The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-04
The Course and Destination OF Commerce.
The Future OF the United States,

Inc EutuTe OF tie United States.
From the NJ Y. Herald.
ALI the developments and signs of the times
show that the United States are destined to
be the great centre OF the commerce of the
world, and greater commercial power than
ever existed before. In contemplating this
subject OF the growth and course of commerce
it is curious to notice its uniform direction
from east to west. The earliest records we
have of commerce-and these are often eXag-
gerated and not very relable-are from Asia.
The great cities of Babylon, Nineveh, and
Palmyra, in Central Asia, as well as Thebes
and other cities OF Egypt, for example, had an
interior commerce carried on chiefly by cara
varsaries or on the backs of camels. 1t does
not appear from history that even the great
rivers of Asia and Africa-the Euphrates,
the Tgris and the Nile-were used for
this purpose, or, at most, to any
extent. The early nations living on or
bordering them did not understand even river
navigation. We have no knowledge that the
interior seas, as those of the EuXne, the Cas-
plan or the Sea of Aral were navigated for
commerce i'll the earliest historical times
though it is not improbable that the inhabi-
tants on these, as well as on the great rivers,
might have used canoes, or something like
them, to limited extent, as the natives of the
South Sea islands do at this day. AS to the
early cities of the interior of that part of Asia
Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of the plains,
and Jerusalem, they had but limited trade,
and that only carried by beasts of burden.
China, India and the rest of extreme Eastern
Asia were unknown, and therefore, nothing
can be said of the commerce there.
The earliest accounts of commerce by navi-
cation or of the use of vessels for WARN sacred
and pagan history are those mentioning the
ships of Tarshish, which brought treasures
and ms ntprinlc IN SnInunOn Oft ba If hui
ing the Temple, and those of Homer about the
fleets of Greece, which besieged Troy. Then
we come to Tyre and Sidon, on the Asiatic
coast OF the Mediterranean. These We're real
commercial cities i'll the modern sense of that
term. Their trading vessels went to the
different ports of Greece, to Italy, and to other
ports of the Mediterranean. Carthage then
rose as great commercial emporium on the
coast of Africa, and afterwards Alexandria in
Egypt. Commerce at that time was centered
and spread along the eastern shores of the Medi-
terranean. The Carthagenians or Pho-
nicians carried their commerce through
the Straits of Gibraltar, and formed
colonies on the coast of Spain and
penetrated as far as Britain, where they opened
the tin mines of Cornwall. This was the COM
mencement OF more extensive and outside
commerce-an ocean cOmmerce-far to the
westward and northward. 1t may be said
indeed, that when the Cartbagenians passed
the columns of Hercules they laid the founda-
tion OF modern commerce. With the ascend
ancy and dominion of the Roman empire the
commercial supremacy Of the coasts of Africa
and Asia declined and was transferred to the
western shores of the Mediterranean. But
during that long period of the decline of the
Roman empire commerce was nearly extin-
guished. Internal and external wars and wars
of conquest occupied the attention of the
Romans almost exclusively.
But more important commercial era COM
menced with the rise of Venice, in the twelfth
century, and the other great marts of COM
merce in Italy. Venice for centuries was the
first maritime and commercial power of the
world, and she monopOlized the trade with
India by the way of Egypt. But the Veni-
tians lost this when the route by the Cape of
Good Hope was discovered. Farther west
still the seat of commercial empire tended,
when Spain, Portugal, and Holland eclipsed
the maritime cities and republics of Italy. The
ships OF those nations traVersed every sea and
their colonies were established in both the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres. They fill
a glorious page in the commercial history OF
the world. But soon more western and greater
people still arose and OvershadoWed them and
all previous commercial nations. The British
then became the first maritime power. That
grand old fillibuster, Admiral Blake, in the
time of Queen Elizabeth did great deal to-
wards giving England the maritime and COM
mercial supremacy which the British have
held ever since. But westward the star of
commerce continues to wend its way. This
mighty republic, the colonial offspring OF
Great Britain, is destined to eclipse the glory
of its parent and all former commercial ma
tions. The United States occupy the most
central position on the globe. With Europe
on one hand and Asia on the other we shall be
iha centra and medium Of commerce for both.