Commerce
Commerce names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Commerce the transportation and sale of goods
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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 IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. Imports. Exports. Argentina . . . . . $275,855,555 $285,837,216 Australia . . . . . 243,603,310 288,276,826 Austria-Hungary . . . . . 475,808,863 473,160,653 Belgium . . . . . 661,718,835 515,700,825 British S. Africa . . . . . 133,746,224 231,900,283 Bulgaria . . . . . 24,055,344 24,239,777 Canada . . . . . 351,879,955 246,960,968 Chile . . . . . 107,193,877 102,521,466 China . . . . . 328,957,082 208,860,751 Denmark . . . . . 149,899,904 105,461,216 Egypt . . . . . 128,445,224 138,468,981 France . . . . . 1,167,196,064 1,069,611,790 Germany . . . . . 2,046,187,150 1,634,803,436 Greece . . . . . 28,639,886 22,397,531 India, British . . . . . 442,822,376 562,525,863 Italy . . . . . 532,774,686 357,337,405 Japan . . . . . 245,584,575 213,394,963 Mexico . . . . . 110,324,925 120,883,976 Netherlands . . . . . 1,068,823,000 883,926,000 Norway . . . . . 103,369,690 58,952,442 Portugal . . . . . 65,545,000 31,396,000 Russia . . . . . 412,355,271 563,866,338 Spain . . . . . 172,490,612 152,593,410 Sweden . . . . . 171,076,242 135,146,654 Switzerland . . . . . 311,659,190 222,509,951 United Kingdom . . . . . 3,143,292,673 2,074,124,666 United States . . . . . 1,183,120,665 1,834,786,357 Uruguay . . . . . 35,595,662 36,346,069 Venezuela . . . . . 10,335,817 16,203,972 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. Year. Total Commerce. 1720 $428,000,000 1780 905,000,000 1820 1,660,000,000 1860 7,246,000,000 1900 20,715,000,000 1907 30,000,000,000 See Tonnage ; Caravan ; Railway; Canal ; Balance Of Trade
Commerce a buying and selling
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a buying and selling, whether abroad or at home, but in a more specific or limited sense it denotes intercourse or transactions of the character now described with foreign nations or with colonies; mutual exchange or buying and selling at home being designated not commerce but trade. History. The Phoenicians, whose prim itive seat was at Sidon and their next at Tyre, were the great commercial nation of the old world. The Greeks with all their intellect, and the Romans with their unparalleled opportunities, did not show remarkable aptitude for Commerce, nor was their success high. In the Middle Ages, the Venetians, the Pisans, the Genoese, the Hanse or Hanseatic towns and Flanders, either successively or in some cases two or more together, took the lead in Commerce. The great impulse communicated by the discovery of America brought first the Spaniards and Portuguese, then the Dutch, and finally the British upon the scene. Even before this time London had become a large emporium of trade. The reign of Elizabeth gave an impulse to Commerce, and before the 16th century had closed, the English engrossed, by an exclusive privilege, the Commerce of Russia; they explored the sea of Spitzbergen for a passage to the markets of the East; they took an active part in the trade of the Mediterranean, and they excited the jealousy of the Hanse Towns by their operations in Germany and the continent of Europe. Other English cities were now engaged in foreign trade, the merchants of Bristol doing so with the Canary Islands, and those of Plymouth with the coasts of Guinea and Brazil. The English traffic with India created the Anglo-Indian empire, and it again favorably reacted on the Commerce which had given it birth. Commerce of the United States.- Even before the Revolutionary War the Commerce of the colonies had grown to a considerable extent, so much indeed as in some departments to excite the jealousy of the mother country and cause the enactment of stringent customs regulations, discriminating against the colonial products. For a long time after the war had ceased, the unsettled condition of Europe, while it gave an extensive market for American products, yet was a source of considerable risk and annoyance to shipping, by reason of the. exposure to privateering, piracy, etc.,
Commerce CHAMBERS OF 86 which such a condition of affairs engenever
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHAMBERS OF 86 which such a condition of affairs engenever, American Commerce continued to increase, until the stars and stripes were familiar in every port of the earth. At the outbreak of the World War our commerce was at its height, and at the close of the war it continued to increase in volume. For the Commerce of the various countries see section Commerce under those countries.
Commerce CHAMBERS OF. See CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHAMBERS OF. See CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's in 1910 could say that "very nearly one-half the world's foreign commerce is carried on under the protection of the British flag," with Germany and the United States contesting second place. Britain now accounts for roughly 2-3 per cent of world merchandise trade; China, barely mentioned in the 1910 table, has been the world's largest exporter of goods since 2009, and total world merchandise trade runs to something near $24 trillion a year rather than the few billions tabulated here. The claim that "the world's first care is to eat and drink" no longer holds for trade statistics: food and agricultural products are under a tenth of merchandise trade, which is dominated by machinery, electronics, vehicles, fuels and chemicals, while a vast trade in services insurance, software, finance, tourism had no place in the old classification at all. Two things the entry could not foresee shaped all of this: the shipping container, introduced in 1956, and the rules-based trading system built from the 1947 GATT into the World Trade Organization in 1995.
Written for this edition, 2026.