Chinese goods, groceries, spices and precious stones. Guatimala is celebrated for its indigo, which is noted for its hardness, lustre and weight.

SOUTH AMERICA. South America has many articles of trade. The mineral treasures of the country are boundless. In the 16th century, gold and silver existed in such profusion, that, for 25 years, $13,000,000 are said to have been annually exported to Spain from Peru alone, exclusive of what was sent in bars. These precious metals are found throughout Peru, Chile, and the upper section of Tucuman, especially in the Cordilleras ; but, in addition to gold and silver, this immeasurable chain of mountains affords copper, lead, iron and platina. The richest mines of South America are those of the province Las Charcas, in the territory of the former viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres. There are, in that district, 30 gold mines, 27 silver mines, 7 copper, 1 tin, and 7 lead mines. The richest of these mines are those of Potosi, which are situated near the sources of the La Plata. Acosta's account, that, during 40 years that the mines had been wrought, they had yielded $12,000,000,000, is much exaggerated. But we gather from official reports, that, from the time of the discovery of America till 1538, the fifth part, accruing to the king, of all the silver obtained from the mines of Potosi, and registered, amounted to $395,619,000, so that, when 39 years had elapsed from the discovery of America, $51,255,043 were obtained annually, exclusive of the considerable quantities which undoubtedly were conveyed from the country secretly, and without the payment of duties, and of that which was used for making silver vessels, images and ornaments for the monasteries and churches, which must have amounted to an immense sum, since all the religious establishments in the country, and especially in the city of Potosi, were very rich in silver vessels. But, whether owing to the exhaustion of the mines themselves, or the faulty management of them, the profits have since diminished. The other exports from South America, although the Spanish and Portuguese directed their chief attention to the obtaining of metals, are very considerable. The following are the principal: cochineal, indigo, cacao, the Peruvian bark, hides, ox horns, tallow, wax, cotton, wool, flax, hemp, tobacco, sugar, coffee, ginger, pimento, jalap, sarsaparilla, ipecacuanha, guaiacum, dragon's blood, and various other medicinal gums, dye-wood, ebony, mahogany, emeralds, various kinds of balsams, &c.

The chief commercial cities of South America are Rio Janeiro, Buenos Ayres, Lima, Carthagena, Caracas, Potosi and Bahia. Buenos Ayres was in possession of the transit trade of all the Spanish possessions in America, and, before the beginning of the revolution, was the mart of the trade of the mother country and its colonies. The principal source of gain for Caracas is the cacao plant, as it supplies nearly two thirds of the European demand. The hides and skins which it exports are superior to those of Buenos Ayres; and the rich ore from the copper mines of Aroa is superior to the Swedish, or to that of Coquimbo, in Chile. The internal trade of South America, especially between Buenos Ayres and Peru, is very considerable. That with the Indian tribes is chiefly in the way of barter; axes, knives, scissors, swords, necklaces, mirrors, and coarse cotton and woollen goods, being exchanged for the productions of the country, especially the celebrated Paraguay tea, and some fine furs.

Brazil has three great commercial cities -Rio Janeiro, Bahia, or St. Salvador, and Pernambuco. The exports are, chiefly, cotton, indigo, sugar, coffee, rice, tobacco, tallow, mahogany, Peruvian bark, ipecacuanha, hides, gold, cacao, vanilla, the diamond, the topaz, chrysolite, amethyst, and other precious stones, and a great variety of dye-stuffs, balsams and gums, dried beef, and India-rubber shoes. The greater part of the Brazilian trade is in the hands of the English. The imports are iron, steel, copper utensils, salt, woollen cloths, linen, calicoes, hats, shoes of all kinds, china, glass-ware, trinkets, books, paper, watches, clocks, and particularly East India goods, such as are not raised in Brazil. Portugal sends to Brazil wine, oil, spirits, hats; the U. States, flour, turpentine and furniture. Naval munitions, sailors' clothes and arms are likewise imported.

Colombia, consisting of Venezuela and New Grenada, says Alex. Humboldt, has received from nature a greater and richer variety of vegetable products, suited for commerce, than any other country of Spanish America; yet its commerce has been declining every year since its separation from Spain. In Colombia, Peruvian bark is found of the best quality and in the greatest quantity. Coffee, indigo, sugar, cotton, cacao, ipecacuanha, the tobacco of Varinas, hides and dried meat, pearls, gold and platina, &c., are obtained in this highly favored country. Its imports embrace all kinds of manufactured

goods, oil, soap, ropes, paper, in fact almost every thing which is wanted by the indolent inhabitants, and made by the hands of men; for the people themselves manufacture hardly any thing. Humboldt has estimated the exports of Colombia at $9,000,000, and its imports at $11,200,000. M. Mollien estimates the former at $8,000,000, and the latter at $10,000,000. The state of this country, at the present moment, prevents the possibility of obtaining accurate information on this subject. The ports of La Guayra (harbor of Caracas), Rio del Hacha, St. Martha, Carthagena, Chagres, Porto Cabello, Panama and Guayaquil are the most frequented by strangers. The English, from Jamaica, the Americans and French, are the nations who trade principally with the Colombians in the Atlantic ports; the Peruvian vessels carry on the coasting trade on the Pacific.

Buenos Ayres, like all the other South American states, is in an unsettled condition. The chief exports of this country are horse and ox hides: in fact, Buenos Ayres may be called, by way of eminence, the country of cattle. Its imports include all the manufactured articles which the inhabitants make use of. England sends thither woollen and cotton cloth, cutlery, hardware, furniture, saddlery, hats, porter and cheese; the U. States, lumber, cod-fish, mackerel and herring, leather, gunpowder, provisions; from Brazil are sent sugar, coffee, cotton, rum; steel and iron from the north of Europe; and France sends her manufactures. The exports and imports are estimated at $9,000,000.

The commerce of Chile is, at present, in a low condition. Its rich mines are poorly managed, and the political state of the country prevents its commerce from acquiring that activity which it might easily attain by the export of the precious metals of the country to the East Indies, to give in return for sugar and cotton. It could also provide Peru with salt meat, and take in return coffee, sugar, &c. Caldcleugh estimates the English importations into Valparaiso, in 1822, at 4,071,250 francs, and Lowe at 47,248,625 francs, for the same year. The U. States send thither flour.

Peru trades with the U. States, with Europe, the Philippine islands, Guatimala and Chile, and, by land, with Buenos Ayres. Its exports are chiefly gold and silver, wine, brandy, sugar, pimento, Peruvian bark, salt, vicuna wool and coarse woollens. It receives, in return, from the U.

States, bread-stuffs, and manufactures of various sorts; from Europe, manufactured goods, particularly silks, fine cloth, lace, fine linen, and other articles of luxury and show; from the Philippine islands, muslins, tea, and other East India goods; from Guatimala, indigo; from Chile, wheat and copper; and from Buenos Ayres, mules and Paraguay tea. Callao is the port of Lima.

The commerce of Central America, or Guatimala, is increasing in activity. Colonial commodities, chiefly sugar, coffee, cacao, cotton, indigo, cochineal, ebony and logwood (from the bay of Honduras), are the principal exports sent to Europe and some of the U. States. The imports are linen, from Germany and France; woollen cloths, silks and wines, from France; English and French calicoes; flour, and some manufactured goods, from the U. States. This country is well adapted for commerce, on account of its fine harbors and several navigable rivers. A canal across the isthmus would be of vast benefit to this country; in fact, the execution of such a canal would bear a similarity to some of those great inventions, which have changed the face of the world.

The English, Dutch and French possessions in South America are Demerara, Berbice, Essequibo, Surinam and Cayenne. From Cayenne are exported cloves, Cayenne pepper, annotta, sugar, cotton, coffee and cacao; from Berbice, rum, sugar, cotton, cacao, &c.; from Demerara, Surinam and Essequibo, sugar, rum, cotton, coffee and molasses.

WEST INDIES. The chief islands which constitute the West Indies are Cuba, St. Domingo, or Hayti, Jamaica, Barbadoes, Dominica, St. Christopher, or St. Kitt's, Curaçao and Guadaloupe. They have all very nearly the same productions, viz. sugar, coffee, wax, ginger and other spices, mastich, aloes, vanilla, quassia, manioc, maize, cacao, tobacco, indigo, cotton, molasses, mahogany, long peppers, lignumvitæ, Campeachy wood, yellow wood, gums, tortoise-shell, rum, pimento, &c. Before St. Domingo or Hayti became an independent government of blacks, it was the depot of the goods brought from Havanna, Vera Cruz, Guatimala, Carthagena and Venezuela; but, since that event, Jamaica has been the magazine of all goods from the gulf of Mexico. Trinidad is the great seat of the contraband trade with Cumaná, Barcelona, Margarita and Guiana. The imports are manufactures of all kinds, wine, flour, and, formerly, slaves, who are still smuggled into many of the

islands. The West Indies form one great source of the commerce of the world; and we must refer the reader, for more particular information, to the articles on the different islands.

A new path has been laid open to the commerce of the world by the British, in the Southern ocean, where, of late, the Sandwich, the Friendly and the Society islands have been taken within the circle of European and American intercourse; and in Australia and Van Diemen's land, a great market has been established for the exchange of British manufactures for the productions of nature; while the North Americans have attempted to found commercial settlements on the Washington (Nukahiva) and other islands of the Pacific. (See Moreau de Jonnes Du Commerce extérieur du XIXme Siècle, 2 vols., Paris, 1826.) In 1828, the imports from New Holland and the South sea islands, into Great Britain, amounted to £83,552, and the exports to £267,529.

COMMERCIAL COURTS are tribunals distinct from the ordinary civil courts, and are established in commercial towns, or within certain districts, to settle disputes with regard to rights and obligations between persons engaged in trade, with the assistance of experienced merchants, by a brief process, according to equitable principles. It is doubtful whether the commercial nations of antiquity had any commercial tribunals of this sort. The general introduction of them began in the middle ages. The first of these tribunals was probably that established at Pisa, in the 11th century, and the basis of its decisions was the code of maritime laws of Pisa, confirmed by pope Gregory VII, in 1075, from which the Consolato del Mare may have been, in part, borrowed. At first, the commercial tribunals were not so much courts established by government as arbiters of disputes, freely chosen by the merchants, and confirmed by the governments. This is evident from the first chapter of the Consolato del Mare, which runs thus:"The good seamen, ship-owners, and seafaring people generally, are accustomed to assemble on Christmas evening of every year, either all or the greater part of them, at a place of their appointment, and when nearly all are convened, they appoint, not by lot, but by vote, two worthy men, experienced in all maritime affairs, for their consuls, and another, of the same occupation, as judge of appeal. To him are made all appeals from the sentence of the consuls." Under the name of commercial consuls, such committees of arbitration

were appointed in all the great commercial cities of Europe; and, in the course of time, they really became tribunals of justice, and were, in part at least, administered by men of legal learning and experience. Pope Paul III confirmed the commercial consuls in Rome. Francis II, in 1560, granted to the Parisian merchants particular arbiters for the adjustment of commercial disputes, and in 1563 was established the Parisian court of commerce, consisting of a judge and four consuls. The same thing soon followed in all the important commercial towns of France. In London, Henry VII appointed particular commercial judges. The president of the commercial tribunal for the Hanse towns, established in 1447, bore the name of alderman. At Nuremberg, in 1621, a similar tribunal was instituted under the name of inspectors of the markets (marktvorsteher). There was one, also, in Botzen, in 1630. The diets of the empire even called upon the German princes and commercial cities to follow this example, as the decrees of the empire of 1654 and 1668, and the decree of the imperial commission of Oct. 10, 1668, show. In many of these cities, as in Frankfort on the Maine, and in Leipsic, they were not so much independent authorities as delegates from the city councils. When commercial courts take cognizance particularly or solely of disputes relating to maritime affairs, they are called courts of admiralty. Such a court was erected in Hamburg in 1623. Among the tribunals more recently established are the French, formed in 1808, according to the provisions of the Code de Commerce; and the new Hamburg commercial court, of the same kind, which dates from the time when Hamburg was the chief city of a French department; this was, in 1816, retained with some modifications. Their internal regulations commonly require that a part of the members, or, at least, the presidents, should be lawyers: the rest are, for the most part, experienced merchants, who are better adapted than regular judges to give counsel on commercial affairs, with which they are more acquainted, and which, very often, are not to be reduced to simple principles of law, but are to be decided according to commercial practice. Their jurisdiction commonly extends over all commercial disputes, whether occurring during the fairs, or at other times, matters of exchange, insurance, freight, bottomry, average, &c., and, further, over bankrupts, the hiring of shops and stores, clerks and apprentices, the debts

of those who receive goods from merchants upon credit; and all natives and foreigners who traffic in the place, and are found there, all ship-owners, contractors for transporting goods, brokers, factors, &c., are obliged to submit to their decisions. They do as much as possible by oral investigation; and the intention of their institution is, that they shall avoid the long and formal process of other courts. But when the difficulty and confusion of the matters in dispute occasion the necessity of an investigation in writing, recourse is had thereto. The greater despatch of these courts consists principally in this that the defendant is orally summoned, once, or several times, to appear before them, at an early day, and, if he twice fails to come, is brought by force; the complaint is then made orally, both parties are heard, and sentence is given, if possible, immediately after. But, as this can seldom be done, and most cases require reference to written documents, a day not far distant is appointed for the answer to the complaint, and for the evidence on both sides, and the time is seldom or never prolonged. The remedies against a sentence (such as revision, restitution, &c.; see Hamburg Code of Commercial Procedure of Dec. 15, 1815) must be sought from the same judges, and are not easily obtained. Appeals are only allowed in very important cases, and upon the deposit of a large sum as a pledge that the final decision shall be obeyed without delay. The principal features of this process are found in the Consolato del Mare (see chapters 8-31), and form the basis of most commercial codes. According to the French code, each tribunal consists of a president, several judges (not more than 8, and not less than 2, in number), together with several persons, who, in case of a pressure of business, become assistant judges (vice-judges-suppléans), a clerk of the court (greffier), and several inferior officers (huissiers). (Code de Commerce, livre 3, tit. 1, § 615-24.) The members of a commercial tribunal are chosen from among the most respectable merchants. Every merchant 30 years of age, who has done business in an honorable manner for 5 years, can be appointed judge or assistant judge. The president must be 40 years old, and have already exercised the office of judge. The election is made by secret ballot. The members elect take an oath before entering upon their office, which they hold for 2 years; they receive no salary, and cannot be reëlected until a year after the expiration of their term. The rules 33

VOL. III.

of the commercial tribunal are to be found under the 25th title of the 2d book of the Civil Code, and are very similar to those of the Consolato del Mare. From the sentence of these tribunals appeal is made to the court of appeal within whose jurisdiction they happen to be. (See Commercial Law.)

COMMERCIAL LAW (or the law merchant) is that which relates to trade, navigation, maritime contracts, such as those of insurance, bottomry, bills of lading, charter-parties, seamen's wages, general average, and also to bills of exchange, bills of credit, factors and agents. Lord Mansfield describes it as a branch of the public law, and applied to its universal adoption the language of Cicero respecting the great principles of morals and eternal justice-nec erit alia lex Roma, alia Athenis. The body of rules constituting this law is substantially the same in the U. States and Europe, the rules, treatises and decisions of one country and one age being, in general, applicable to the questions arising in any other. The reason is obvious why this law should be common to different nations, for it regulates those contracts and transactions in which they come in contact, being a sort of neutral ground between their hostile interests, institutions, customs and prejudices. National law, which regulates the conduct of different nations towards each other, is distinguished from maritime law, by which private contracts between individuals are regulated. The first collection of marine laws was that of Rhodes, of which some fragments have come down to us in the Digest of Justinian, in the title De Lege Rhodia de Jactu; the collection under the title of Rhodian Laws, published at Basle in 1561, and at Frankfort in 1596, being generally considered as spurious. This title and that De Nautico Fenore recognise the first broad principles on the subjects of jettison and maritime law. The law de exercitoria actione, in the Digest, also transmits to us their principles as to the liability of the owners for the acts and contracts of the master of a vessel. The remaining rules and principles by which the commercial transactions of the ancients, in the Mediterranean, were governed, have, for the most part, passed into oblivion. The reason of so small a space being assigned to this branch of jurisprudence, in the Roman laws, may be the low estimation in which trade was held by the Romans, who prohibited men of birth and rank from engaging in commerce, of which the code (4. 63. 3) speaks contemptuously; and

Cicero says it was not fitting that the same people should be both the porters and the masters of the world. The Greeks, being the merchants and navigators of the ancients, adopted the Rhodian laws, with modifications. The Athenian law, on the 'subject of maritime loans, is stated particularly in Boeckh's Economy of Athens, b. 1, sec. 23, from which it appears that the rules on this subject were very definitely settled. The laws of trade naturally followed the trade which they were designed to regulate. Accordingly, we find them first revived in the middle ages, on the shores of the same sea, in one of the islands of which they had their origin; a collection of them being made at Amalfi, a city within the limits of the present kingdom of Naples, about the time of the first crusade, towards the close of the 11th century, called the Amalfitan Table, the authority of which was acknowledged throughout Italy. The origin of the compilation of sea laws, which passes under the title of Consolato del Mare, though involved in some obscurity, is most generally assigned to the city of Barcelona, in Spain. Some writers, however, and particularly Azuni, claim the honor of this collection also for Italy. But Casaregis, a profound commercial jurist, who published an edition of it, in Italian, at Venice, in 1737, and M. Boucher, who published a French translation in 1808, from what he considers the original edition of Barcelona of 1494, both admit the Spanish claim. These laws are supposed by M. Boucher to have been adopted and in use as early as the 9th century, and their authority was acknowledged in all the maritime countries of Europe, and some of the articles of this collection form a part of the present commercial law of all civilized nations. It has been translated into German, also, but no entire English translation has yet been made. It is an ill-arranged, confused compilation; and, though it is interesting as a historical record of the marine laws and customs of the middle ages, a large proportion of its provisions do not apply to the modes of transacting business and making contracts in modern times. The Jugemens d'Oléron (or Laws of Oleron) are supposed to have been compiled about the time of Richard I; and the honor of this collection, like that of the Consolato, from which it is partly borrowed, is in dispute, being claimed for the French by Valin, Emerigon and Cleirac, who say it was made by order of queen Eleanor, duchess of Guienne, for the use of that province, and adopted by her son Richard Ï, duke of Gui

enne. But Selden, Coke and Blackstone assert that it is an English work, published by Richard I, in his character of king of England. The maritime codes of Wisbuy and the Hanse towns are also of historical celebrity, and constitute a part of the legal antiquities of this branch of jurisprudence. These were the principal marine codes down to 1673, the date of the French ordinance of commerce, which treated largely of bills of exchange, and negotiable paper. In 1681 was published, also, the French Ordinance of Marine, one of the most glorious monuments of the reign of Louis XIV. It was framed under the influence of Colbert, and merits all its celebrity, being comprehensive, and including provisions, not only on many of the subjects of commercial law, as we have defined its limits, but, also, very ample regulations on the subject of prizes. These ordinances are the foundation of the present system of marine law in Europe and the U. States. Valin's commentary upon the Ordinance of the Marine, published in 1760, is a profound, original, comprehensive, learned and accurate work. In 1763, he also published his commentaries on the provisions of the ordinance in relation to prizes. About 20 years afterwards (1782), Emerigon published his masterly treatise on insurance. The two ordinances, with the commentary of Valin, and the treatise of Emerigon, made the commercial law a science, of which the principles were now settled, and their application also traced out into a great number of examples. It was now in the power of jurists, judges and legislators to make every new question and case that should arise only a confirmation and extension, in application, of doctrines which had been established upon conclusive reasons, and made parts of a harmonious system; and all the commercial nations have adopted the system thus formed. It constitutes the present French code of commerce, and appears every where in the British, American and continental treatises and decisions. The other French writers of greatest celebrity, on this branch of law, are Pothier, Cleirac and Boucher. Mr. Jacobsen, a jurisconsult of Altona, has published a useful work on the subject of sea laws. The earlier English writers on commercial law were Malynes (a merchant), Molloy (a lawyer), Beawes (a merchant), Postlethwaite, Magens (a dispacheur, or adjuster of marine losses, originally of Hamburg, afterwards of London) and Wiskett (a merchant). But the marine law cannot be considered