions. In 1837, the variation was from 216 to 190
millions. §
The movement general of the “ Caisse” amounts to 7 milliards 166
* The average value was l,868f. in 1836, and l,709f. in 1837.
t These payments in 1838 amounted to one half the quantity and sum.
| The Bank of England, organized with such perfection, discounted at the time of
the crisis in 1836, 4200 hills in one day, which fact was noticed as worthy of attention.
§ The bank has sometimes been reproached for not endeavoring to extend its cir­
culation, (a) and a contrary reproach has often been made to the Bank of England.
A fact not before signalized is, that the Bank of France in the vicinity of Paris has
as large a circulation as the Bank of England in the vicinity of London, taking into
view population and commercial movement. The circulation of the Bank of Eng­
land, deducting that of its branches, established after the emissions made at London,
gives an average for the years 1835, 1836, 1837, of /360,000,000.
The circulation of the Bank of France in 1836, 1837, 1838, was on an average
/

210,000,000 .

The counties of Surrey and Middlesex contain a population of 1,844,000 souls.
The department of the Seine, 1,106,000 souls.
The proportion made upon this calculation equalizes the circulation within 5 mil­
lions of francs, but made upon the following it approaches still nearer :
The movement general of the importations and exportations of England, calculating
the latter not after the Custom House taritf, but after the declared real value, in 1835,
1836, and 1837, amount to /2 ,852,000,000.
The average of the same in France, for the same term, is 1,678,000,000.
These two terms applied in comparison to the two circulations, it is found to be
equal, or within one million of francs.
It must be remarked, that the use of paper credit is much more ancient in England
than in France, and enters much more into the custom s of the population, and also
that the Bank of England emits bills of/125, whereas that of France none less than
500/.
( a ) No calculation is here made showing the comparison of circulation, taking
the C a p ita ls of the two Banks as a basis.




Bank o f France.

171

millions of francs, and is less by 486 millions than in 1837— a reduction
caused principally in the movement of bank bills.*
Expenses. — The expenses of administration have increased. In 1835,
they amounted to 933,000 francs only — in 1838, to 1 million 76,000;
67,900 francs of which for building.
The persons employed have increased 24; and 218 agents of all grades
transact the entire operations of the Bank.f
Branches. — In 1^37, the Bank had but two branches— Besieres and St.
Etienne— it now has four, St. Quentian and Montpelier having been added.
In 1836 the
two branches discounted 13,700,000f.
1837
..
..
..
25,100,000
1838 the four
..
..
83,000,000
The bills receivable have followed the same movement. The circula­
tion has not kept pace with the discounts.
The bills of the branches have been reimbursed by the Bank when
presented, but these reimbursements have only amounted to 3,300,000f.
The Bank has sent them in specie 33 millions, and the Beceveurs-generaux have paid, in 17 millions for account of the Treasury.
The effect produced by the branches has been salutary, having facili­
tated and multiplied the relations with the capital; have contributed to
develop local transactions; have rendered them more certain and regular,
and had a good influence on the rate of interest in the provinces; and it
was in the interest of the country, and not that of the Bank, they were
established. They are no gain to the Bank.t
With the same view the Bank in Paris has facilitated those of the
departments by discounting at the end of the year against State stocks
a sum of 14 millions 700,000 francs.
In December, 1836, the discounts amounted to 82,078,000f.
1837,
..
..
59,235,000
1838,
..
..
106,773,000
and never before did the discounts in any one month amount to 100 millions.
Events have proved the solidity of the Bank. Its credit has been con­
solidated, and it has resisted four great commercial crises, three revolu­
tions, and two invasions.§
The bank operations with the Treasury consist, we believe, simply
of an account current, in which the former pays no interest to the latter,*§
* Comparison of the general movement of the “ Caisse” in 1837 and 1838.
Specie.
Bills.
Transfers.
Total.
1837 675,000,000
4,550,000,000 2,425,000,000
7,652,000,000
1838 720,000,000
3,775,000,000 2,671,000,000 7,166,000,000
Augt.
45,000,000
_
246,000,000
Diminution.
775,000,000
486,000,000
f These 218 persons employed are composed of 101 Clerks—paying and writing—
117 runners—domestics for bureau and counting houses—printers, porters, guards,
and laborers for the mother bank.
J The difference between the branches in France, and those of England, are im­
mense in their circulation, and in favor of the latter, though the discounts bear a near
proportion. The Montpelier branch, after six months activity, equalled in bills re­
ceivable the branch at Liverpool, and surpassed those of Manchester and Leeds.
§ The same can be said of but few institutions within the 25 years. Four times
England has been desolated with the downfall of her Banks, and at three different
times those of America have been terribly shaken, or stopped specie payments; Eng­
land has not been invaded, and neither country has suffered interior revolution 1




172

B ank Statistics.

but, on the contrary, reimburses the Treasury at such points of the coun­
try as may be required, charging a small commission for such service.
When the Bank is under advance to the Treasury it charges 4 per cent
interest per annum.
The “ fixed benefits” of the Bank consist in interest and dividends
accruing from its reserved fund.
The Bank was established in 1804, with a capital of 45 millions of francs
— 45,000 shares of 1000 francs each— for fifteen years. In 1807 the capi­
tal was doubled, and the charter extended to 40 years, or to the 22d Sept.
1843. In 1808 liberty was granted to the Bank for creating branches.
The operations consist in discounting paper at three months, with three
signatures, or two signatures where stocks are lodged as collateral.
In making advances on “ lingots,” gold or silver, at an interest of J per
cent for 45 days. No deposit of over 10,000 francs is received.
Receive in trust national or foreign Stock, and diamonds, charging ^
per cent for 6 months. Silver plate not received.
The Bank of France alone can issue bank bills at sight.
Discounts every day except Sundays and fetes — Rate of interest deter­
mined by the “ Conseil Generate,” which at this time is 4 per cent.
Conseil Generale consists of 15 members.
Conseil d’Escompte consists of 12 members.
Bank Shares worth, 10th February, 2585 francs each.
There are now departmental Banks in Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux,
Rouen, Havre, and Lafitte’s Banking Co. in Paris.*
In 183S, the shares of the Bank of France were held by 4206 individ­
uals; 59,771 shares during that time have not changed hands; 8,129
shares have been transferred, of which 1,928 in consequence of death.
There has been a great movement in the specie composing the reserve
fund of the Bank.
At the end of 1837 there were 248 millions; and in June it rose to
298 millions; and in December it descended to 232 millions, against
208 millions in bills circulating at the same time.
Towards the end of the year specie was called for, as usual, for the
payment of the products of the interior; and in addition to this the sus­
pension of specie payments in Belgium caused a demand for that country.
It is worthy of note, that every evening all the accounts at the Bank
are made up, the balance of each struck, and handed to the Governor,
and a copy is sent to the Minister of Finances.
It will be noticed that bills are collected by the Bank a domicile, and
that they are not received as in America at the Bank.
PARIS SAVINGS BANK.
T he directors of the Savings Bank of Paris have just published their
annual report for 1839, of which the following is the substance:
The total amount invested, on January 1st, 1838, was,
For the departments,
56,578,063f.
For Paris,
50,304,516




Total,

106,S82,579f.

* These have no connexion with the Bank of France.

173

Paris Savings Bank.
At the close of 1838, the deposites amounted to

For the departments,
For Paris,

83,033,131f.
62,870,779
Total,

145,923,910f.

Thus, during 1838 there was an augmentation of 38,000,000 of francs,
of which 26,000,000 fr. were for the departments, and 12,000,000 fr. for
the capital. The difference between investments and reimbursements,
which in 1837 was only 477,363 fr., amounted in 1838 to 12,664,202 fr.
The difference between the number of new accounts opened, and of
those which were closed during 1838, was an increase of 17,312; so
that the whole number of accounts open on the 31st December last, was
102,190. At this moment the number is 105,000.
The relative proportion between the population and the number of
depositors, appears from the following calculation:
Of 310,000 men, 55,000 have accounts, or 11 in 100. Of 320,000
women, 56,000 have accounts, or 11 in 100. Of 260,000 children, 9,000
have accounts, or 4 in 100. Totals, 890,00 persons, 100,000 accounts,
or 11 in 100. With regard to the professions or employment of the
depositors, it appears that the most economical persons are domestic ser­
vants and those who have fixed salaries. Out of 68,000 persons, the
total number of both sexes in Paris who are domestics or have fixed
salaries, 22,000 have accounts in the Savings Bank, being 33 in 100.
The total number of smiths, painters, joiners, masons, etc. employed in
building, is 30,000, of whom 7,809 have accounts, or 26 in 100. Work­
men engaged as cabinet makers, upholsterers, goldsmiths, and similar
luxuries, amount to 28,000, of whom 8,600 have accounts, or 31 in 100.
Persons employed as tailors, shoe makers, and other trades connected with
clothing, amount to 31,000, of whom 7,600 have accounts, or 25 in 100.
Clerks and other persons employed as writers, etc. amount to 20,000, of
whom 4,500 have accounts, or 23 in 100. Thus, out of 100,000 work­
men of different descriptions in Paris, 28,000 have accounts, or 28 in 100.

SCOTCH BANKS.
The following table, in relation to the celebrated Scotch Banks, may not
be without interest to the readers of the Magazine. These banks have been
as conspicuous for their usefulness, as they have been for their stability.
Name of Company.

Paid up
Capital.

Bank of Scotland
Stock £1,000,000
2,000,000
Royal of Scotland
500,000
British Linen Company
500,000
Commercial
8,000
Glasgow Union
50,000
National Union
800,000
Western of Scotland
Eastern




Div.per Paid
Each. Ann. up. Price.
6
5£
8
6
250 6
100 6
200 5

p. c.
p. c.
p. c.
p. c.
p. c.
p. c.
p. c.

100
100
100
100
50
10
40
10

180
163
238
175
85
16
57

174

Miscellaneous Statistics.

MISCELLANEOUS

STATISTICS.

DEBTS OF THE SEVEBAL STA TES.

May, 183S, after the passage of the General Banking Law, authorizing the Comp­
troller to issue circulating Bank Notes, on a pledge of the evidences of public debt of
the several States, Mr. Flagg sent a circular to the financial officer of each Slate, soli­
citing information in regard to the amount of stock created, the rate of interest and
when payable, the mode of transferring the stock, whether specific funds were pledged
for the payment of interest, and whether the interest in all cases was paid by the
State. Full answers were received to these inquiries, except in two or three cases.
And the amount of stock actually issued, previous to the time of giving the information,
(say June, 1838,) was stated in the Comptroller’s annual Report of 1839, page 89, at
$23,703,750 11.
The following tables show the total amount of stock issued, and authorized to be is­
sued, by each of the eighteen States which have resorted to this mode of raising money.
Where the returns from the financial officer did not afford all the information which
was desired, the State laws have been examined to ascertain the extent of the autho­
rized loans. The operations of many of the States have been so extensive and varied,
that it is not an easy matter to get at the precise amount of stock issued and authorized
to be issued. It is probable, however, that the aggregate amount of stock authorized
by all the States, is even greater than the amount stated in the tables.
In

S ta tem e n t o f th e A m o u n t o f Stocks a n d B o n d s issu ed a n d a u th o r iz e d to be issu ed b y the
severa l S ta te s n a m ed b e lo w ; g i v i n g th e Y e a r in w h ich each S ta te com m enced issu in g
S tock, th e object f o r w h ich issu ed , a n d th e r a te o f in terest.

N am e o f
S ta te .

Y e a r in
w h ich is ­
sue o f
stockcomm enced.

F o r w h a t object issu ed.

Maine

1830 Ins. Hospitals, Prim. Schools,
Bounty on Wheat, and Ge-

Massach’ts
New York

1837
1823
Loan to Hud. and Del. Canal

Fennsylva.

1821
For Turnpikes and Bridges .

Maryland

1824

Washington Monument. . . .
Virginia

J820 For Canals and River Navig.
For Revolutionary Debt. . . .

S. Carolina

1820




Cincinnati & Charleston R.R.
To rebuild Charleston.........
Revolutionary Debt..............

A m ount fo r
each object.

T o ta l.

R a te
per
cent.

$554,976 00 $554,976 00 5,55,6
5
4,200,000 00 4,200,000 00
6
548.000 00
5
11,968,674 41
800.000 00
5
41,5
3,787,700 00
5
10,000 00
5
586^532 43
5
561^500 00 18,262,406 84
5
16,576,527 00
5
4,964,484 00
5
2,595,992 00
5
3,166,787 00 27,306,790 00
5
30,000 00
5
97,947 30
5
78,000 00
5,6
5.500.000 00
5,6
5.700.000 00
10,000 00
*5
5
77,033 43 11,492,980 73
3,835,350 00
5,5*,6
2,128,900 00
5,52,6
5,51,6
354,800 00
24,039 00
6
7
319,000 00 8,662,089 00
1,550,000 00
5,6
6
10,000 00
2,000^000 00
5
5
2,000,000 00
193,770 12 5,753,770 12
3

Miscellaneous Statistics.

175

1823 For B anking........................... 7,800,000 00
5
3,000,000 00 10,800,000 00
5
5
22,950,000 00
Louisiana 1824
500^000 00
6
New Orleans Draining Co. . .
50.000 00
5
10.000 00
6
125',000 00
5
100,000 00 23,735,000 00
5
3,000^000 00
Tennessee 1833
118,166 66
Rail Roads and Turnpikes. . . 3.730.000 00
300,(TOO 00 7,148,166 66
5
2,000,000 00
Kentucky 1834
5
Improving Rivers by locks,&c. 2.619.000 00
5
Turnpike & McAdam Roads . 2.400.000 00
5
350,000 00 7.369.000 00
5
Ohio
1825
6,101,000 00 6.101.000 00
6
1832
1.390.000 00
Indiana
5
6.700.000 00
5
2^600^000 00
5
1,150,000 00
5
' 50*000 00 11,800,000 00
5
3,000,000 00
Illinois
6
1831
7'400'000 00
6
500^000 00
6
For Payment of State Debt . . 100,000 00
6
600,000
00
6
For River Navigation, &c. . .
11,600,000 00
1837
2,500,000 00 2,500,000 00
Missouri
5
Mississippi 1831
7'000'000 00 7.000.
000 00 5
3,000,000 00 3.000.
1836
Arkansas
000 00 5
' ioo' ooo 00
Michigan
1836
6
Internal Improvements......... 5,000.000 00
120,000 00
6
20,000 00
100,000 00 5,340,000 00
University...............................
Whole am o u n t........................................... $170,805,179 35
If to the above be added the amount deposited by the United
States in the treasuries of the several States for safe
keeping,......................................................................................... 28,101,644 97
It makes the aggregate debt of all the States, existing and
authorized,................................................................................. 198,907,824 32
M aine.—The stock issued by this state is to be redeemed under the direction of the
legislature, by the sale of public lands, from the debts due the state, by taxes, or new
loans, as may be deemed expedient from time to time. The amount of notes due from
individuals to the state, (August, 1838,) is $326,721. The whole amount of located
lands belonging to the state, is 1,400,000 acres, valued at $1,500,000. The undivided
lands belonging to Maine are estimated at 3,011,000 acres, making the total number
of acres 4,411,000. This total includes half of the land north of the St. John’s river,
in the King of Holland’s award. The stock of this state is negotiable and transfera­
ble by the holder, and the interest in all cases is payable by the state. The interest
on $235,000 is payable at Boston, annually; and the interest on the residue at the
state Treasury, annually and semi-annually ; the stock bears interest at 5, 51, and 6
per cent. The value of the taxable property of the state in 1830, was $28,807,687 24.
N ew H ampshire has issued no stock. The expenses of government are defrayed
Alabama

by a direct tax.
V ermont.—This state has issued no stock.
Connecticut.—This state has issued no stock or bills of credit, since the revolu­

tionary war.

“

The amount of grand list is $97,122,697,” in 1837.

R hode I sland.—This state has issued no stock. Valuation in Jan. 1824, $32,640,000.
M assachusetts.—Interest on two millions of stock payable in London by the rail­

road corporation, in whose favor the stock is created; the interest on the rest is paya­
ble at the state Treasury, the several corporations reimbursing the Treasury, for the
interest so paid out. The scrip in all cases is made payable to bearer, and no form is
necessary in transferring the same. The real and personal property within the state
is $208,360,407.



176

Miscellaneous Statistics.

N ew Y oke.—This state commenced issuing stock in 1817, for the construction of
the Erie and Champlain canals. The sum of $600,000 was issued prior to 1820.
The law of 1817 created a board of commissioners of the canal fund, consisting of the
state officers, and placed under the management of the board specific revenues which
were pledged for the payment of the money borrowed. There has been derived from
the auxiliary funds thus set apart since the first organization of the canal fund, the
sum of $5,824,761; which exceeds by $276,000 the whole amount paid for interest
on all the money borrowed for the Erie and Champlain canals for 21 years, from 1817
to 1838. From 1821 to 1838, these two canals have yielded in tolls $15,088,375 97.
The result is, that the whole of the original debt is provided for, and except about
2i millions, has been paid off, and the stock cancelled. The laws authorizing money
to be borrowed previous to 1825, contained the following provision, viz. — “ That it
shall not be lawful for the commissioners of the canal fund to make loans, under
this act, beyond such amounts as for the payment of the interest thereof, the canal
fund, at the time, shall be deemed ample and sufficient.”
In 1825, the financial policy in regard to moneys borrowed, was changed, and loans
from that time to the present have been authorized without setting apart specific funds
for the payment of interest. In each case, however, the payment of the interest is
made a charge on the Treasury; and provision has been made to borrow from the Erie
and Champlain canal fund to meet this demand on the Treasury. In 1837, after the
suspension of specie payments, this state paid the interest on its whole debt in coin, and
redeemed aboutone million of the stock due in 1837,by paying 109 dollars in New York
city paper for each 100 dollars of stock redeemed. For six years, from 1833 to 1838, the
revenue from the tolls of the canals, after defraying all expenses of repairs, and paying
interest on the whole amount of the outstanding debts, has yielded an average surplu f
of $610,000 per annum. This surplus will sustain a debt of 12 millions of dollars.
The stocks issued by the state of New York are transferable in the city of New
York, either by the owner in person or by a power of attorney. The original certifi­
cate in all cases to be produced when the transfer is made.
The aggregate valuation of real and personal estate in 1837 was $627,554,784.
P ennsylvania.— This state pays the interest on its stock at the Bank of Pennsylva­
nia, where the stock is transferable. The following revenues are set apart for the
payment of interest on the stock loans, viz. canal and rail-road tolls, dividends on
turnpike and bridge stock, auction duties, collateral inheritances, county rates and
levies, tax on personal property, and escheats. Whenever the revenues arising from
the above sources is not sufficient for the payment of the interest on the stock loans,
the deficiency is taken out of the Treasury proper. The acts of assembly directing
the loans to be made, direct also that the Governor shall borrow on the credit of the
commonwealth, and such fund or funds as have been or shall be created, for securing
the punctual payment of the interest, and the reimbursement of the principal.
The aggregate valuation of real and personal estate in 1835 was $294,509,187. »
N ew J ersey has not issued stock of any kind, or loaned her credit to any company.
M aryland.— This state in all cases pays the interest on the stock, half yearly and
quarterly, but the companies which the state has aided by its loans, reimburse the
Treasury for the amount of interest paid from time to time. A sinking fund has
been established, from premiums and other sources, which now (1838) amounts to
$1,070,306 03, which is applied to the purchase of the state stock.
During the suspension of specie payments, this state did not pay the interest on its
stock, either in specie or its equivalent. Some of the holders of the stock refused to
receive depreciated bank paper for the dividends, and the treasurer, in Dec. 1837,
reported this fact to the legislature, and in March, 1838, an act was passed which
provides that the state treasurer shall cause the interest on the state stock that shall
hereafter accrue, and that which has accrued since the first of April, 1837, to be paid
“ either in coin or its equivalent in current bank notes, to be determined by the com­
missioners of loans by the price of coin in Baltimore on the quarter day.”
The private, real, and personal property, other than merchandise, and rights and
credits of all sorts, is estimated at over $100,000,000. No uniform mode of valuing
property throughout the state is observed. In most of the counties, the valuations
are made under the acts of 1785 and 1797, which require all lands to be put down at
$3 per acre, male slaves at the highest $100, and females at $80 each.
V i r g i n i a .— The interest on the stock issued by this state is payable semi-annually
at the treasury in gold or silver. The profits of the imnrovements for which the
stock is issued are pledged for the payment of interest and ormcipal; and if necessary,
the general revenues of the commonwealth are pledged for (he payment of the interest.
The aggregate valuation of the real property of the state in 1818 was 206,893,978;




Miscellaneous Statistics.

177

and now probably three hundred millions. There is no mode of ascertaining the
personal property.
S outh Carolina.— The faith of the state and the capital of the Bank of the state of
South Carolina, and the annual dividends thereof, pledged for the payment of $800,000
issued from 1822 to 1826. And the annual dividends have been formed into a sinking
fund for that purpose, and, at this time, (Oct. 1838,) amount to upwards of $800,000, so
that the six per cents, redeemable in 1840, will no doubt then be paid. The interest on
two millions, to be loaned to the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston rail-road, is
payable semi-annually in London. The two millions for rebuilding a part of Charles­
ton is to be loaned to individuals, and the stock to be reimbursed from the mortgages
of individuals. The interest on the state stock is payable semi-annually in London.
Valuation of property, $200,000,000.
Ohio.— The interest on the stock of this state is payable in New York, where the
stock is transferable. Auxiliary funds are set apart for the payment of the interest,
and in case of a deficiency therein, it is made the duty of the Auditor of State to levy
an adequate amount by direct taxation. The loans were invariably made on pledges
of specific revenues for the payment of both principal and interest.
The state of Ohio, at the commencement of its loans, organized a system of finance
on a firm foundation, providing by direct taxation for the payment of the interest and
the ultimate redemption of the principal. In 1837, after the suspension of specie
payments, Ohio paid the interest on its debts in New York city paper, at the rate of
109 dollars for each $100 of interest.
Aggregate valuation of real and personal property, $110,000,000.
K entucky.— This state in all cases pays the interest on her own stocks. Auxiliary
funds are set apart for the payment of the interest ; but if these funds should prove
insufficient, the state is bound to resort to direct taxes. In 1836, the legislature
established a sinking fund for the payment of the debt; to which fund is appropriated
bonuses and dividends on bank stock, premiums on scrip, state dividends in turnpike
stock and all internal improvements, profits of the Commonwealth’s bank, proceeds
of state stock in the old Bank of Kentucky, and the excess in the Treasury over ten
thousand dollars of each year. The Governor, by an act passed in 1838, is authorized
to borrow any sum, not exceeding the capacity of the sinking fund to pay the interest,
and ultimately the principal, of the state bonds, at an interest not exceeding 6 per
centum per annum.
Taxation is confined to specific subjects. The aggregate value of such as are charge­
able with revenue is $217,453,041, upon which a tax of ten cents on the 100 is paid.
I llinois.—The state in all cases pays the interest on the stock. In addition to
the usual pledge of the faith of the state, lands, revenues, &c., there is specifically
pledged for the redemption of the canal bonds, the lands granted by the general gov­
ernment to aid in constructing the canal; the estimate of which is equal to the whole
cost of the canal. There is also pledged for the interest and final redemption of the
bank bonds, the dividends and the stock owned by the state in the banks, which
amounts to nearly half a million of dollars more than the amount of these bonds.
I ndiana.— The canal lands granted to the state by the general government on the
W abash river, are pledged for the payment of the loans made on account of the W abash
canal. The interest on the bonds issued to the State Bank is paid by the bank.
In 1837, after the suspension of specie payments, this state purchased coin to pay
the interest on its debt; and for the July quarter paid 111 dollars in New York
paper for each $100 in coin.
Aggregate valuation in 1837, estimated at $95,000,000.
L ouisiana.— The interest on the state bonds is paid by the respective banks to
which they were originally issued. The interest on other state stocks is paid out of
any moneys in the treasury.
The Bank of Louisiana, two millions of stock, the profits retained for redemption
of the instalment of 1839, sufficient to cover the amount, $600,000.
C onsolidation A ssociation.— These bonds are guarantied by mortgages on real
productive property, amounting to three millions of dollars. No stockholder can'
borrow more than 50 per cent on his stock, and this amount is returned by yearly
instalments to meet the payment of the bonds by the bank. The state for its guar­
antee is considered as stockholder for one million of dollars, and on the payment of
the bonds will divide accordingly with the stockholders. Dividends are only declared
as the bonds are paid, and in the same proportion. The profits, until then, are
retained as a sinking fund to meet the redemption of the bonds.
The Union Bank has bonds to the amount of seven millions of dollars, and is
conducted on similar principles as the above. The original guarantee on mortgages
VOL. I.--- NO. II.




23

178

Miscellaneous Statistics.

of productive property is eight millions. The state for its guarantee is to receive
one sixth of the nett proceeds.
The Citizens’ Bank has received bonds to the amount of eight millions of dollars,
can demand four millions more, and is conducted on the same principle as above
described. The guarantee is on $14,000,000 of mortgages on real productive property.
The state holds one sixth of the nett profits, which are only to be divided as the
bonds are paid by the bank, and in the same proportion.
M ississippi.— This state has issued bonds on the faith of the state to the amount of
seven millions of dollars, and has subscribed that amount in the stock of two banks.
M issouri has issued bonds to the amount of $2,500,000 to the State Bank of Mis­
souri.
A rkansas has issued three millions of bonds to two banks in that state.
M ichigan.—The proceeds of the public works as well as the faith of the state
pledged for five millions — the lands set apart for the University pledged for the loan
for that object. The loans to rail-roads are secured by pledge of the roads, &c. The
interest on $100,000 issued to defray the expenses of the controversy with Ohio, is
to be paid by a direct tax.
N orth Carolina.—This state has set apart a large amount of funds for internal
improvements and for the establishment of public schools, which is placed under the
direction of two boards, styled the Literary and Internal Improvement boards.
These funds, until required to meet specific appropriations by the legislature, are
loaned out to individuals and corporations at six per cent. The state of North Caro­
lina owes no debt.
T ennessee .— The interest on the state bonds subscribed to the Union Bank, was
paid by the dividends on the stock, until the revulsion of 1837, after which the state
paid the interest from the ordinary resources of the treasury. The interest on the
bonds issued to rail-roads and turnpike companies is paid by the state, and the com­
panies are required to reimburse the Treasury for the sum from time to time paid.
S ta tem e n t s h o w in g th e A m o u n t o f S tocks issu ed , a n d a u th o r iz e d b y la w to be issu ed , b y
th e severa l S ta tes n a m ed below , in each p e r io d o f f iv e y ea rs, f r o m 1820 to 1835, a n d
f r o m 1835 to 1838.*

' sta tes.

F rom 1820 F ro m 1825 F ro m 1830 F ro m 1835
to 1825.
to 1830.
to 1835.
to 1838.

* 6 ,8 7 2 ,7 8 1
1,G 80,000

1.624.000 2 204 979
6 .3 0 0 .0 0 0 16,130,003

5 7 ,9 4 7
f l , 030,0 0 0
1 1 ,2 5 0 ,0 0 0

576,6 8 9
469,0 0 0
310 000
4 ,4 0 0 ,0 0 0

5 5 4 ,9 7 6
4,2 1 0 311
6 8 6 ,500

12,229,288
3,1 6 6 ,7 8 7
4,290,000
6,648,033
4 139 700
4 ,0 0 0 '0 0 0

1,701 ,000

100,000

600,000
1 ,8 9 0 ,000
1 500 000
2 ,2 0 0 ,0 0 0

1 ,800,000

2 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0
7 ,3 3 5 ,0 0 0

7.359.000
11,000,000
10,000,000
6.648.000
8.500.000
2,500 000
5,000,000
14,000,000
3,000,000
5,340,000

T o ta l.

2 2 ,931,048
2 7 ,3 0 6 ,7 9 0
4 .2 9 0 .0 0 0
554,976
11,492,980
6,319,050
5.56 0 .0 0 0
6 .1 0 1 .0 0 0
7.369.000
ll,6 j0 0 ,0 0 0
11.890.000
7 .1 4 8 .0 0 0
10.800.000
2.50 0 .0 0 0
7 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0
2 3 ,7 3 5 ,0 0 0
3 nno non
5 ,3 4 0 ,0 0 0

1 2 ,790,728 13 ,6 7 9 ,6 8 9 40 ,0 1 2 ,769 108,423,808 1 7 4,937,844

* Of this amount, about four and a half millions has been redeemed.
■(•Virginia has a war debt of $343,139 17, contracted previous to 1820.
| South Carolina has a revolutionary debt of $193,770 12.




Miscellaneous Statistics.

179

S u m m a ry o f th e A m o u n t o f S to ck issu ed, a n d a u th o r iz e d to be issu ed , f o r B a n k in g , f o r
C an als, R a i l R o a d s, T u rn p ik es, a n d f o r M iscella n eo u s objects.

STATES.

New York. . .
Pennsylvania.
Massachusetts
M aine............
Maryland . . .
Virginia . . . .
So. Carolina. .
Ohio..............
Kentucky . . .
Illin o is..........
Indiana.........
Tennessee. . .
A labama. . . .
Missouri . . . .
Mississippi . .
Louisiana . . .
Arkansas . . .
Michigan. . . .

For
B a n k in g .

12,000,000
3,000,000
1,390,000
3,000,000
7,800,000
2,500,000
7,000,000
22,950,00C
3,000,000

F or
C an als.

F or
For
M isc e lla n e ­
R a il R o a d s. T u rn p ik es.
ous.

T o ta l.

13,31G,674 3,787,700
1,158,032 18,262,406
16,579,527 4,964,484 2,595,992 3,166,787 27,306,790
4,290,000
4,290,000
554,976
554,976
-*
5,700,000 5,500,000
292,980 11,492,980
3,835,350 2,128,900
354,800
343,139 6,662,089
1,550,000 2,000,000
2,203,770 5,753,770
6,101,000
6,101,000
*2,619,000
350,000 2,400,000
7,369,000
*900,000 7,400,000
300,000 11,600.000
6,750,000 2,600,000 1,150,000
11,890,000
*300,000 3,730,000
118,166
7,148,166
3,000,000
10,800,000
2,500,000
7,000,000
50,000
500,000
235,000 23,735,000
3,000,000
2,500,000 2,620,000
220,009 5,340,000

52,640,000 60,201,551 42,871,084 6,618,958 8,474,684 170,806,177
* Whole or part for improvement of River Navigation.
NATIONAL DEBTS.

A T a b le e x h ib itin g th e N a tio n a l D e b t o f E n g la n d , a n d other C ountries, w ith th e •propor­
tio n o f such deb t w h ich f a ll s on each in d iv id u a l, as fu rn ish e d b y M r . C oby, in th e
B r itis h H ou se o f Com m ons, on th e debate r e la tiv e to the Corn L a w s , M a rc h 12, 1839.

COUNTRIES.

A m o u n t o f D e b t.

£800,000,000
M^lOOjOOO
35.550.000
78.100.000
29.701.000
148,500^000
70,000,000

East India Company’s Territories........................




P r o p o r tio n
p e r h ead.
£32
5

0
2
2
23
5

0s
19
11
7
7
5
0

0d
7
9
6
7
5
8

18,974,000
11,311,000
4.584.000
3.667.000

2 11
2 16
1 1
0 7

2
0
2
8

5.649.000
3.799.000
17,142,000
5^740,000
3.300.000
2.284.000
l ’670j000
2^05,000
1,384,000
1,184,000
220^000

1 2
1 18
7 9
1 3
2 9
1 11
1 9
1 12
1 4
1 3
0 6

6
4
0
3
1
0
2
7
11
11
1

252,000
47,609,000

0
0

3
9

1
O

Navigation.

180

NAVIGATION.
ATLANTIC STEAM SHIPS.— GREAT WESTERN.

A

ta b le o f a ll th e p a s s a g e s o f th e stea m s h ip G r e a t W estern , betw een B r is to l a n d N e w
Y o rk , fr o m A p r il , 1838, to J u ly , 1839, sh o w in g th e tim e o f h er d ep a rtu re f r o m , a n d
a r r iv a l a t, each p o r t, e tc., etc., fu r n is h e d f o r p u b lic a tio n in o u r M a g a z in e b y R ichard
I rvin, E sq.
FROM BRISTOL TO NEW YORK.

S a ile d .

A r r iv e d .

N o. D a ys.

FROM NEW YORK TO ERISTOL.

S a ile d .

A r r iv e d .

N o. D ays

141
May 7
April 8
April 23
May 22
141
14
June 2
June 17
June 25
July 8
13
14
Aug. 16
July 21
Aug. 5
Aug. 30
131
151
Sept.
24
Oct.
4
Sept. 8
Oct. 16
12
Oct. 27
Nov. 15
18
Nov. 23
Dec. 7
131
Jan. 28
181
Feb. 25
Feb. 16
March 12
15
March 23
April 14
211
April 22
May 7
144
May 18
May 31
13
June 26
June 13
13
July 22
July 6
151
The average of passages from New York to Bristol, 131 days. The shortest pas­
sage was 121 days ; the longest, 15 days.
The average of passages from Bristol to New York was 161 days ; the shortest
having been 13 days, the longest 211 days.
The average of all the passages, out and home, was fifteen days. The whole time
employed in the first fifteen passages, excluding fifty-two days, during which the ship
lay up refitting, was twelve months and one day. The whole time spent at sea, in
the fifteen passages, was two hundred and twenty-five days. In these two hundred
and twenty-five days, the ship must have sailed, in all, about fifty-one thousand miles,
giving an average progress of two hundred and twenty-seven miles per day, and
about nine and a half miles per hour, out and home, summer and winter.
By one of the passages from New York to Bristol, dispatches by the ship were
received in Liverpool and London on the thirteenth day after leaving New York, say
on the evening of the seventeenth of October, having left New York on the afternoon
of the fourth of that month. By the same, and by one other passage, passengers and
dispatches reached Paris, by way of England, on the fifteenth day.
TRANS-ATLANTIC STEAM SHIPS COMPANY S SHIPS.---- ROYAL WILLIAM AND
LIVERPOOL.
A ta b le o f a ll trie p a s sa g e s o f th e T r a n s -A tla n tic S te a m S h ip s C o m p a n y's sh ip s, R o y a l
W illia m a n d L iv e r p o o l, betw een L iv e r p o o l a n d N e w Y o rk , f r o m J u ly , 1838, to J u n e,
1839, s h o w in g th e tim e o f th e ir d ep a rtu re fr o m , an d a r r iv a l a t, each p o r t, etc., fu r n is h e d
f o r p u b lic a tio n in ou r M a g a z in e b y A braham B ell , E sq.
FROM LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK.

S a ile d .

A r r iv e d .

N o . D a y s.

FROM NEW YORK TO LIVERPOOL.

S a ile d .

A r r iv e d . N o . D a y s .

Royal Wm., Aug. 4 Aug. 19
Royal Wm., July 5 July 24
181
141
Sept. 20
Oct. 10
20
Oct. 20 Nov. 5
154
Liverpool, Dee. 6 Dec. 20
Liverpool,
Nov. 6 Nov. 23
161
141
Royal Wm., Dec. 15
Jan. 6
211
Royal Wm., Jan. 16
Feb. 3
171
Liverpool,
Feb. 6 Feb. 25
181
Liverpool, Mar. 9 Mar. 25
16
April 20
May 7
161
May 18 June 1
141
June 13 June 30
161
Average Royal William and Liverpool Average Royal William and Liverpool to
from England, eighteen days.
England, 151 days.
These passages are calculated from dock to dock, and, it will be observed, the Liver­
pool’s passages are mostly made in the winter months, not the best calculated for
making short runs. Her four trips to the westward have been made within forty-twohours of the same time. She has, with but one exception, made the southern passage;
thereby lengthening her voyage, hut avoiding the risk-of running upon ice, and obtain­
ing for her passengers mild and fine weather. On her May trip she took twentythree days later news to E ngland; a few days before her arrival, she spoke a ship'
from Europe to New York, out fourteen days; she discharged her cargo in Liverpool,




Navigation.

181

took in another, and, before she again arrived in New York, spoke the same ship,
yet on her voyage to the westward.
The Royal William made her last voyage in December and January, thus proving
that a boat of her size may safely cross the Atlantic in the depth of winter.
CAPE COD HARBOR.

The attention of ship-owners and ship-masters has been lately called to Cape Cod
Harbor, as of more importance than has been heretofore supposed. The want of a
secure shelter for vessels, going from or to Boston and Salem, in time of a severe storm
from the east, or north-east, has been long felt; and the harbor inside of Race Point,
where the village of Provincetown has recently grown up, seems to have been neg­
lected ; whether from an ignorance of its advantages or not, we will not undertake to
decide. But several persons of good judgment, and of the profession of sailors, have
more recently examined it, and considered it quite safe from easterly gales, when an
attempt to run into Boston or Salem -would probably prove fatal. The harbor is
nearly a league from the extreme end of the cape. But the curve of the cape is so
great that it forms a safe riding-place for vessels when they could not remain at sea,
nor reach any other harbor in the vicinity. Formerly there was great difficulty in
getting ashore without wading, even from a large long-boat; because the shore is not
very bold—and all will recollect how much the poor pilgrims, who settled at Plymouth
in 1620, suffered in getting on shore from their boats, in November of that year, while
the Mayflower lay in that harbor. But now there are wharves, and that inconve­
nience does not exist. The village is now quite large; and people can be well accom­
modated on shore. There are neither rocks nor ice in the harbor.
An intelligent clergyman gave some account of the harbor forty-five years ago, to
the Massachusetts Historical Society ; and said that it was his opinion, as well as of
many others, “ it was one of the best and safest harbors in the state.” He says, it
had not been generally considered of the importance it ought to have been ; and adds,
that proper directions should be given for entering it. This opinion has been con­
firmed, within a few years, by other intelligent men who have examined it. An offi­
cer in the service of the United States, for surveying the coast and harbors of Massa­
chusetts, within a few years, has added his testimony to the same point. A pier of
greater extent than any now erected may be needed, but it is not deemed essential.
The most which is required, to experience the benefits of that harbor, is a true, but
full description of the bearings and relative situation of a few points in the vicinity,
and a conviction of the entire security of the place against injury in times of easterly
storms and gales. It is also stated in a late paper published in the county of Barn­
stable, that the harbor at Provincetown, or Cape Cod Harbor, is one of the best in
Massachusetts; and it is safe, whatever may be the direction of the wind. The
earliest writer of the pilgrim band of 1620 says the shape of the land forming the
harbor is like a hook.
W e think the subject deserves attention, and that extensive publicity of the advan­
tages to result from the use of the harbor, would render good service to navigation.
Vessels now coming on the coast from Europe, and aiming for Boston, in the winter
season, and in stormy weather, sometimes put away for Holmes’ Hole, at the Vine­
yard, when they might gain the harbor _of Cape Cod ; where they would be within
six hours’ sail of their port. If they go to the Vineyard, they may have to remain there
several weeks, and then have a dangerous passage to make round the whole length
of the cape ; and coasters, with flour, corn, etc., from southern ports for Boston, espe­
cially in the winter months, would find the benefit of making a harbor at Provincetown.
An early writer says, “ The curvature of the shore on the west side of Provincetown
and south of Race Point, (inside the cape,) forms a cove of about three miles. There
is good anchoring ground here, and vessels may ride safely in four or five fathoms of
water, especially when the wind is from north, or north-north-east, to south-east.” On
Race Point there are now several huts, and they are about three miles from the village
of Provincetown ; most of the way is a mere sand-bank, but before reaching the settle­
ment there is a piece of land covered with trees. In most places there is beach grass,
which grows about two feet high. About two miles and a half from Race Point, the
Humane Society have erected huts for the protection and relief of the shipwrecked
mariners at or near this place. At the head of Stout’s creek, in Truro, adjoining Pro­
vincetown on the south, there is another hut erected by the same society; and this last
building is within an hour’s walk of Provincetown. Vessels are frequently driven on
shore in severe north-east storms, between Stout’s creek, or East Harbor, and Race
Point. To know of these huts may be important to seamen. Near the East Harbor,




182

Navigation.

or Stout’s creek, near the bounces of Provincetown and Truro, there is a valley, not far
from the ocean, where are two small dwelling-houses. More huts have been erected by
the Humane Society in this vicinity. South of Stout’s creek are the Clay-pounds, so
called in T ruro; the banks are high and steep, and are washed by the Atlantic Ocean.

--------

B*###**d.

SHIPS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING-.

The frequent occurrence of this disastrous and destructive visitation, has, at length,
awakened inquiry in England, as to the best means of preventing the direful effects
of electrical discharges at sea. Information has been called for by the recently ap­
pointed naval commission, and this subject is one of those under their present conside­
ration; and a Mr. Harris has submitted proposals to the commissioners, which have
been received with favor. A late Liverpool journalist, in noticing this subject, says:
“ We have before us a catalogue of no less than one hundred and ninety-seven
cases since 1793, in the British navy alone, averaging more than three every year,
in which considerable damage was occasioned, and in many instances attended with
the loss of human life. Oftentimes during the period of the war were British ships
disabled by lightning immediately previous to entering into action, and frequently
were they obliged from the same cause to quit cruising ground, which to retain was
of the utmost importance.
“ Ships, or rather the masts of ships, at sea, are the only prominent points exposed
and opposed to the accumulated masses of electrical matter, which, striving to regain
equilibrium, break through the atmosphere at the point rendered the least resistant by
the towering masts diminishing the resisting medium, pass down the masts, and,
encountering imperfect conductors, cause havoc in their course. The iron, frequent
in the vane-staffs and trucks of mast-heads, presents a free point of attraction and pas­
sage for the electric fluid; and if this, or any other conducting metal, were continued
down the masts and through the hull of the vessel, sufficient to influence the choice of
the lightning, the discharge would be rendered harmless ; because in no case will the
electric fluid turn aside except for equally good conductors where there may be several.
But in the absence of such conducting medium, the fluid seeks out a passage for itself,
destroying substances of an imperfectly conducting nature which it encounters. In
the present and common mode of building ships, no attention is paid to this important
precautionary provision; and if, previously to going to sea, the stores include lightning
conductors, the ship’s husband considers he has fulfilled his responsible duty. These
conductors, in the store list, are metallic chains, which, on the approach of a thunder
storm, are hoisted to the mainmast head, the other ends being passed over the ship’s
side to trail in the water. If they should not trail in the water, but accidentally rest in
the main or mizen chains, the destruction of the ship’s side may probably occur.
Without dwelling on the possibility of their not being forthcoming when required, if
they should, in consequence of lying by, which in all likelihood they would be, more
or less oxidized where the links join, perfect conduction would be impeded. In this
case, it would be better had they not been there. To remedy this latter defect, a rope
of metallic wires has been proposed; but, whatever be the temporary conductor em­
ployed, or however perfect it may be to conduct, we most decidedly give preference
to fixed conductors. Our attention has been directed to this subject, and a desire
created in us to bring it to the notice of nautical and commercial men, in consequence
of witnessing the experiments of Mr. Snow Harris recently at the United Service
Institution. He proposes to fit the mast and hull with a succession of overlapping
metallic laminae, so that the whole floating bulk should be in metallic connexion, and
consequently a perfect, permanent conductor. The working of the masts are not in
the least impeded, and even when struck, there is a continuous metallic surface present­
ed to the electric fluid. The whole of the experiments, including a floating model
ship on a large scale, fitted with the conductors, through which a powerful charge of
electricity was harmlessly passed, were of the most satisfactory description.”
BEVERLY FISHING TRADE.

The total number of vessels engaged in the fishing trade from this port, as we
learn from the Salem Gazette, is 59, averaging 74 tons each; aggregate value, exclu­
sive of outfit, 8100,000 ; tonnage, 4350 ; Beverly hands employed, 306 ; others, 112.
This is said to be the greatest amount of tonnage ever owned here. There are, in
addition to those belonging to Beverly, several chartered vessels which sail from this
port, and several others from the neighboring towns, manned in part or whole by Bev­
erly hands, sufficient to make in all 400 Beverly men engaged in the business. The
aggregate bounty on the vessels owned in Beverly, is 17,040 dollars ; on those char­
tered, and which sail from Beverly, $ 1,628; making a total aggregate of 18,668 dollars.



183

Commercial Statistics.

COMMERCIAL

STATISTICS.

IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED STATES.

O fficial S ta tem e n t o f th e V a lu e o f A n n u a l Im ports in to th e U n ite d S ta te s f r o m 1789 to
1837, in clu sive ; the p a y m e n ts in to th e T re a su ry on account o f D u tie s a r is in g th e r e o n ;
a n d th e cost o f collection. F ro m a re p o r t to C on gress. .

YEARS.

V a lu e o f Im p o rts.

From March 4th, 1789
to December 31, 1791
In the year
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
••
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837

52,200,000
31,500,000
31,100,000
34,600,000
69,756,268
8f,436,164
75,379,406
68,551,700
79,068,148
91,252,768
111,363,511
76,333,333
64,666,666
85,000,000
120,000,000
129,000,000
138,500,000
56,990,000
59,400,000
85,400,000
53,400,000
77,030,000
22,005,000
12,965,000
113,041,274
147,103,000
99,250,000
121,750,000
87,125,000
74,450,000
62,585,724
83,241,541
77,579,267
80,549,007
96,340,075
84,974,477
79,484,068
88,509,824
74,492,527
70,876,920
103,191,134
101,029,266
108,118,311
126,521,332
149,895,742
189,980,035
140,989,217




P a y m e n ts in to the
T r e a su ry on ac­
count o f them .

4,399,472
3,443,070
4,255,306
4,801,065
5,588,401
6,567,087
7,549,649
7,106,061
6,610,449
9,080,932
10,750,778
12,438,235
10,479,417
11,098,565
12,936,487
14,667,698
15,845,521
16,363,550
7,257,506
8,583,309
13,313,222
8,958,777
13,225,624
5,998,772
7,282,942
36,306,874
26,283,348
17,176,385
20,283,608
15,005,612
13,204,447
17,589,764
19,088,433
17,878,325
20,098,713
23,333,741
19,712,283
23,205,523
22,681,965
21,922,391
24,224,441
28,465,237
29,032,508
16,214,957
19,391,310
23,409,940
11,169,290

99
85
56
28
26
94
65
93
31
73
93
74
61
33
04
17
61
58
62
31
73
53
25
08
22
87
49

00
76
15
15
94
44

71
45
75
29
64
91
39
77
24
91
15
59
53
34

C ost o f C ollection, ine lu d in g R even u e
C u tte rs , a n d p r e ­
p a r in g
w e ig h ts
a n d m easures.

239,541 03
161,754 80
188,362 13
221,090 23
260,359 28
291,206 92
343,434 26
305,879 33
412,183 45
440,373 62
482,772 70
492,205 55
405,536 37
488,333 24
557,541 94
613,785 88
615,621 71
565,235 14
498,130 77
437,208 72
441.129 02
477,726 57
414,171 88
352,561 14
476,007 01
819,038 22
782,308 09
769,206 50
810,220 40
777,764 32
700,528 97
728,964 82
766,699 02
779,739 88
889,302 93
886,999 48
889,818 27
932.093 63
1,013,667 58
1,055,115 37
1,216.009 57
1,315,975 36
1,351,543 97
1,264,545 37
1,284,997 69
1,397,469 10
1,492,947 84

184

$

Commercial Statistics.
COMMEKCE OP THE UNITED STATES.

According to the Custom House returns to the Treasury Department, recently
published, the total value of imports, during the year ending September 30th, 1838,
was $113,717,404, being twenty-seven millions less than during the year 1837, and
Seventy-nine millions less than during the year 1836, the year of the great expansion
that preceded the suspension of specie payments.
The falling off in the exports has not been so great. The total value of exports
of every description from the United States, during the last year, was $108,486,616,
being nine millions less than in 1837, and twenty millions less than in 1836. The
value of the exports of domestic produce in 1838 was $96,033,816, in 1837,
$95,564,414, and in 1836, $106,916,680.
Comparing the years 1836 and 1838, we find that the chief falling otf in the
imports was in the following articles :—
1836.
1837.
1838.
Cotton Goods.......... . . . .$17,876,087
$10,451,060
$6,599,330
Woollen Goods. . . . ___ 12,758,430
4,415,536
6,967,530
Silk Goods............... ___ 22,862,177
3,031,321
9,812,338
4,851,857
L in e n ...................... ___ 8,271,213
3,583,540
Iron and Steel . . . . ___ 12,892,648
8,361,304
7,418,504
S u g a r...................... ___ 12,514,718
7,236,401
7,586,825
5,893,202
3,497,156
T e a s........................ ___ 5,342,811
2,913,794
2,318,202
W ines...................... ___ 4,332,034
The export of cotton goods of domestic manufacture in 1838, was $3,758,755,
against $2,831,473 in 1837, and $2,257,734 in 1836. The chief exports of domestic
cottons in 1838, were to the following countries :—
Argentine Republic . . . $104,254
C hina...................... . .$532,097
Brazil.......................... . 536,416
British East Indies. . . 140,762
Mexico........................ . 597,330
Dutch East Indies . . . 133,350
Manilla..................... . . 79,531
C u b a.......................... . 157,621
Cape de Verd Islands . . 66,555
Peru......................... . . 97,713
Turkey, Levant, & c .. . 111,937
Chili........................ . . 640,831
The following table exhibits the relative importance of our trade during the year
1838, with the following countries :—
I m p o rts fr o m .

E x p o r ts to .

Great Britain and dependencies............$49,051,181
$58,843,392
France and dependencies................... . 18,087,149
16,252,413
Spain and dependencies......................... 15,971,394
7,684,006
Netherlands and dependencies............. 2,436,166
3,772,206
C h in a ...................................................... 4,764,536
1,698',433
Mexico...................................................... 3,500,709
2,164,097
T e x a s............ ...................
165,178
1,247,880
This table exhibits in a striking light the effect which expansions and contractions
of the currency have on the import trade.
One article, molasses, seems not to have been affected by these changes in the cur­
rency. The value of that imported in 1836 was $4,077,312, and in 1838, $3,865,285.
In the import of another article, viz., coffee, there was, relatively speaking, but a
small falling off. The total value in 1836 was $9,653,053, and in 1838, $7,640,217.
Salt is the only commodity, or, at least, the only commodity of any importance,
the import of which increased. In 1836, the total value was $724,527, and in 1838,
it was $1,028,418.
In the exports, the chief falling off was in cotton, tobacco, and rice. In some arti­
cles of export there was an increase, as will be seen by inspecting the following table.
1836.
1837.
1838.
Cotton.................. $71,284,925
$63,250,102
$61,558,811
Tobacco............... 10,058,640
5,795,647
7,392,029
Rice....................... 2,548,750
2,309,279
1,721,819
Flour..................... 3,572,599
2,987,269
3,603,299
Fish...............
967,890
769,840
819,003
F u r s .....................
653,662
651,908
636,945
Lum ber................ 8,860,691
2,584,746
3,116,196
Manufactures . . . 6,107,528
5,948,214
8,397,078




1S5

Commercial Statistics.

With the same countries, (omitting Texas,) our trade was as follows in 1838 :
Im p o rts fr o m .

E x p o r ts to .

Great Britain and dependencies . . . . 186,022,916
$64,487,550
21,441,200
France and dependencies.................... 37,036,235
Spain and dependencies................... 19,345,690
8,081,563
Netherlands and dependencies..........
3,861,514
4,799,157
1,194,264
C hina...................................................
7,324,816
6,041,634
Mexico.................................................
5,615,819
In 1838 our imports from Great Britain were nearly th irty-seven millions less than
in 1836, and from France n in eteen millions.
In 1836 the commercial balance was, as exhibited by the custom-house books,
nearly troen ty-tn o millions in favor of Great Britain. In 1838 the balance is near
ten millions in favor of the United States.
In 1836 the balance in favor of France was nearly s ix te en millions. In 1838 it
was less than two millions.
The following exhibits the total value of the imports and exports of the states
which were most deeply engaged in the foreign trade during the year 1838 :
I m p o rts in to .

E x p o r ts f r o m .

Massachusetts.............................. $13,300,925
$9,104,862
New Y ork.................................... 64,453,206
23,008,471
Pennsylvania.............................. 9,360,731
3,447,151
M aryland....................................
5,701,869
4,524,575
V irginia.......................................
577,142
3,985,228
11,042,070
South Carolina............................. 2,318,791
G eorgia........................................
756,068
8,803,839
A labam a......................................
524,548
9,688,244
L ouisiana..................................
9,496,808
31,502,248
In that ever-memorable year, 1836, the foreign trade of these states was as follows :
I m p o rts in to.

E x p o r ts f r o m

Massachusetts...............................$25,681,462
$10,380,346
New York..................................... 118,253,416
28,920,638
Pennsylvania................................ 15,068,233
3,971,555
M aryland..................................... 7,131,867
3,675,475
V irg in ia.......................................
1,106,814
6,192,040
South Carolina.............................
2,801,361
13,684,376
Georgia...........................................
573,222
10,722,200
651,618
11,284,166
A labam a.......................................
L ouisiana..................................... 15,117,649
37,179,828
The following is a table of imports of foreign goods, and exports of those of
domestic growth only, during the three years ending October 1, 1838:
1836.
1837.
1838.
Exports,
$106,916,680
$95,564,414
$96,033,816
Imports,
192,717,404
140,827,404
113,917,361
The various facts here stated, abound in instruction to both the merchant and the
statesman.—Globe .
A ta b le o f th e n u m ber o f m illio n s o f p o u n d s o f C otton e x p o rte d in each y e a r , f r o m
to 1838, a n d th e a v e ra g e p r ic e , a s p u b lish e d in the W a sh in g to n G lobe.
Y ear.

1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
•1828

Pounds
ex p o rte d .

88,000,000
128,000,000
126,000,000
144,000,000
173,000,000
142,000.000
176,000,000
204,000,000
294,000,000
210,000,000

VOL. I.—NO. II.



P r ic e p e r
pound.

24 cents.
17
16
161
11
15
21
11
91
101

24

1819

Y ear.

Pounds
e x p o rte d .

P r ic e p e r
pound.

1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838

264,000,000
298,000,000
277,000,000
322,000,000
324,000,000
384,000,000
386,000,000
423,000,000
444,000,000
505,000,000

10 cents.
10
91
10
11
13
161
16.8
141
10.3

186

Commercial Statistics.
COMMERCE OF NEW YORK, FROM

1789

TO

1838.

Years

s g S
Im ports.
D om estic.

F o re ig n .

T o ta l.

1791
2,505,465
1792
2,535,790
1793
2,932,370
1794
5.442,183
1795
10,304,581
1796
12,208,027
1797
13,308,064
1798
14,300,892
1799
18,719,527
1800
14,045,079
1801
19,851,136
1802
13,792,276
1803 7,626,831 3,191,556 10,818,387
1804 7,501,096 8,580,185 16,081,281
1805 8,098,060 15,384,883 23,482,943
1806 8,053,076 13,709,769 21,462,845
1807 9,957,416 16,400,547 26,357,963
1808 2,362,438 3,243,620 5,606,058
1809 8,348,764 4,232,798 12,581,562
1810 10,928,573 6,313,757 17,242,330
1811 8,747,700 3,518,515 12,266,215
1812 6,603,508 2,358,414 8,961,922
1813 7,060,807 1,124.687 8,185,494
197,987
11,683 209,670
1814
1815 8,230,278 2,445,095 10,675,373
1816 14.168,291 5,521,740 19,690,031
1817 13,660,733 5,046,700 18,707,433
1818 12,982,564 4,889,697 17,872,261
1819 8,487,692 5,099,686 13,587,378
1820 8,250,675 4,912,569 13,163,244
1821 7,898,604 5,264,313 13,162,917 23,629,246
1822 10,987,167 6,113,315 17,100,482 35,445,628
1823 11,362,995 7,675,995 19,038,990 29,421,349
1824 13,528,654 9,368,480 22,897,134 36,113,723
1825 20,651,558 14,607,703 35,259,261 49,639,174
1826 11,496,719 10,451,072 21,947,791 38,115,630
1827 13,920,627 9,913,510 23,834,137 38,719,644
1828 12,362,015 10,415,634 22,777,649 41,927.792
1829 12,036,561 8,082,450 20,119,011 34,743,307
1830 13,618,278 6,079,705 19,697,983 35,624,070
1831 15,726,118 9,809,026 25,535,144 57,077,417
1832 15,057,250 10,943,695 26,000,945 53,214,402
1833 15,411,296 9,983,821 25,395,117 55,918,449
1834 13,849,469 11,662,545 25,512,014 73,188,594
1835 21,707,867 8,637,397 30,345,264 88,191,305
1836 19,816,520 9,104,118 28,920,438 118,253,416
1837 16,083.969 11,254,450 27,338,419 79,301,722

e/j ^

s

EXPORTS.
1

•XdUL

uo

*>• « '■$

u

jR e g iste red
to n n a g e.

Q S ts
1,356,064 22,289 41,866 00
1,232,888 45,592 50,801 00
1,248,760
42,561 45,355 89
2,146,819 266,302 71,693 17
2,717,149 688,172 93,421 67
3,056,518 865,877 103.945 53
2,949,033 862,014 110,983 57
2,702,259 916,282 111,488 72
3,559,817 1,157,589 120,253 06
3,625,423 869,403 97,791 06
4,984,235 L, 172,408 106,023 18
3,530,298 1,033,316 79,152 85
4,081,577 545,010 89,382 17
5,172,805 1,283,604 105,610 54
6,958,009 2,062,509 121,614 09
7,307,185 2.406,463 141,186 14
7,620,993 2,669,335 149,061 61
3,611,685 799,796 , 146,682 61
3,785,786 791,117 169,535 39
5,248,0-19 842,540 188,556 73
2,436,092 443,766 161,312 37
3,316,325 419,001 162,582 14
1,627,314 295,120 148,098 54
631,758 25,986 152,412 66
14,646,816 267,496 180,664 20
10,810,553 1,368,221 191,355 47
6,374,386 1,010,046 177,964 49
8,277,497 631,004 119,853 79
6,493,434 717,656 114,326 02
5,506,516 687,838 115,632 28
7,254,594 656,566 118,750 65
9,952,832 545,723 126,797 89
9,035,575 1,118,969 133,085 75
11,191,282 1,426,466 146,620 67
15,762,142 2,144,372 159,327 32
11,535,912 2,662,299 163,574 11
13,224,506 1,763,114 171,835 56
13,764,831 1,570,277 165,898 26
13,068,183 1,566,179 117,585 06
15,031,003 1,665,979 110,163 08
20,121,296 2,045,229 130,933 26
15,089,636 2,281,675 137,960 25
13,073,394 2,371,114 159,554 03
10,225,877 1,522,084 186,365 73
14,568,660 770,830 *200,780 47
17,307,215 832,413 *202,118 83
*202,370 55

* Ending September 30. In 1838, the Domestic exports were $16,432,333, and the
Foreign, $6,576,138.
SILVER COIN.

The New York Courier states that the Secretary of the Treasury is corresponding
with some distinguished financiers of this city, on the subject of debasing the silver
coin, so as to prevent the exportation of it being a profitable business. The secretary
is in favor of retaining the silver coin in the country by debasing it to less than its
value, as has already been done with the gold coin of the United States.



187

Commercial Statistics.
COMMERCE OP PENNSYLVANIA, FROM

1789

TO

1838.
1 fe

EXPORTS.

Im ports.

Y ea rs.
D om estic.

1791
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837

F o re ig n .

T o ta l.

3,436,093
3,820,662
6,958,836
6,643,092
11,518,260
17,513,866
11,446,291
8,915,463
12,431,967
11,949,679
17,438,193
12,677,475
4,021,214 3,504,496 7,525,710
4,178,713 6,851,444 11,030,157
4,365,240 9,397,012 13,762,252
3,765,313 13.809,389 17,574,702
4,809,616 12,055,128 16,864,744
1,066,527 2,946,803 4,013,330
4,238,358 4,810,883 9.049,241
4,751.634 6,241,764 10,993,398
5,694,447 3,865,670 9,560,117
4,660,457 1,313,293 5,973,750
3,249,623 327,494 3,577,117
3,569,551
4,486,329
5,538,003
5,045.901
2,919,679
2,948,879
2,832.387
3,575,147
3,139,809
3,182,694
3,936,133
3,158,711
3,391,296
3,116,001
2,617,152
2,924,452
3,594,302
2,008,991
2,671,300
2,031,803
2,416,099
2,627,651
2,565,712

1,024,368 4,593,919
2,709,917 7,196,246
3,197,589 8,735,592
3,713,501 8,759,402
3,374,109 6,293.788
2,794,670 5,743.549
4.559,380 7,391,767
5,472,655 9,047,802
6,477.383 9,617,192
6,182,199 9,364,893
7,333,848 11269,981
5.173,011 8,331,722
4,184,537 7,575,833
2,935,479 6,051,480
1,472,783 4,089,935
1,367,341 4,291,793
1,919,411 5,513,713
1,507,075 3,516,066
1,407,651 4,078,951
1,957,943 3,989,746
1,323,176 3,739,275
1,343,904 2,971,555
1,275,887 3,841,599

* Ending September 30.
Foreign, $995,608.

8 £
to
ts .*=<1.2
S '*

.

s

*§ 8 .§
£ $S 8
g J ,§ -

R e g is te r e d
to n n a g e.

1,475,428
8,976 53,898 00
1,138,863
37,753 65,212 00
1,925,337 102,659 60,924 57
2,000,091 502,447 67,895 30
3,053,109 752,550 83,623 92
3,646,271 1,586,065 90,568 94
2,907.894 1,086,839 88,400 72
2,086,714 1,018,127 85,476 49
2,224,313 955,264 90,944 30
3,181,101 1,785,109 95,631 74
3,702,898 1,540,701 109,036 45
2,727,365 1,297,662 64,637 26
2,210,715 561,041 67,629 10
3,507,038 872,238 71,198 67
3,652,387 1,319,869 77,238 52
5,100,657 2,052,551 86,728 35
5,197,806 2,012,543 93,993 16
2,599,673 928,568 94,658 69
2,318,699 894,984 106,621 90
3,332,377 879,527 109,628 57
2,364,635 510,328 78,518 11
2,474,990 378,936 71,281 02
503,593 185,821 64,536 78
277,757
3,227 64,182 64
7,199,699
95,806 77,199 03
6,285,455 746,636 77,730 70
4,307,790 702,819 80,512 71
4,540,360 788,574 58,200 90
3,848,630 570,274 59,626 27
2,703,402 555,703 59,457 68
8,158,922 2,719,996 474,394 59,296 24
11,874,170 3,648,745 310,956 61,237 02
13.696,770 3,991,687 612,037 61,408 73
11,S65,531 4,311,926 939,322 62,771 18
15,041,797 5,270,030 998,778 65,589 54
13,551,779 5,183,724 1,251,405 63,443 34
11,212,935 4,188,915 1,053,105 61,699 90
12,884,408 5,082,344 802,474 66,839 50
10,100,152 3,574,816 708,970 50,234 94
8,702,122 3,542,977 516,311 47,979 32
12,124,083 4,372,533 326,607 51,293 79
10,678,358 3,501,397 402,972 45,956 32
10,451,250 2,985,278 697,927 49,621 84
10,479,268 2,111,837 295,870 *51,441 02
12,389,937 2,506,281 101,812 *51,587 81
15,068,233 3,192,007 134,473 *51,034 73
39,156 17
11,680,111

In 1838, tlie Domestic exports were $2,481,543, and the

CURIOUS ARTICLES OF COMMERCE.

To Portugal a large quantity of grain and pulse, (independent of what is sent to
pay rents to the non-resident morgados,) salt pork and beef, coarse linen, and cheese,
is sent; which is paid for in salt, lime, tea, images, crucifixes, indulgences, dispen­
sations, and relics; the last five articles being publicly sold in the shops at most
extortionate prices.



188

Commercial Statistics.
COMMERCE OF NEW ORLEANS.

S ta te m e n t s h o w in g th e V a lu e o f th e E x p o r ts f r o m th e P o r t o f N e w O rlea n s, d u r in g the
Y e a r 1838.

First Quarter, ending 31st M arch......................................... $18,615,327
Second do.
do. 30th J u n e .......................................... 13,394,996
Third
do.
do. 30th September................................. 5,895,825
Fourth do.
do. 31st D ecem ber................................
7,510,583
Total Exports for the Y e a r........................ $45,416,731
Exported as follows :
In American Vessels to coastwise p o r ts ...........................$14,329,313
Do.
do. to foreign p o rts................................ 26,735,918
In foreign vessels to foreign p o rts......................................
4,351,500
$45,416,731
Of which w ere:
Foreign Goods in American V essels............ $1,042,807
Do.
do. in foreign
do...................
389,316
----------$1,432,121
Amount of Exports of the growth, produce, and m anufac--------------ture of the United States . . . . ■...................................... $43,984,608
S ta te m e n t s h o w in g th e V a lu e o f F o re ig n M erc h a n d ise en tered a t th e C u stom H o u se, Nero
O rlean s, d u r in g th e y e a r 1838.

First Quarter, ending 31st M a r c h ...................................... $2,951,863
Second
do. do. 30th J u n e ...........................
2,576,553
Third
do. do. 30th Septem ber................................. 1,742,827
Fourth
do. do. 31st December................................... 3,408,768
Total amount

$10,680,011

S ta te m e n t s h o w in g th e A m o u n t o f T o n n a g e en tered a t th e C u stom H o u se a t N e w O rlean s,
d u r in g th e y e a r 1838.

First Quarter

Foreign vessels from foreign ports,
American do.
do.
do.
Do.
do. coastwise,

16,070 55 tons.
34,711 51 ..
83,534 81 ..

Second Quarter

Foreign vessels from foreign ports,
American do.
do.
do.
Do.
do. coastwise,

10,956 53 ..
60,525 66 ..
58,548 36 .

Third Quarter

Foreign vessels from foreign ports,
American do.
do.
do.
Do.
do. coastwise,

4,290 89 ••
10,005 79 ..
24,353 31 ..

Fourth Quarter

Foreign vessels from foreign ports,
American do.
do.
do.
Do.
do. coastwise,

13,914 63 ..
32,001 36 ..
90,815 57 ..

446,716 11 tons.
Up to 1828, the greatest amount of tonnage which entered in any one year was
_____
57,000 tons!
S ta te m e n t o f D u tie s on I m p o rts , secured a t th e p o r t o f N e w O rlea n s d u r in g th e y e a r

In
J In
1 In
^ In
I

First Quarter

vessels of the United S tates............ $198,270 40
equalized foreign v essels.................
60,839 32
other foreign vessels........................
3,741 96
sundry vessels in store account. . . .
9,867 91

( In vessels of the United S ta te s............ $235,048 03

Second Quarter ) In equalized foreign vessels................. 143,447 70




( In other foreign v e s s e ls ......................

1,644 43

1838.

189

Commercial “Statistics.
( In vessels of the United S ta te s ...............$273,746 50
Third Quarter ] In equalized foreign vessels...................... 60,056 47
( In other foreign v esse ls................. ..
5,734 22
1 In vessels of the United S ta te s ...............$421,859 35
Fourth Quarter J In equalized foreign v essels.................... 107,658 38
( In other foreign v essels...........................
11,250 28
Total amount for the y e a r........................... $1,533,164 95

A S ta tem e n t o f th e N u m b e r o f B a le s o f C otton sh ip p e d a t N e w O rlea n s in each a n d e v e r y
y ea r , f r o m 1819 to 1838, both in clu sive, b e in g a p e r io d o f tw e n ty y ea rs, w ith th e C oun­
trie s r esp ectively to w h ic h i t w a s sh ip p ed .

In the period above-mentioned, it appears that the quantity of that important staple
shipped from this port increased from less than 100,000 bales, in 1819, to more than
700.000 bales, in 1838. The amount for 1838 was nearly half the whole cotton crop of
the United States for that year. The amount shipped in twenty years is upwards of
6.500.000 bales, which, at the moderate estimate of fifty dollars per bale, would be worth
more than three hundred and thirty millions of dollars! This is a vast sum to be pro­
duced in such a space of time from a single article raised on the banks of the Mississippi
and in the adjacent regions. It shows the importance of the commerce of New Orleans.
Y e a r . L on don . L ive rp o o l C ork ,

<f*c.

G la sg o w .

France.

N.
E u ro p e.

N . S ta tes.

T o ta l
B a le s .

1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838

99,013.
28,440 3,874
16,904 112,961
56,085 3,318
4,340
35,789 136,770.
863
46,836 3,466
1,854
38.858 9,104
33,557 10,164
51,430 156,030
611
56,354
3,914
25,789
5,363
39,594 171,431
144
6,853
88,180 5,508
615
46,507 145,423
614
5,252
35,059
399
56,977
32,834
773
68,795 204,306
25
92,301 1,978
7,600
66,487 251,791
108,643 5,108
3,162
63.760
4,631
67,028 32S,855
178,434 1,270
12,743
60,101
9,279
85,835 305,335
70,130
6,822
70
133,196 2,720
6,562
14,289
41,050
119,036 1,443
8,485
81,939
1550
267,792
56,082 352,223
943
16,413
94,129 4,828
179,828
135,360 423,971
66
203,129 3,803
15,393
60,913 5,307
6,227
77,122 11,969
63,934 354,678192,838 2,588
92,667 405,566336
656
8,096
82,304
5,028
216,479
100,225 11,132
61,825 461,246
244
271,368 2,499
13,956
119,131 531,02545
245,642 1,376
141,622 11,543
11,667
94,116 493,673
281
8,041
131,781 29,599
228,568 1,287
135,1S7 20,836
85,179 596,153
41
17,074
333,690 4,146
123
105,085 727,512
453,645
48
17,796 128,611 22,204
4,798 3,261,229 42,771
175,428 1,422,361 187,360 1,332,798 6,525,758
N. B. — The above comprises an interval of twenty commercial years, each termi­
nating on the 30th of September.
_____
COMMERCE OF EOSTON.

The number of foreign clearances from Boston, from January 1st to June 30th, 1838,.
was 430. The number of foreign clearances, from January 1st to June 30th, 1839, was
607. Increase of foreign clearances, over the first six months of the last year, 177.
The number of foreign arrivals into Boston, from January 1st to June 30th, 1838,
was 471. The number of foreign arrivals, from January 1st to June 30th, 1839, was.
614. Increase of foreign arrivals, 143.
Revenue, first quarter, 1838,
$480,300 59
..
second ..
..
465,765 84
$946,066 43
Revenue, first quarter, 1839,
$562,915 27
..
second ..
.. estimated at
900,742 00
$1,463,657 27
Increase of revenue over the two first quarters of the last year, $517,590 84..




190

Mercantile Miscellanies.

EXPORTS OP BR IT ISH PRODUCE AND MANUFACTURES FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM.

A n A cco u n t o f th e E x p o r ts o f th e p r in c ip a l A r tic le s o f B r itis h a n d I rish P ro d u ce a n d
M a n u fa c tu re , in th e y e a r en ded th e 5 th o f J a n u a ry , 1839, com pared w ith th e E x p o r ts in
th e p r e c e d in g y e a r , as p u b lis h e d in th e L iv e r p o o l S ta n d a r d .

D e cla re d V a lu e o f th e E x p o rta tio n s
in th e y e a r e n d in g th e 5 th o f
J a n u a ry .

ARTICLES.

Coals and Culm..........................................................
Cotton M anufactures................................................
Cotton Y a r n ...................................................
Earthenw are.......................................................
Glass.............................................................................
Hardware and C u tle ry .............................................
Linen Manufactures..................................................
Linen Y arn .................................................................
Metals—v iz.: Iron and Steel....................................
Tin, in bars, etc.................................
Tin Plates...........................................
Salt.............................................................................
Silk M anufactures.....................................................
Sugar, refined............................................................
Wool, sheep’s or lamb’s ............................................
Woollen M anufactures..............................................
Woollen Y a m .....................................................

1838.
£431,545
13,640 181
6,955,942
563 237
477,767
1,460,808
2,133,744
479,307
2,009,259
1,116,227
155,251
74,733
350 667
193,621
503,673
453,984
185,350
4,660,019
333,098

1839.
£484,305
16,700,468
7 48(1 SS9
670,985
376,524
1,507,478
2,919,719
655,699
2,530,903
1,226,258
156,150
103,230
434,749
223,372
778,031
550,506
432,067
5,792,156
365,657

Total of the foregoing articles...................... £36,228,468
£43,338,839
This table shows an increase of upwards of three millions in a single year, in the
exports of cotton manufactures, an increase of upwards of one million in the woollen
manufactures, and nearly eight hundred thousand in the article of linen manufactures
— the three great staple commodities of British exportation. We should think that
an increase of upwards of seven millions, in one year’s exports, exhibited any thing
but an indication of the reverses of the manufacturing interest of our mother country.

MERCANTILE

MISCELLANIES.

FRENCH BRANDIES.

The most celebrated of the French brandies, (says Dr. Ure, in his “ Dictionary ot
Arts,” &c.,) those of Cognac and Armagnae, are slightly rectified to only 0.922:
they contain more than half their weight of water, and come over, therefore, highly
charged with the fragrant, essential oil of the husk of the grape. When, to save
expense of carriage, the spirit is rectified to a much higher degree, the dealer, on re­
ceiving it at Paris, reduces it to the market proof by the addition of a little highly-fla­
vored, weak brandy and w ater; but he cannot, in this way, produce so finely-Jlavored
a spirit as the weaker product of distillation of Cognac wine. If the best Cognac brandy
be carefully distilled at a low heat, and the strong spirit be diluted with water, it will
be found to have suffered much in its flavor. Genuine French brandy evinces an
acid reaction with litmus paper, owing to a minute portion of vinegar: it contains,
besides, some acetic ether, and, when long kept in oak casks, a little astringent matter.
LACE MADE BY CATERPILLARS.

A curious species of manufacture has been contrived by an officer of engineers resid­
ing at Munich. It consists of lace and veils, with open patterns in them, wove entirely
by caterpillars. The following is the mode of proceeding adopted: Having made a
paste of the leaves of the plant on which the species of caterpillar he employs feeds, he
spreads it thinly over a stone, or other flat substance of the required size. He then




Mercantile Miscellanies.

191

with a camel hair pencil, dipped in olive oil, draws the patterns he wishes the insects
to leave open. This stone is then placed in an inclined position, and a considerable
number of caterpillars are placed at the bottom. A peculiar species is chosen, which
spins a strong web, and the animals commence at the bottom, eating and spinning
their way to the top, carefully avoiding every part touched by the oil, but devouring
every other part of the paste. The extreme lightness of these veils, combined with
some strength, is truly surprising. One of them, measuring 261 by 17 inches, weighed
only a grain and a half, a degree of lightness which will appear more strongly by con­
trast with other fabrics. One square yard of the substance of which these veils are
made weighs 44 grains, whilst one square yard of silk gauze weighs 137 grains, and
one square yard of the finest net weighs 2624 grains.
MACHINERY.

It used to be an erroneous opinion, says the Salem (Mass.) Observer, entertained,
that labor-saving machinery would prove disadvantageous to human industry, and
take employment from the hands of those who had to gain a subsistence by labor.
With this belief, operatives used to make violent attacks upon all machinery of this
description in England, and destroy when they could. But the effect of it has been
far otherwise than was anticipated—greatly increasing the amount of human labor.
When the wonderful improvements of Arkwright, in the year 1770, began to be
introduced into the machinery for spinning cotton, the annual consumption of cotton
in British manufacture was under f o u r m illio n s of pounds weight; and that of Chris­
tendom was not probably more than ten m illio n s. In 1838, the consumption of cotton
in England and Ireland was about tw o h u n d re d a n d seven ty m illio n s of pounds; that
of E urope and the United States together, f o u r h u n d red a n d e ig h ty m illio n s !
JEW ELLE R Y .

Scarcely any branch of manufacture has advanced more rapidly and steadily in
this country, during the last twenty years, than jewellery. In 1820, it might be said,
with almost literal truth, that nothing of the kind was manufactured in the United
States. But now, much the larger part of all the more rich and solid articles are made
in this country. There are very good and extensive assortments in the stores, where
not a single specimen of foreign jewellery is to be found. Articles of English manu­
facture are entirely superseded by the superior skill and taste of our workmen; but
there are some sorts of work done by the French jewellers which cannot be equalled here.
WOOL.

The wool-growers, says the Northampton (Mass.) Courier, are not able to receive
the reward for their labors this season..—The price of broadcloths are not sustained,
and many manufacturing establishments are contracting their operations, or stopping
their machinery. Wool does not sustain the price even it did last year. The shear­
ing season has arrived, and the new clip is coming into the market even before the
old one is used up. The wool-growing interest is an important one in New England,
and we regret to see it depressed from any cause.
COMMERCIAL AFFAIRS.

The advices by the Great Western must be considered as any thing but favorable to
the delusive hopes of improvement in the cotton market, and completely destroy the
wild idea of a combination made here, and reaching across the Atlantic, having the
ability to sustain prices in Europe. The fact is, that natural causes, always at work,
are too powerful to be coerced by the short-sighted experiments of financiers and specu­
lators, groping at results, and ignorant of first principles ; and, theorize as we may
upon production and consumption, a single error in our fanciful architecture will
destroy the unsubstantial fabric. The world has, since the battle of Waterloo, been,
generally speaking, in a state of profound peace. Consumption has stimulated pro­
duction, and the consequence has been, that supply has more than equipoised demand.
Speculation has been, in like manner, excited by success, and furthered by an almost
wanton tender of facilities; and the result has been, an enormous amount of commercial
indebtedness, and the products of industry or art not answering by way of remittances,
specie, the lever by which commercial operations are regulated and balanced, has had to
be resorted to as the settler of differences. But it appears from the overgrown inflation
of the paper system, both here and in England, that this is a chord which, if touched,
produces any thing but confidence in the market, and bankers and financiers gather
round their vaults, like doctors round a consumptive patient, fearful that every respi­
ration may be the last. The Bank of England has for some time back been only piling




192

Mercantile Miscellanies.

error upon error, and in her late operation in raising the rate of interest to 5i per cent,
she reminds us of the exclamation of the imprisoned starling; while our own opera­
tions have not been remarkable for sagacity and financial foresight. We have not
room for the remarks which we wish to make on the state of the money market, and
must therefore defer a more full examination to a subsequent num ber; but at present
we feel ourselves called upon to say, that prudent merchants will husband their re­
sources, be chary of their means, and extremely cautious in their commitments for
some time to come. A revolution in prices, which is going to exercise a most impor­
tant bearing on the relations of debtor and creditor, is silently going on. All our great
staple articles must fall greatly in value, and combinations to raise or support prices
are alike wicked and unavailing. W e have been maddened, and rendered, as it were,
drunken, by years of prosperity; and the excitement of the gambler being over, we
have now' to suffer under his exhaustion, and to set about extricating our embarrassed
affairs. We may safely calculate, that, unless some extraordinary event takes place,
such as a war in Europe, for example, we must be satisfied with lower prices for our
cotton than we have lately been contending for, and that, while peace continues, there
are elements at work sufficient to overthrow the most skilfully laid combinations to
support prices, and to bring ruin on the heads of those who attempt them. Nor need
we look to England as a customer for our surplus bread stuffs, while we may look for
large supplies hereafter from the new states, which we have heretofore been in the
habit of feeding; and agricultural products will hereafter rule comparatively low.
Manufacturing industry does not appear, in Europe particularly, to yield an adequate
return on capital. Commercial enterprise is baffled for objects of profitable invest­
ment, and with old accounts to liquidate on new standards of value, with a want of
confidence in our currency and in ourselves, deranged exchanges, and the exporta­
tion of specie. While there may be nothing seriously discouraging in all this to those
who look on things in the mass, and consider the vast tendency of human operations
as ultimately working right, and the loss of one man as but the profit of another, it
is full of individual admonition.
The money markets in London and New York, the great marts that regulate the
trade of two mighty empires, and, through them, of the world, are now so intimately
blended and interwoven, that they vibrate responsive to each other, and a pressure on
one communicates an electric shock to the other. They are, we were going to say,
like the Siamese twins, connected by a band through which it is impossible to affirm
or deny that the circulation does or does not flow, essential to existence, and that to
destroy one might not be the ruin of the other. Hence we look with anxiety for fur­
ther advices, sincerely trusting and believing, that the commercial interest, and the
Bank, notwithstanding the errors of its direction, will sustain each other, but looking
for no material improvement in the value of cotton, and, indeed, grounded in the
opinion that the sooner the idle theories and speculations so redundant on the subject
are abandoned, and prices reduced to what manufacturers can fairly pay and make a
living profit on capital, the sooner will one impediment in the way of a healthful state
of things be removed. We intend, in our subsequent articles, to take up this matter
at length, and to give, from month to month, remarks on the money market and the
state of trade, for which we have made full and adequate arrangements.
MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.

The Board of Directors of the Mercantile Library Association, have the pleasure
to acknowledge the receipt of recent D onations of B ooks from
William A. Morton,
Hon. Ogden Edwards,
William H. Simons,
W. C. Redfield, Joseph Blunt,
Weeks, Jordan, & Co.
Freeman Hunt,
Henry Suydam, Jun.
Daniel L. Jones,
H. Livermore,
James Rees,
John M. Falconer,
T. C. Spotswood.
F. Saunders,
H. H. Elliot,
Charles Fox,
A. N. Lawrence,
DONATIONS OF MINERALS FROM

J. H. Redfield,
William Hance,
Richard S. Ely,
A. G. Zabriskie,
A. N. Saltus,
J. Greacen, Jun.,
S. B. Robbins,
E . G. Hyde,




Dr. J. C. Say,
John Blunt,
Samuel Sloan,
Egbert Benson,
S. M. Falconer,
H. P. Marshall,
Charles Fox,
E. K. Sutton,

H . G. Carter,
P. A. Haws,
A. B. Leeds,
L. Bailey,
T. King,
Henry Dexter,
T. B. Clapp.