Arizona citizen., 1874-01-03
Tucson Literary Society.

Instead of the ordinary proceedings of this organization, we herewith publish an essay on Commerce, read by one of the | members at the meeting of December 14. It is full of interesting facts and smoothly written:
 In his primitive state man has but little if any Knowledge or idea of abstract things and his notions of intrinsic value or of relative values are crude and vague. Under all conditions in which he exists there obtains some comprehension of the right of property; in many instances founded on the right which possession gives and in some cases on the right which gives supremacy to the stronger over the weaker. In such conditions the principle of value while it may not obtain Is yet manifested in Knowledge that an equlVa- lent should be given for anything which IS desired, and this idea which we now know as barter or exchange in kind gave rise to the system which ultimately attained the perfection it is now characterlZed by ana which in it's extended sense is denomlnat- ed Commerce. The following of this SyS- tenn of exchange is as old as any avOca- ton of which we have Knowledge. Trade is as universal as the race, as ancient as the first barter. A certain event in the Bible is mentioned as having occurred when there passed by merchantmen" and we read oc a "cOmpany coming " with their camelS bearing Spicery and balm and myrrh going to carry it down to Egypt" Ancient history is full of exam ples of cities which grew and hour1Shed because they were martS of trade, and the Phmnicians. who were early navigators, were doubtless Gdepts in the art of com merce. The art of ship-building has been attributed to the Egyptians, the first ship having been brought to Greece from Egypt by DanauS, 1885 B. C.
 Commerce brings to the door of the con- Sumer almost everything that has being in the water, on the earth and in the air, from the whale that spOuts and foams in the great deep to the smallest insect that exists in the land. It is the instrument that furnishes every article of necessity and those which luxury demands, inter- changing at the same time the products Of one country with those of another. It brings us tea from China, coffee from Arabia, spices from the far East, and has been the incentive to some of the great discoveries which have given new cOnti- nentS to the world. The discovery of Amer | ica was prompted by the desire which Co | lumbus had of reaching the East Indies which were the treasury of the world in his time, by direct western route, which
 would be shorter than that which had un- | til then been followed Commercial req sons impelled Vasco de Gama to sail round
 the Cape of Good Hope; and Magellan | to discover and pass through the straits
 bearing his name. In the interests of commerce to this day, voyages of eX- plOratiOnS are being made, and nations
 make it their study to mark out danger
 ous reefs, to build Lighthouses, to erect stations, to establish systems of weather observations, all in the interests of com
 merce, which Webster says "has raised
 armies, equipped navies, and triumphing over the gross power of mere numbers, has
 established national superiority on the | foundation of intelligence, wealth and
 well directed industry"
 | The influence of commerce on nations
 may well deserve passing glance. Nen-
 ice, the queen of the Adriatic, was once splendid and powerful, because the trade
 of the world gathered at her martS. When
 Spain was in the pienitude of her power, | her vast commerce was what contributed
 to render her great nation. At this day, 1 England though small in territorial eX-
 tent, contains within her boundaries the
 greatest commercial nation of the globe,
 and her dignity is not to be gainsayed. | During the reign of the late Napoleon III, | the position of France to place among
 the first nations of the world, was accom- panied by a degree of commercial import
 ance which it had never attained, and
 with this it's rise in material prosperity
 was immense. It is probably the prosper
 ity which attended the prosecution of mer-
 camille pursuits by the French that ena- bled them to so promptly pay the vast in-
 demnity imposed on them by their vict-
 OrS, the North Germans, who in their turn
 are assuming leading position as com mercial nation by the prestige which mil itary successes haze given them. History | furnishes no pages which are so full of in- | tereSt as the account of the rise and pro-
 greSs of the East India Company-char-
 tered December 3l, I600, by Queen Eliza beth of Great Britain, under the title Oi
 the "Governor and Company of NIer-
 chants of London Trading with the East IndieS." They ct first confined them
 selves to mere commercial pursuits; grad
 ually they made native princes tributary
 to them, and ultimately they become gov ernOrS in name and fact of what has since
 become the greatest, grandest, richest de
 pendency of the British crown. The usur- pations of one of it's governors, Warren
 Hastings, led to his trial and impeach-
 ment, an occasion which called forth the
 eloquence of the greatest orators of mod
 ern times. From this small company oi traders, rose the future governors of prin- cipalitieS and empires and the ultimate formation of power second to if no; equal to that of England herself The
 great Cromwell, Lord Protector of Eng land, found time even amid the engrOSS-
 ing cares of state, to give some attention
 to commerce, for he seems, according to
 the best accounts we have, to have given
 the first notions of Board of Trade. In 1855, he appointed a council to meet and consider what means were necessary to increase and promote the trade and navi-
 gatiOn of the then republic. Charles the | Second, on his restoration, established a
 council of trade for keeping control over the whole commerce of the nation. He afterwards instituted a Board of Trade
 which was thereafter remOdeled by Will liam the Third. This board of cOmmer- cial superinspectiOn was abolished in TYP
 and new council for the affairs of trade