a kind of benefice or fixed revenue belonging to a military order, and conferred on ancient knights who had done considerable services to the order.

There are strict or regular commandries, obtained in order, and by merit; there are others of grace and favour, conferred at the pleasure of the grand master. There are also commandries for the religious, in the orders of St Bernard and St Anthony. The kings of France have converted several of the hospitals for lepers into commandries of the order of St Lazarus.

The commandries of Malta are of different kinds; for as the order consists of knights, chaplains, and brothers-servitors, there are peculiar commandries or revenues attached to each. The knight to whom one of these benefices or commandries is given, is called commander: which agrees pretty nearly with the praepositus COMMERCIAL

Is an operation by which the wealth, or work, either of individuals or of societies, may be exchanged by a set of men called merchants, for an equivalent, proper for supplying every want, without any interruption to industry, or any check upon consumption.

CHAP. I. HISTORY OF COMMERCE.

§ i. General History.

It is a point as yet undecided by the learned, to what nation the invention and first use of commerce belonged; belonged; some attribute it to one people, some to another, for reasons that are too long to be discussed here. But it seems most probable that the inhabitants of Arabia were those that first made long voyages. It must be allowed, that no country was so happily situated for this purpose as that which they inhabited, being a peninsula washed on three sides by three famous seas, the Arabian, Indian, and Persian. It is also certain, that it was very early inhabited; and the first notice we have of any considerable trade refers it to the Himaeclites, who were settled in the hither part of Arabia. To them Joseph was sold by his brethren, when they were going down with their camels to Egypt with spicery, balm, and myrrh. It may seem strange to infer from hence, that commerce was already practised by this nation, since mention is here made of camels, or a caravan, which certainly implies an inland trade; and it must be likewise allowed, that balm and myrrh were the commodities of their country. But whence had they the spicery? Or how came Arabia to be so famous in ancient times for spices? Or whence proceeded that mistake of many great authors of antiquity, that spices actually grew there? Most certainly, because these people dealt in them; and that they dealt in them the first of any nation that we know of, appears from this very instance. Strabo and many other good authors assure us, that in succeeding times they were very great traders; they tell us particularly what ports they had; what prodigious magazines they kept of the richest kinds of goods, what wonderful wealth they obtained; in what prodigious magnificence they lived, and into what excesses they fell in respect to their expenses for carving, building, and statues. All this shows that they were very great traders; and it also shows, that they traded to the East Indies; for from thence only they could have their spices, their rich gums, their sweet-scented woods, and their ivory, all which it is expressly said that they had in the greatest abundance. This therefore proves, that they had an extensive and flourishing commerce; and that they had it earlier than any other nation, seems to me evident from their dealing at that time in spices. Besides, there is much less difficulty in supposing that they first discovered the route to the Indies, than if we ascribe that discovery to any other nation: for in the first place they lay nearest, and in the next they lay most conveniently; to which we may add thirdly, that as the situation of their country naturally inclined them to navigation, so by the help of the monsoons they might make regular voyages to and from the Indies with great facility; nor is it at all unlikely that this discovery might be at first owing to chance, and to some of their vessels being blown by a strong gale to the opposite coast, from whence they might take the courage to return, by observing the regularity of the winds at certain seasons. All these reasons taken together seem to favour this opinion, that commerce flourished first among them; and as to its consequences in making them rich and happy, there is no dispute about them.

We find in the records of antiquity no nation celebrated more early for carrying all arts to perfection than the inhabitants of Egypt; and it is certain also, that no art was there cultivated more early, with more assiduity, or with greater success, than trade. It appears from the foregoing instance, that the richest commodities were carried thither by land; and it is no less certain, that the most valuable manufactures were invented and brought to perfection there many ages before they were thought of in other countries: for, as the learned Dr Warburton very justly observes, at the time that Joseph came into Egypt, the people were not only possessed of all the conveniences of life, but were remarkable also for their magnificence, their politeness, and even for their luxury; which argues, that traffic had been of long standing amongst them. To say the truth, the great advantages derived from their country's lying along the Red Sea, and the many benefits that accrued to them from the Nile, which they very emphatically called the river, or the river of Egypt, and of which they knew how to make all the uses that can be imagined, gave them an opportunity of carrying their inland trade not only to a greater height than in any country at that time, but even higher than it has been carried anywhere, China only excepted; and some people have thought it no trivial argument to prove the defect of the Chinese from the Egyptians, that they have exactly the same form of genius, and with wonderful industry and care have drawn so many cuts and canals, that their country is almost in every part of it navigable. It was by such methods, by a wise and well-regulated government, and by promoting a spirit of industry amongst the people, that the ancient Egyptians became so numerous, so rich, so powerful; and that their country, for large cities, magnificent structures, and perpetual abundance, became the glory and wonder of the old world.

The Phoenicians, though they possessed only a narrow strip of the coast of Asia, and were surrounded by nations so powerful and so warlike that they were never able to extend themselves on that side, became famous, by erecting the first naval power that makes any figure in history, and for the raising of which they took the most prudent and effectual measures. In order to this, they not only availed themselves of all the creeks, harbours, and ports, which nature had bestowed very liberally on their narrow territory, but improved them in such a manner, that they were no less remarkable for their strength, than considerable for their conveniency; and so attentive they were to whatever might contribute to the increase of their power, that they were not more admired for the vast advantages they derived from their commerce, than they were formidable by their fleets and armies. They were likewise celebrated by antiquity as the inventors of arithmetic and astronomy; and in the last mentioned science they must have been very considerable proficient, since they had the courage to undertake long voyages at a time when no other nation (the Arabians and Egyptians excepted) durst venture farther than their own coasts. By these arts Tyre and Sidon became the most famous mart in the universe, and were referred to by all their neighbours, and even by people at a considerable distance, as the great storehouses of the world. We learn from the Scriptures, how advantageous their friendship and alliance became to the two great kings of Israel, David and Solomon; and we see, by the application of the latter for architects and artists to Hiram king of Tyre, to what a prodigious height they had carried manufactures of every kind.

It is very certain that Solomon made use of their assistance in equipping his fleets at Elath and Eziongeber; and it is very probable that they put him upon acquiring those ports, and gave him the first hints of the amazing advantages that might be derived from the possession of them, and from the commerce he might from thence be able to carry on. These ports were most commodiously situated on the Arabian gulf; and from thence his vessels, manned chiefly by Phoenicians, sailed to Ophir and Tharsis, wherever those places were. Some writers will needs have them to be Mexico and Peru, which is certainly a wild and extravagant supposition; others believe that we are to look for Ophir on the coast of Africa, and Tharsis in Spain; but the most probable opinion is, that they were both seated in the East Indies. By this adventurous navigation he brought into his country curiosities not only unseen, but unheard of before, and riches in such abundance, that, as the Scripture finely expresses it, He made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar-trees as sycamores that grew in the plains. The metaphor is very bold and emphatical; but when we consider that it is recorded in this History, that the return of one voyage only to Ophir produced 450 talents of gold, which makes 51,328 pounds of our Troy weight, we cannot doubt of the immense profit that accrued from this commerce. It is also observable, that the queen of Sheba, or Saba, which lies in that part of Arabia before-mentioned, surprised at the reports that were spread of the magnificence of this prince, made a journey to his court on purpose to satisfy herself, whether fame had not exaggerated the fact; and from the presents she made him of 120 talents of gold, of spices in great abundance, and precious stones, we may discern the true reason of her curiosity, which proceeded from an opinion that no country could be so rich as her own. And there is another circumstance very remarkable, and which seems strongly to justify what we have advanced in the beginning of this section; it is added, neither were there any such spices as the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon; which seems to intimate, that the Arabians had penetrated farther into the Indies than even the fleets of this famous prince, and brought from thence other spices (perhaps nutmegs and cloves) than had ever been seen before. It was by his wisdom, and by his steady application to the arts of peace, all of which mutually support each other, as they are all driven on by the wheel of commerce, which supplies every want, and converts every superfluity into merchandise, that this monarch raised his subjects to a condition much superior to that of any of their neighbours, and rendered the land of Israel, while he governed it, the glory and wonder of the East. He made great acquisitions without making wars; and his successor, by making wars, lost those acquisitions. It was his policy to keep all his people employed; and, by employing them, he provided equally for the extension of their happiness, and his own power; but the following kings pursued other measures, and other consequences attended them. The trade of Judea sunk almost as suddenly as it rose, and in process of time they lost those ports on the Red Sea, upon which their Indian commerce depended.

The whole trade of the universe became then, as it were, the patrimony of the Phoenicians and the Egyptians. The latter monopolized that of the Indies, and, together with her corn and manufactures, brought such a prodigious balance of wealth continually into the country, as enabled the ancient monarchs of Egypt to compass all those memorable works that in spite of time and barbarous conquerors remain the monuments of their wisdom and power, and are like to remain so long as the world lasts. The Phoenicians drew from Egypt a great part of those rich commodities and valuable manufactures which they exported into all the countries between their own and the Mediterranean sea; they drew likewise a vast resort to their own cities, even from countries at a great distance; and we need only look into the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel in order to be convinced, that these governments, founded on trade, were infinitely more glorious and more stable than those that were erected by force. All this we find likewise confirmed by profane histories; and by comparing these, it is evident, that the industry of the inhabitants of this small country triumphed over all obstacles, procured the greatest plenty in a barren soil, and immense riches, where, without industry, there must have been the greatest indigence. It is true, that old Tyre was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, but not till she had flourished for ages; and even then she fell with dignity, and after a resistance that ruined the army of the Great Conqueror of Asia. Out of the ashes of this proud city the great spirit of its inhabitants produced a Phoenix, little, if at all, inferior in beauty to its parent. New Tyre was situated on an island; and though her bounds were very narrow, yet she became quickly the mistress of the sea, and held that supreme dominion till subdued by Alexander the Great, whom no power could resist. The struggle she made, however, though unsuccessful, was great, and very much to the honour of her inhabitants: it must be owned, that the Greek hero found it more difficult to master this single place, than to overcome the whole power of Persia.

The views of the Macedonian prince were beyond comparison more extensive than his conquests; and whoever considers Alexander's plan of power, and enters into it thoroughly, will think him more a politician than he was a conqueror. He framed in his own mind an idea of universal monarchy, which it was indeed impossible to accomplish; but the very notion of it does him far greater honour than all his victories. He thought of placing his capital in Arabia; and of diluting things in such a manner, as to have commanded the most remote parts of the Indies, at the same time that he maintained a connection with the most distant countries in Europe. He was for making use of force to acquire, but he very well knew, that commerce only could preserve an empire, that was to have no other limits than those which nature had assigned the world. He desired to be master of all; but at the same time he was willing to be a wise and gracious master, and to place his happiness in that of his people, or rather, in making all the nations of the earth but one people. A vast, an extravagant, an impracticable scheme it was, of which he lived not long enough to draw the out-lines; but the sample he left in his new city of Alexandria sufficiently shews how just and how correct his notions were, and how true a judgment he had formed of what might be effected by those methods upon which he depended. That city, which he might be said to design with his own hand, and which was built, as it were, under his eye, became in succeeding times all that he expected, the glory of Egypt, and the centre of commerce for several ages.

While Tyre was in the height of her glory, and had no rival in the empire of the sea, she founded her noble colony of Carthage on the coast of Africa. The situation of the city was every way admirable; whether considered in the light of a capital, of a strong fortress, or of a commodious port. It was equally distant from all the extremities of the Mediterranean sea, had a very fine country behind it, and was not in the neighbourhood of any power capable of restraining its commerce or its growth. It is almost inexplicable how soon its inhabitants became not only numerous and wealthy, but potent and formidable. By degrees they extended themselves on all sides, conquered the best part of Spain, and erected there a new Carthage; the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, or at least the best part of them, submitted likewise to their yoke. But their conquests, however, were inconsiderable in extent, when compared with their navigation. On one side they stretched as far westward as Britain; and the Scilly islands, which are now so inconsiderable, were to them an Indies, the route to which they used the utmost industry to conceal. On the other hand, they discovered a great part of the coast of Africa, the Canary islands; and some there are, who believe they first found the way to America. While they confined themselves to trade, and the arts which belonged thereto, their power was continually encroaching; but when industry gave way to luxury, and a spirit of ambition banished their old maxims of frugality and labour, their acquisitions remained at a stand.

The Romans began to grow jealous of their naval power, which it cost them two obstinate wars of 40 years continuance to humble. When she was at length destroyed, her very ruins were majestic; for at the beginning of the third fatal Punic war, this city contained 700,000 inhabitants alone, and had 350 cities in Africa under her dominion. Such was the empire of Carthage, raised entirely by commerce; and to which, if she had been content to have applied herself with the same readiness in her highest prosperity as in her early beginnings, there is no doubt she had preserved her freedom much longer than she did; for as thrift, and diligence, and good faith, are the pillars of a commercial state, so when these are once shaken, it is not only natural that she should decline, but unavoidable also.

The Ptolemies, who were the successors of Alexander in Egypt, entered deeply into that hero's scheme, and reaped the benefit of his wise establishment. Ptolemy Philadelphus, by encouraging trade, made his subjects immensely rich, and himself inexpressibly powerful. We are told by an ancient author, that he had 120 galleys of war of an enormous size, and upwards of 4000 other vessels, small and great. This would appear incredible, if other wonders were not related of him, which seem to explain and confirm these. He raised a new city on the coast of the Red Sea; he was at an immense expense in opening harbours, constructing quays, in raising ins at proper distances on the road, and in cutting a canal from sea to sea. A prince who comprehended the importance of commerce to a degree that induced him to dare such expenses as these, might have what treasures, what armies, what fleets he pleased. In his time, Alexandria appeared in pomp and splendour. She owed her birth to Alexander; but it was Ptolemy, who caught a double portion of his master's spirit, which raised her to that magnificence that ages could not deface. We may guess at what she was in her glory, by what we are told was the produce of her customs, which fell little short of two millions of our money annually; and yet we cannot suppose that Ptolemy, who understood trade so well, would cramp it by high duties, or extravagant impositions. When the revenue of the prince from a single port was so great, what must have been the riches of his subjects!

But what shews us Alexandria in the highest point of light, is the credit she maintained after Egypt sunk from an empire into a province. The Romans themselves were struck with the majesty of her appearance; and though till then they had little regarded traffic, yet they were not long before they comprehended the advantages of such a port, and such a mart as Alexandria; they confirmed her privileges, they protected her inhabitants, they took every measure possible to preserve her commerce, and this with so good an effect, that she actually preserved it longer than Rome herself could preserve her power. She followed, indeed, the fortune of the empire, and became at last dependent upon Constantinople, when its founder removed thither the capital of the empire; and his successor found means to transfer also a part of the trade of Alexandria to the same place. Yet this city continued still to hold up her head, and tho' sunk under the barbarous power of the Arabs, yet they grew polished by degrees; by degrees she recovered somewhat of her ancient pre-eminence; and though she never rose to any thing like her former lustre, yet she remained the centre of what little trade there was in the world; which is more than can be said of almost any place that has fallen under the Mohammedan power.

When the Roman empire was over-run by barbarians, and arts and sciences sunk with that power which had cultivated and protected them, commerce also visibly declined; or, to speak with greater propriety, was overwhelmed and lost. When that irruption of various nations had driven the Roman policy out of the greatest part of Europe, some straggling people, either forced by necessity, or led by inclination, took shelter in a few straggling islands that lay near the coast of Italy, and which would never have been thought worth inhabiting in a time of peace. This was in the 6th century; and at their first fixing there they had certainly nothing more in view than living in a tolerable rable state of freedom, and acquiring a subsistence as well as they could. These islands being divided from each other by narrow channels, and those channels so incumbered by shallows that it was impossible for strangers to navigate them, these refugees found themselves tolerably safe; and, uniting amongst themselves for the sake of improving their condition, and augmenting their security, they became in the 8th century a well-settled government, and assumed the form of a republic.

Simple and mean as this relation may appear, yet it is a plain and true account of the rise, progress, and establishment of the famous and potent republic of Venice. Her beginnings were indeed weak and slow; but when the foundation was once well laid, her growth was quick, and the increase of her power amazing. She extended her commerce on all sides; and taking advantage of the barbarous maxims of the Mohammedan monarchies, she drew to herself the profits of the Indian trade, and might, in some sense, be said to make Egypt a province, and the Saracens her subjects. By this means her traffic swelled beyond conception; she became the common mart of all nations; her naval power arrived at a prodigious height; and, making use of every favourable conjecture, she stretched her conquest not only over the adjacent Terra Firma of Italy, but though the islands of the Archipelago, so as to be at once mistress of the sea, of many fair and fruitful countries, and of part of the great city of Constantinople itself. But ambition, and the desire of lordship over her neighbours, brought upon her those evils which first produced a decay of trade, and then a declension of power. General histories indeed ascribe this to the league of Cambrai, when all the great powers in Europe combined against this republic; and in truth, from that period, the sinking of her power is truly dated; but the Venetian writers very justly observe, that though this effect followed the league, yet there was another more latent, but at the same time a more effectual cause, which was, the falling off of their commerce; and they have ever since been more indebted to their wisdom than their power; to the prudent concealing of their own weakness, and taking advantage of the errors of their enemies, than to any other cause, for their keeping up that part which they still bear, and which had been lost long ago by any other nation but themselves.

At the same time that Venice rose, as it were, out of the sea, another republic was erected on the coast of Italy. There could not well be a worse situation than the narrow, marshy, unprofitable, and unhealthy islands in the Adriatic, except the rocky, barren, and inhospitable shores of Liguria, and yet as commerce raised Venice the Rich on the one, so the erected Genoa the Proud on the other. In spite of ambitious and warlike neighbours, in spite of a confined and unproductive country, and which were still greater impediments, in spite of perpetual factions and successive revolutions, the trade of Genoa made her rich and great. Her merchants traded to all countries, and throve by carrying the commodities of the one to the other. Her fleets became formidable; and, besides the adjacent island of Corsica, she made larger and important conquests. She fixed a colony at Caffa, and was for some time in possession of the coasts on both sides of the Black Sea. That emulation which is natural to neighbouring nations, and that jealousy which rises from the pursuit of the same interests, commerce, begat continual wars between these rival republics; which, after many obstinate and bloody battles, were at last terminated in favour of Venice, by that famous victory of Chioggia gained by her doge Andrew Contarini, from which time Genoa never pretended to be mistress of the sea. These quarrels were fatal to both; but what proved more immediately destructive to the Genoese, was their avarice, which induced them to abandon the fair profits of trade for the sake of that vile method of acquiring wealth by usury.

But we must now look to another part of the world. In the middle age of the German empire, that is, about the middle of the 13th century, there was formed a confederacy of many maritime cities, or at least of cities not far from the sea. This confederacy solely regarded commerce, which they endeavoured to promote and extend, by interesting therein a great number of persons, and endeavouring to profit by their different views and different lights. Though the cities of Germany held the principal rank in the Teutonic Hanse, they did not however forbear afflicting many other cities, as well in France as in England and in the low countries; the whole, however, without hurting the authority, without prejudice to the rights, of the sovereign on whom they depended. This confederacy had its laws, its ordinances, and its judgments, which were observed with the same respect as the maritime code of the Rhodians, who, passing for the ablest seamen in all antiquity, their constitutions were observed by the Greeks and Romans. The Teutonic Hanse grew in a short time to so high a rank in power and authority by the immense riches it acquired, that princes themselves rendered it a sincere homage from principles of esteem and admiration. Those of the north principally had frequent occasion for their credit, and borrowed of them considerable sums. The grand masters of the Teutonic order, who were at that time sovereigns of Livonia, declared themselves conservators of the rights and privileges of the Hanse; all succeeded, not only to, but beyond their wishes; and Germany, charmed with their progress, looked on them with the same eyes as a curious gardener does on certain rare plants, though not of his own raising and culture. The kings of France and England granted also various privileges to the Teutonic confederacy; they exempted their vessels in case of shipwreck from all demands whatsoever from the admiralty, or from private persons; they forbade any disturbance to their navigation at all times; and even when France was at war with the emperor, or the princes of the north. In fine, during the course of those unhappy wars which were styled Croisades, the Hanse was signalized, and gave always sufficient succours in money and in ships to the Christians oppressed by infidels. It is astonishing, that cities at so great a distance from each other, subject to different kings, sometimes in open war, but always jealous of their rights, should be able to confederate and live together.