The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-30 00:00:00

BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH COMMERCI

and iron ; and that these things formed part of -their trail

as well as skins, slaves, and even dogs, which were excellent
for the chase, and which the Gauls, sometimes even Oriental
nations, employed in war. Whatever the extent of this com-
merce might be, it appears certain that the trade in tin was
a source of inexhaustible wealth to the Phenicians. They.

found in Britain mines of tin
them very near the surface
rocky, it was traversed
gravel, which containe
the surface of the earth.
numerous, but also rich,
nor expense to work them

most everywhere, many of
nd, although the soil was

metal in

,undance, and nearly on

Thus these mines were not only

and required nei

riches, al

amount of labour which it cost them to procure it, and its
worthlessness to themselves (the Phenicians being, of course,

too much interested to instruct them in its uses), gave their
tin almost for nothing, and took in exchange inferior articles,
for which they paid extravagantly, because they were useful
to a savage and slothful people.
Pliny, according to Bochart, attributes the discov
British Isles to the Phenician Hercules ; and we find, from
Eusebius's Chronicles, a Phenician Hercule

73d year of Moses. Elsewhere Herodotus insinnaies, and
some critics have thought, that all the tin which was an-
ciently found in Asia had been brought there from the Bri-
tish Isle 3, by the Phenicians. Now the r-" - -
that this metal was employed in the construction of the ta-
bernacle. From these facts it may be inferred, that the
discovery of Britain by the Phenicians must have been about
the time of Moses. The destruction of Tyre, and the es-
tablishment of Alexandria, destroyed the commerce of the

Bible informs us

,
Phenicians ; and, for a time at least
a trade with the East.

Britain was left without

About three hundred years before Christ, the Carthagi-
nians discovered Britain. and opened a commerce with it ;
but, whether they were less fortunate or less skilful than the
Phenicians, they did not long preserve their monopoly in this
commerce. Pytheas, an astronomer of Marseilles. in a
voyage which he made to Thule, discovered Britain about the
same time as the Carthaginians ; and, by the account which

be published, made known the exist,
revealed the secret of their commerc
Diodorus states, that it was the Britons of Cape Belerium
who obtained tin from the mines; which they smelted and
reduced into cubical masses (blocks), which they transported
to the Isle of Wight, on chariots at low water, when the sea
let dry the tongue of land which joined that island with
Great Britain. To that island the foreign merchants came
to buy the tin, which they took thence to the coast of Gaul,
where they loaded horses with it; and, in thirty days after
quitting the cost, arrived at the mouth of the Rhone, at
Marseilles, as Strabo explains in speaking of this commerce.
As soon as Narbonne was built, British tin was carried
thither, as well as to Marseilles. Diodorus also states, that
the Gauls carried away from the Carthaginians the trade with
Great Britain in tin. CEesar tells us, in precise terms, that
the Veneti formed the most 'owerful state in Armorica ;
that, by their skill in naval affairs, and by the large force
lad at sea, they levied tribute from all vessels in

ence of these islands

which the

that latitude; and that they maintained a numerous fleet in
the .trade with Britain. Probably their port was in the
neighbourhood of Brest, and their commerce with Britain
commenced about 120 years before Christ. It appears, then,
that only three nations are known to have carried on trade
with Britain prior to its invasion by the Romans, viz., the
Phenicians, Carthaginians, and Gauls. Another French
writer, however, shows that the Marseillese of that early
period were Greeks, and so includes that nation amongst the
traders with Britain.

Anderson, in his " Historical and Chronological Deduc-
tion of the Origin of Commerce," states, that according to
the learned Bochart, in his Canaan, the Island of Britain
was, about the year 904 before Christ, known and traded to
1.).y the Phenicians for the tin of the Cassiterides, there being

then none ofthatmetal to be found in the eastern countries
The author of " The Rights of the King

r the Cus-

toms of our Anc,esto

Greek authors be-

fore Strabo and Pliny relate the Phenician, Carthagenian,
and Massilian [Marseilles] traffic to the Cassiterides for tin,
and mention the story of the Carthaginian pilot, who was re-
warded by the Carthaginian senate for sinking his ship, ra-
ther than he should be forced by the Romans to discover
their traffic for lead and tin found about the British isles.
Speaking of a later period, Anderson says, that, although
the Romans held Britain about 360 years, yet in all that
time there was but little of a commercial spirit to be found
amongst the Britons, whose shipping, regular towns, arts,
and manufactures,_ it mast he acknowledged, they owed en-
tirely to the Romans. He adds, that although neither Lon-
don nor any other place deserving the name of a city or town
existed in Britain in the time of Julius Caesar, London was a
considerable place in Nero's reign, 100 years later •, and
hence conjectures that it was founded in the reign of Nero's
predecessor, Claudius [whom Suetoaius supposed to have
towards its

been t

first con

marine insura
xi. 52

close, probably about the , _. Tacit us,
livedsome
time in London about 50 years after this period, says it was
famous for its many merchants, and the abundance of its
merchandise. This would be about the year 102, A.D

—On Monday night the char-
5, Old 13-alley, not for the
• " of Miss Ann
utmost of their
1. The females

CHARTIST RECREATI
tifitS assembled in their hall, Is
purpose of listening to the '
Walker, nor to " further the charter to
nowe-

"street //V.

but to take part in a e

oncert cota:

on this occakm greatly predominated. w
menced, and consisted of chartist songs It'
artistes of the

2tl female

favourite

of our

song (among the r
choice." A child