Commerce

the transportation and sale of goods. In a narrow sense it is the carrying of goods to market. An exchange of goods between different parts of the same country is called domestic commerce; that between different countries, foreign commerce. Goods brought into a country are called imports. Goods sent out are called exports. The imports of a country represent its purchases; the exports, sales abroad.

The foreign commerce of the ancients was carried on east of the Mediterranean, chiefly by means of caravans; in Europe by pack trains; between the ports of the Mediterranean, by means of ships. At one time the commerce of the Mediterranean was almost entirely in the hands of the Phoenicians. Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage were important ports. The greatest commercial rivals of the Phoenicians were the Greeks. They were succeeded in turn by the Romans. During the Middle Ages, the commerce of Europe was controlled by the merchants of the free cities, or hanse towns, a great commercial league.

The leading commercial nation of modern times is the United Kingdom, better known as Great Britain. Counting the home country and all her colonial possessions, it is safe to say that very nearly one-half the world's foreign commerce is carried on under the protection of the British flag. Germany and the United States are close rivals for the second place, with the present outlook in favor of the latter. France, Belgium, Austria, and Italy follow at a distance in the order named. The Statesman's Year Book for 1909 gives the total value of the imports of Great Britain at $593,140,723; the exports at $377,219,579. Multiplying these enormous figures by five, we have the approximate equivalent in American money.

In a classification of exports and imports, foods come first--the world's first care is to eat and drink. Counting liquor and tobacco, of doubtful place as foods but gratifying to many appetites, nearly a half of the world's carrying, so far as money value goes, is concerned with supplying the demand for food. Grain, flour, meat, rice, poultry, fish, dairy products, eggs, sugar, coffee, tea, cocoa, spices, salt, dried, canned, and fresh fruits, vegetables, beverages, remedies, and narcotics are the leading items.

The next great class includes articles designed to furnish shelter, comfort, and protection. Here we may place raw cotton, silk, wool, flax, hemp, jute, ramie, and other fibers, as well as cloth of all sorts. Readymade clothing, boots and shoes, and much of the leather belong here. All sorts of hardware used in building houses, lumber, furniture and timber products very generally are designed to shelter and protect. Window glass and paint are protective. Nearly all building material may be placed under this heading. Even battleships, cannon and other munitions of war may be included as protective. Fuel, including coal, kerosene and firewood, is used largely, like clothing, for the comfort of the body.

A third great group of articles may be classified loosely as machinery. Ships, engines, locomotives, railroad iron, steel and wooden bridges, agricultural machinery and implements, sawmills, windmills, gristmills, tools, cutlery, sewing machines, harnesses and vehicles,--in short, all devices with which to perform work, belong to this class of merchandise.

After food, shelter, and work tools, come a fourth, as yet a comparatively small group of imports and exports,--those of an intellectual nature. Printing presses, printing paper, and stationery, books, periodicals and newspapers, so far as they are not part of the machinery of commerce, may be placed here. A very considerable part of the world's mail is personal and intellectual. Works of art, including sculpture, paintings, and engravings, may be considered intellectual. In order to bring up the intellectual aspect of commerce as high as possible, it is fair to include jewelry and all articles of personal adornment which are designed less to offer bodily comfort than to give pleasure to the mind. Music and musical instruments belong here. The higher the stage of civilization, the greater the value of this sort of commerce; but, after all, it is the first province of commerce to see that the world is fed.

The following statistics (1907-8) are to be regarded as a representative statement of the

If a careful account be kept, the sum of the world's imports equals the total of exports; for, barring loss at sea and in transit, whatever one country exports, other countries import. As a matter of fact, however, the value placed on articles of import may not be the export value.

As may be seen from the table, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, and France have most to buy and sell. The newer food-producing countries, as the United States, Australia, and for many reasons we must include Russia and India, are larger sellers than they are buyers. The balance of the money coming to them they spend hiring the ships of other nations to carry goods for them and in paying interest on money borrowed to build railroads, or to defray the expense of war.

The United States, for instance, pays large sums to European bankers in this way. Instead of sending actual interest money, we send exports. We are now paying off the cost of our Civil War, and the expense of building the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific, and other great railroads, by selling cotton, machinery, wheat, and flour. When we catch up we shall become larger buyers--assuredly so, unless our sales fall off.

On the other hand, a few of the old, rich, manufacturing countries buy more than they sell. These are the countries that are loaning the rest of the world money to carry goods and to make improvements. Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Germany are examples of nations that are greater buyers than they are sellers. The United Kingdom is a great selling nation. British manufacturers are offered, we may say, over almost every counter in the world. There is hardly a tribe so rude or remote that the works of Birmingham or Sheffield are not offered in exchange for herbs, ivory, or fur. Yet the balance of trade shows that the United Kingdom is not only a great seller in the world, but that it is a still greater buyer. So far as foreign markets are concerned, British merchants buy nearly twice as much as they sell. As may be seen from the table, British purchases of foreign foods and material for manufactures, such as cotton and wool, exceed the total exports by over $1,000,000,000 a year. This sum, too large for the imagination to grasp, is earned by loaning money to the newer countries, and by carrying goods for other nations.

A small amount of merchandise is carried yet by caravans and pack trains. Railroads serve as mediums of foreign trade between Switzerland and adjacent states, Russia and Germany, Austria and her neighbors, and in America between the United States and the Dominion and Mexico, as well; but the greater part of the world's foreign commerce is carried on by sea. The beaten sea routes radiate from Great Britain. That from Liverpool to New York, and that from London, via Suez, to Singapore and to Hongkong, are spoken of by British writers as the Atlantic Route and the East Route, respectively. Other noted routes are the Cape Route and the Cape Horn Route. The Atlantic is the ocean of commerce. The commerce of the Pacific is of comparatively recent growth. The great seas of commerce are the Mediterranean and the Baltic. The Great Lakes of North America are the most important inland waterway. The Mississippi, the Rhine, and the Danube are possibly the most important commercial rivers. A recent writer states that with respect to mere tonnage the seaports of the world rank as follows: London, New York, Antwerp, Hamburg, Hongkong, Liverpool, Cardiff, Rotterdam, Singapore, Marseilles, Tyne Ports, and Gibraltar.

Reliable statistics of the world's commerce date from 1720. The following totals indicate the rapid growth of international business. It must be remembered that prices change and that the relative volume of shipments is not indicated accurately by a money estimate.

See Tonnage; Caravan; Railway; Canal; Balance Of Trade