IT CHAPTER II. OF COMMERCE, ARTICLE I. Excellency and advantages of Commerce. T may be faid, without fear of being fulpected of exaggeration, that commerce is the most folid foundation of civil fociety, and the most neceffary principle to unite all men, of whatever country or condition they are, with each other. By its means the whole world is but one city, and one family. It is the fource of univerfal plenty to every part of it. The riches of one nation become those of all people, and no country is barren, or at least fenfible of its fterility. All its neceffities are provided for in time from the extremities of the universe; and every region is amazed to find itself abound in foreign productions, and enriched with a thousand commodities, unknown to itself, and which however compose all that is most agreeable in life. It is by the commerce of the fea and rivers, that is to fay by navigation, that God has united all mankind amongst themselves in fo wonderful a manner, by teaching them* to direct and govern the two moft violent things in nature, the fea and the winds, and to fubftitute them to their uses and occafions. He has joined the most remote peo Quas res violentiffimas natura genuit, earum moderationem nos foli habemus, maris atque ventorum, prop ter nauticarum rerum fcientiam. Cic. de Nat. deor. 1. 2. P. 15. ple ple by this means, and preferved amongst the different nations, an image of the dependance he has ordained in the several parts of the fame body by the veins and arteries. This is but a weak, a flight idea, of the advantages arifing from commerce to society in general. With the leaft attention to particulars, what wonders might we not discover? But this is not the proper place for fuch enquiries. I fhall confine my felf to one reflection, which seems very proper for our understanding at once the weakness and grandeur of man. I fhall confider him at first in the highest degree of elevation to which he is capable of attaining. I mean upon the throne: lodged in fuperb palaces; furrounded with all the fplendor of the royal dignity; honoured and almost adored by throngs of courtiers, who tremble in his prefence; placed in the centre of riches and pleasures, which vye with each other for his favour; and fupported by numerous armies, who wait only to obey his orders. Behold the height of human greatness! But what becomes of this fo powerful, fo awful, prince, if commerce happens to ceafe on a fudden; if he is reduced to himself, to his own induftry and perfonal endeavours? Abandoned to himfelf in this manner; divested of that pompous outfide, which is not him, and is abfolutely foreign to his perfon; deprived of the support of others, he falls back into his native mifery and indigence; and to fum up all in a word, he is no longer any thing. Let us now confider man in a mean condition, inhabiting a little houfe; reduced to fubfift on a little bread, meat and drink; covered with the plaineft cloaths; and enjoying in his family, not without difficulty, the other con veniencies veniencies of life. What seeming folitude, what a forlorn state, what oblivion feems he in with regard to all other mortals! We are much deceived, when we think in this manner. The whole univerfe is attentive to him. A thoufand hands work for his occafions, and to cloath and nourish him. For him manufactures are established, granaries and cellars filled with corn and wine, and different metals extracted from the bowels of the earth with fo much danger and difficulty. There is nothing, even to the things that minister to pleasure and voluptuoufnefs, which the most remote nations are not follicitous to transfer to him through the most stormy feas. Such are the fupplies, which commerce, or to speak more properly, divine providence, always employed for our occafions, continually procures for us all, for each of us in particular: fupplies, which to judge aright of them, are in a manner miraculous, which ought to fill us with perpetual admiration, and make us cry out with the prophet in the tranfports of a lively gratitude; O Lord, what is man, that thou art Pfal. viii. mindful of him, or the son of man that thou vi-4. ill timed fiteft him! It would be to no purpose for us to say, that we have no obligation to those who labour for us in this manner, because their particular intereft puts them in motion. This is true; but is their work therefore of less advantage to us? God, to whom alone it belongs to produce good from evil itself, makes use of the covetoufnefs of fome for the benefit of others. It is with this view providence has established fo wonderful a diverfity of conditions amongst us, and has diftributed the goods of life with fo prodigious an inequality. If all men were easy in their fortunes, were rich and opulent, who amongst us would give himfelf the trouble to till the earth, to dig in the mine, or to cross the feas. Poverty or covetoufnefs charge themfelves with thefe laborious, but useful, toils. From whence it is plain, that all mankind, rich or poor, powerful or impotent; kings or fubjects, have a mutual dependance upon each other for the demands of life; the poor not being able to live without the rich, nor the rich without the labour of the poor. And it is commerce, fubfifting from thefe different interefts, which fupplies mankind with all their neceffities, and at the fame time with all their conveniencies. ARTICLE II. Antiquity of commerce. Countries and cities moft famed for it. IT is a was natural, between private perfons, mankind affifting each other with whatfoever they had of useful and neceffary to human life. Cain, no doubt, fupplied Abel with corn, and the fruits of the earth for his food; and Abel, in exchange, fupplied Cain with fkins and fleeces for his cloathing, and with milk, curds, and perhaps meat for his table. Tubalcain, folely employed in works of copper and iron, for the various ufes and occafions of life, and for arms to defend men, either against human enemies or wild beafts, was certainly obliged to exchange his brafs and iron works for other merchandise, neceffary to feeding, cloathing, and lodging him. Commerce afterwards, extending culture. It begun, as T is very probable, that commerce is no tending gradually from neighbour to neighbour, established itself between cities and adjacent countries, and after the deluge, enlarged its bounds to the extremities of the world. The holy fcripture gives us a very antient Gen. example of traffick by the caravans of the Ifh-xxvii. 25] maelites and Midianites, to whom Jofeph was fold by his brethren. They were upon their return from Gilead with their camels laden with fpices, aromatick goods, and with other precious merchandise of that country. These they were carrying into Egypt, where there was a great demand for them, occafioned by their custom of embalming the bodies of men, after their death, with great care and expence. Homer informs us, that it was the cuftom of the heroick age of the fiege of Troy, for the different nations to exchange the things, that were most neceffary for life, with each other; a proof, fays Pliny, that it was rather neceffity than avarice, that gave birth to this primitive commerce. We read in the seventh book of the Iliad, that upon the arrival of certain veffels, the troops went in crowds to purchafe wine, fome with copper, and others with iron, skins, oxen, and slaves. We find no navigators in history so antient as the Egyptians and Phoenicians. These two neighbouring nations feem to have divided the commerce by fea between them: the Egyp tians had poffeffed themfelves chiefly yр of trade of the Eaft, by the Red fea; and the * Quantum feliciore ævo, cum res ipfæ permutabantur inter fefe, ficut & Trojanis temporibus factitatum Homero credi convenit! Ita VOL. X. enim, ut opinor, commercia Y Phoeni |