New-York daily tribune., 1858-11-12
PROF.. LIEBER or THE HISTORY or
COMMERCE.


ION Of the Graduate Course OF Columbia College
He commenced by ssyirg that the series would touch
rrop the rise progress vcisstu:ss and ultimate eN'
name of ocmrercc or exchange For all commerce
was exchange. Whatever had, came into onr reach
by exchange Sometimes the process was very brief,
but generally there was 'cug concatena;on of eN-
charges Commerce was of the four man
branches of human industry. These were: 6rst, the
sppr,pra,i,c or collective b'Mch, greludirg hsii-
NO. mining. hun,;p. and the ike secondly, sgri-
cutMc, thst branch which eoerced nature into
a greater production Of useful products than she
gives spontaneously third y. MANUFACTURES, shst
brsnch which sepUa;ed, combined, fashioned, dyed
these products which other branches had brought into
its reach and foarthly, the branch which csmented
all these and whose gre business i was to brlhy the
producer ard the consumer together. This last was
Commerce, Exchange, sometimes a simple prncess,
bot for the most part, thousands aud thousands OF
processes necessary to bring single article rom
the producer to the consumer. And there was gsner
ally not only lore concatcna,ion of exchanges pro-
cedirc any particular sc. Of exchange but long line
Of development, art civilization and knowedSe had
preceSed IT, Take the humblest set of exchange
instance Every one of us expected to take meal .ier
leaving this rvon and hoped to find piece of bread
upor the table. How had it come there First, the
loaf was purchased for money. This was an aeI Of
cxthaDge, and the money was obtained 10y acts OF
exchange. The art of making bread had Itself a hong
history President Coguct, in his origin OF sciences
ano ars had lony chapter on the history of bread
making Indeed, bread, s. We know i now, wasqulte
late article The ancieus had no bread, an to this
dsy Asia had more. How did the baker obtain the
flour Of which he made the bread That implied an
&C: of exchange. He got the -four from the mill.
Now, not to speak of our steam-mls, tho water-mii
had very long history attached to it. The wGter-
mill used by Europeans became known only during
the crusales, and was very bad indeed then.
All Asia had the everlasting hand-mill, the
bapd.mill OF Homer ard the Old Testament.
Bonapsrte took the water.mill to Egypt, whore it
took root Where did the iler get the grain from
This led 10 the whole Of agriculture. he need not say
how important how sublime was It's history, or how
many Thousands Of the wlsest men IN all civilized
countries were now engaged in its Improvement.
We're we in Lima, the flour would remnd a. ot AL the
navigation necessary to bring II there Then came
the whole science of navigation, and how tolsom"lY
the human race bad worked itself ont Of the mere
creeping along coasts into the navigation we nov pos
sessed Take another lnstance-our manufactures ot
nseeJ oil. We IN everlastingly painting race.
and con suIned il at enormous rate The inseed for
this came mostly from tho East Indies. That brought
10 our minds the lyleveope1 art of navigation,
which had produced comparative security on the high
seas, What civilization, how many Thousand years
were hecehasr 'H,' .n fetch 'nso 3. .sLa
in safety to tie East Ibde' ~" '''"
En.eed OIL When The oil aas pressed out tHt ulseei
cakes were shipped TO 10 fed cattle there, add
at last appear as roast bccfoD the tables OF En,shmen
We could scarcely realize the amount of civilization
required for tbis commerce. only go hong ago as the
time Of Colombus, the seaman must perOTce be tight
iny man. because men lived thousands and thousands
Of hpf.r fh.X ne
which was property on land, was equally property
when aiCat. Antiquity knew no security for cargoeS.
Every vessel was the ewfa prize Of any other vessel
which could take her. HE must give one more IN
stance. Our former citizen, John Jacob Astor had
the idea before the last @ag with England, of estab-
lsbirg line o. yessel- which shond crcumnayigete
the globe. They were 10 take IN here whatever eodd
be sold to the Oregon Indians, SAL down the whole o
the Atlantic, double Cape Horn, sa up the whole Of
the Pacific 10 Oregon, where they were 10 exchange
their cargo fer petry which had been collected there
by his agents. The vessels would then 90 tO Canton
and exchange the peltry br tea and silks, then sail
round the Cape Of Good Hope and up the
VI hole Atlantic 10 Liverpool or London, exchange the
Asiatic for European goods and with these return To
New.York to begin again this gigantic circninnavgs
tou In that way be- would keep some hiteen vessels
running around the world Ike line Of busy
and exchanging. And the old gentleman
neyely added, "If ! had done ii, might have been
rich man" There was nothing Surprising IN this
except that man should grasp the whole globe by
el pear in s.pole stream. Mr.. As.or pro ected 10 do
what the world was all the time dong, only not in
a single stream. 70 comprehend commetce, W. hal
not only TO imsg in. this AstorGn idea, but also "
exteDd / sdewise ard make il cover the whole globe
Then add To thi- that commerce was the great means
of spreading civilization that Il had been ~ gqrucror
first of geographical knowlodge, eDd then OF the
Of nature and natural history, anu that It
b ad been the p.oneer-somc'mes, i was true not very
amiabe-o religion. Only lately DR.. Livingstone had
advocated commerce with Africa M means ol Chris-
lisnization. Prof Lieber then diseased the much
moOted question whether commerce tended to make
u'en mean. II was quite probable that having tue
idea Of prof. before his eyes more continually thai
iher the merchant mghtlook at moro kcenly
Besiies commerce dealt with property, ami property
wa slwsys tind people did not Ike 10 seo their prop
er,y endangered. The commercial gentleman was IN
pariotic because war ruined his trade Whom, five
years ego. 4.OO0 London merchants with the Lord
Mayor at their head cent petition 10 Napoleon Ill,
placing il ut the feet of his Majesty" tO use their
own words, inporiDg him not 70 believe that the war
IKE tone Of the newsPspeTs w's an eIIre.son 81 ios
Lord Campbell described II not Treason, coming
so close TO il that required very keen lawyer 70
" distinguish between the two" On the other hand,
L was not the merchant who EXPIRE sgd thc
base sentiment that capital had the right -
II slave labor. We must appea! 20 history upon
The point Thirty years ego all the boo4S-Iyier
Universal History, for eIenpIe-used ID say that
spirit ruined 1ll public spirit, snd mus.
-un nation This said thirty years ago, because
the ancieuts said 90. They said that increasing
wealth was incompatible with liberty. This was the
fact in srcient tines. And it was one of the mos:
strongly marked distinctions between ancicnt and
nodern times, that in modern times netion might
,row wealthy and free 4. tho same time. Eoglsnd
od.y siruely freer sud wissr than ~ wears ago.
Oar Liberty the Peoples Liberty, contrsii guisaed
rom the Federal Liberty from the cities OF the
n ids Ages it was the creation Of merchants and
raiders. 1t was the guilds Of ;he Northern German
.ities ths. fought against the Danish Kings ard
or,red the Hansea.ic LeagGc. Very frequently men
belonging % .hese guilds runaway slsvesser-.
The German Princes wanted fugitive siaye laws, |
but the cities refused, and established their freedom
Now these cities were the real storchouses OF wesnn
u the Middle Ages; the noblemen were landOvnen, |
.,l nn. n,cb cani.aI Aya;n our modern liberty de-