MERCHANTS: gunu a Veuint tCetltrte, BY T. W. HIGGINSON. "A certain prelate once exhibited to the holy saint Thomas Aquinas, great vessels precious coins, saying "Behold! Master Thomas, now can the church no longer say, St Peter said, Silver and gold have I none!" "True," replies the saint, "neither n she say what immediately follows: In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk." [Heraud's Savonarola. NrE WB UJ? YP 0OR T: Ao A. CALL, PUBLISHER, }USE: AND BRAGDON, PRINTERS. 1851. This lecture was one of a course now in proce.s of delivery, by the anu thor, in Washington Hall, Newburyport, on alternate Suniday Evenins; and it is now published by request, Juanry 29, 1851o Upo Mercants, heir duties, dangers and opportun Eities, there is much to be said; much more than can well be introduced without devoting a special evening to the systematic consideration of the matter, and I have, therefore, announced it as the subject of my lecture to-night. And though I have never been a Merchant, technically speaking, myself, yet I think that fact should not interfere with your hearing what I wish to say. For, first, there is the ordinary opportunity given to ne of knowTring, through observation and sympathy, the position of others. Secondly, I do not ask you to believe anything I say because I say it, but only to take it for what its intrinsic truthfulness makes it Tortlh. And thirdly, there is a sense in which in this commnunity all are Merchants, since all must use money, in a greater or less quantity, as all must breathe air; commerce is bargaining, and the smallest bargain engages one, so far, in commercial life. You buy or sell the smallest thing-a stove, a book, or a penknife-and in that purchase or sale you have the experience of a merchant; the.interest you take in the progress and result of your bar 4 gain, its honesty or dishonesty, its economy or extravagance-all give to you the very identical hopes and fears, and pains, and pleasures, and perplexities of the merchant; and when one grows to be a millionaire, and buys or sells ships or towns, or empires, I am persuaded that it is only the same thing over again. One of the most eminent literary men of this country once told me that many years since, when a boy on a farm, he had permission given him to sell for himself a calf of his own raising; and that he remembered so vividly the struggles of mind he then went through, the bitter anxieties of hope and fear, the intense temptation to extort more than the animal wTas strictly worth, and to contrive little plots to conceal its defects and exaggerate its merits, that the experience came back to his mind to this day, when he felt especially indignant at the basenesses of commerce, and made him more charitable to the offender, remembering that he also had been tempted. Perhaps there is a lurking corner in all our consciences in which this story does not appear quite unintelligible; and assuming it to be so, I shall go on to speak of AMerchants and Commerce as freely, though not, perhaps, as amply and accurately, as if I were one of the fraternity myself. It is always claimed, and must be conceded, that Merchants stand wrell in history; since the hisstory of civilization is to a great extent the history of commerce. Tl he narrative of the discovery of ne- lands, of the establishmeent of friendly intercourse between different lands and of free institutions in those lands. is to a great extent thle narrative of the progress of commerce. When Cesar resolved to visit Britain, he savs that the interior of that country iwas altogether unknoJ wn, except-. ing to Merchants. Commerce in the fifteenth century:sent Columbus to the West and Vasco de Gama to the East, discovered two lenew worlds, and revolutionized the'trade and politics of the old one. "If we trace comnmerce (says Hul-ie) in its progress through Tyre, Athens, Syracuse, Carthage, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Antwerp, Holland, England, [and America] Nwe shall always find its seat in free governments." The feudal systemt of the middle ages was destroyed by the rise of free cities, and commerce created these, and all our modern civilization dates from them. So commerce has fostered mildness and the arts of peace. It was a constant complaint among ancient nations that it caot sed the love of war to decay. "Among the wandering tribes of Arabia the seeds of knowledge and refinement (says Gibbon) go where the caravans go, and the ierychant is the friend of mank2ind." The great religious wars of the Middle Ages were mierged in colnmerce; much of the trade of modern Europe dates from their close. "' The beautiful coins and the beautifu} stuffs of Asia had done much to reconcile our merchants with the Mohammedan world. Thle merchants of Languedoc were ever passing over into Asia, cross on shiculder, but it was to visit the mnarket of Acre rather than the sepulchre at Jerusalem; and so far had religious antipathies given way to mercantile considerations, that the bishops of Maguellone and Montpellier coined Saracen money, had their profit on the minting, and discounted the impress of the crescent without scruple. Richard Cceur de Lion wore at Cyprus a silk mantle embroidered with silver crescents."* So commerce has usually opposed iteolf to all disturb-;.2ichcl et's J1xaace. Am. Ed., I'3G. ance of existing peace between nations. The commercial spirit of England resisted the rupture between this country and the Motherland. AMerchants in the British House of Commons defended the liberties of America. And it is stated in the most recent and able history of England, that "the Enclish MIerchants offered to pay the taxes on the colonies, or a substitute -for them, rather than risk losing their trade."M; Now there is something certainly impressive in this coincidence of interest and daty which has thus made a great mode of human activity,. at the same time a great, channel of God's providence; comumerce is certainly ennobled by it. For these are historical facts; and it is plain that things must bte thus; for obviously, one would say, there can 1)e no trade where there is not some degree of intelligence, and habits of comfort and refinementthere can be no trade where there is either constant war between nations, or jealousy and non-intercourse between nations —the commnon alternative in the ancient world: there can be no -trade iwhere there is entire monopoly on the part of a few, and the many can neither buy or sell freely; and so it is plainly true that the merchant is the fiiend of mankind, and that even his selfishness serves God. Thus far is the commlon argument. But does it, after all, go quite far enough? Is it ever the case that selfishness does the hiclhest work of God, and can it ever be relied upon for ulnmixed good? I doubt it, and I think we must look with a closer eye at commerce. TruLe, up to a certain point, it is plausible, this plea of mercantile influence; iup to t.to ):s t reset, staoe of civilization it has *Pictorial I:fistorv of,l;!ll; ql.notei n ii vn h-vl hable article on "'The Influence of olnmer(ce, i In -ut',lr.,.t!' I.,, " 1$0 to which I om loher',-ie oduebtvdo freed nations and helped society forward, b-it is it always to be trusted? There is the anxiety. Up to a certain point it is good, it sets man free by setting itself free; but its basis is admitted to be selfishness; the merchant does not go out of his way and give tup anything to civilization, he civilizes men on speculation; and there is no such great merit in that. "Mirabeau," said the French satirist, "is capable of doing anything for money, even a good action;" but the remark was never considered a compliment. Can we say no more for the Merchant, and is this ground enough for trusting him. Suppose an exigency to arise in which interest looks the other way; nay, suppose a whole stage of civilization reached when his inter-'ests are all secured, trade is free, and any farther change,.though it may help others, must hurt him! He has freed men from other tyrannies; now will lie free them fromn his lown? He has traded in human rights; will lie refilse to trade in human wrongs? He purchased civilization; will lie refuse a profitable investment in barbarismn? I am suspicious as to the answer; for there is a test case ready made to our hands. The African Slave Trade; a traffic now so condemned by the civilized world, and even by republican slaveowners, that for years no word has been uttered in its defence-how long has it been so condemned, and against iwhom was that vTictory won? Against the spirit of commnerce; the fact is beyond denial. Every plank of that bloody declk was defended, inch by inch, by merchants.Up to a certain point that great power had sustained freedom; beyond a certain point it stood as firm against it. LIet its interests once cease to be idendtical with those of humanity, and humanity must yield. Consider the facts. When the immortal Wilberforce exposed to public gaze the secrets of that horrid traffic, his biographer says, "The first burst of generous indignation promised nothing less than the instant abolition of the trade, but mnercantile jealousy had taken the alarm, and the defenders of the'West India system found themselves strengthened by thbe independent alliance of comzme2rcial men." * Again, opposition to Wilberforce's motion "arose amongst the Guinea mnerchants." The Corporation of Liverpool spent, first and last, upwards of ~10,000 in defence of a traffic which even the gravity and calmness of judicial decisions have since pronotuncedI "infernal." "' Besides printing works in defence of the slave trade, and remunerating their authllors; paying the expenses of delegates to attend in London and watch Mr. Wilberforce's proceedings; they pensioned the widows of Morris and Green, and voted plate to Mr. Penny, for their exertions in this cause." It is said that the Corporation of Liverpool, at this timey believed firmly that the very existence of the city depended on the continuance of this traffic." The Aldermen of London also testified that "if the trade were abolished, it would render the city of London one scene of bankruptcy and ruin!" They were willing, hoxwever, to put the trade under " wholesomze regrulations," a-s in that case " it would be productive of gyreater comnmercial advantages!" The newspapers of the time were filled with predictions "that the revenue of the country would be half annihilated by this measule. Its naval strength would decay. Merchants, manufacturers and others, would come to beggary." And the nembers from Liverpool summed' Life of Wilfl:f orefe, as quio:-ed in Mr. Mr ann' letter to his c.nastitueiau,. up the character of the measure as "unnecessary, visionary, and altogether impracticable." * Even so late as 1816, the same class of men in the same country opposed the abolition of white slavery in Algiers, from the same base motives of interest. It was thought that the danger of navigating the Mediterranean, caused by the Barbary Corsairs, was advantageous to British commerce, because it might deter the merchant ships of other countries from visiting it. t These things we need remember when we hear (as I have often heard from sincere and intelligent merchants) the claim made that because commerce has always been the friend of liberty, therefore it always will be. Especially at the present time, when an issue is raised between right and wrong, where it is openly attempted to throw the influence of commerce all on one side and bear down everything by its weight-do we need this remembrance. The commerce of Boston and New York says not one word against the anti-slavery agitation which was not said by the commerce of Liverpool against that of the subject of the slave trade; only that the terrors which are now raised when a schooner is built in South Carolina, or stock taken for a cotton factory in Georgia, had then a more immediate stimulus and a surer foundation. Let us now speak of the general position of the merchant in our society. * See Clarkson's Hist. Abol. Slave.Trade, for these and many facts as striking. Mir. Alderman Watson asserted that the West Indlia trade depended upon the African, and the Newfoundland fisheries upon that; "the latter could not go on. but for the vast quantity of inferior fish bought up for the negroes in the WVest Indies. and quite unfit for any otlher market." WMr. Grosvenor candidly admitted that the Slave-Trade was " certainly not an anziaile trade; neither was that of a butcher, yet both were necessary. It was not an amiable trade, but he would not gratify his humanity at the expense of his country's interests; and he thought iwe should not too cezriovtsly 1ia2g1,r' snto the Unpleasant circumstances connected with it;" which strongly reminds us of many speeches on slavery, and especially that of the northern member who refused to inquire into the horrors of Washington slave markets, on the ground that " he had no taste for su,7ch things." t This seems scarcely credible, but see the facts in Sumner's Lecture on this subject. 10 The day is long past when commerce was considered in its very essence and theory fraudulent; and the day is past here when it was regarded as an ignoble calling. Yet the wisest man of ancient Rome once wrote that "they who buy goods that they may sell them again are base and despicable men, since they can only make a profit by practising some deception." And again, when pronouncing all retail traffic wholly contemptible, he seems to think it a great admission to allow that commerce on a large scale may not be altogether base.* "A law prevailed in rThebes, (says Aristotle in his Politics) which forbade any tradesman from holding a public office unless he had shut up shop for more than ten years." And in the monarchical countries of Europe at this time, even in England, I suppose that no merchant, as such, (that is, none unless deriving rank from some other source) could be admitted into the highest social circles. Nowr all these abstract objections to commerce, as anl employment, whether the prejudice be a moral one or a conventional one, seem manifestly unjust. In the theory of commerce I can see nothing in the least objectionable. Even the popular objection, more current among us than any of these-that the merchant ploduces nothingseems to me unfair. For when society is organized, and each man no longer creates and prepares his own food and clothing, and labor is lightened by being distributed — then the products of labor must be distributed also, and that is a new labor. The merchant is not a producer, but he is a distributer of products, which may be equally laborious, or more so, and is certainly as legitimate an occupation. Goods must be carried from place to place-tea Sordidi etian putandi, qui mercantur quod statirz vendantur. Nihil enimn proil. ciunt, nisi adnmodumn mentiantttr. W * * Mlercatura autern, si tennis est. sordidU putanda est; sin magna, copiooa, non est admodum vdituperanda.'' Cicero de Offic. I. 11 from China, cotton from New Orleans, gold dust from California-and there must be somebody to attend to this transportation and delivery; and as it must be done systematically, accounts must be kept-and so every nerchant, be it on the largest or smallest scale, is in fact either a porter or a book-keeper, or both. So there always must be merchants in every state of' society beyond the very simplest. But it may easily happen that as commerce may be out of its true position in one state of society, and underrated —so it may be ount of its place in another state of society, and overrated; this may happen in several ways, and several evils flow front it. I think such is the case now. I. There is this danger, that at particular times: and places trade may become too attractive, may be thought easy compared to other employments, more honorable, and offering a greater chance, even if not a certainty, of splendid successes. The sober mechanic, tired of steady wtork, day in and day out, with little excitement or promise of" any splendid profits, hears with envy the tale of mercantile speculations, fancies them far more brilliant than they are, and longs to take his share. He plunges in and adds one more to the competitors, of whom there are so many already that they shudder at the thought of a new one,, and so it goes on. Dr. Channing estimated that the number of persons actually engaged in commerce, large and small, was more than twice the number actually needed to carry on exchanges; and on this point, as on others, I have often heard his practical sagacity admitted. In view of the facts, I do not see how it can be doubted. It would seem to show little knowledge of the economy of organization of labor to doubt that if, for instance, all the dry good stores and grocery stores of this town were concen 12'trated into two or three of each, with proper buildings and arrangements, at least one-half the present amount of attendance could be saved, and the public as well or better served. (I do not say that this could be done without other changes in society, but I think that if it were, these would be the consequences.) Now since the mercantile class produces nothing, and only exists to facilitate communication, it is evident that for every merchant too many there is a producer too few, and the balance of society is lost; hence excess of competition, failures, " ruinous sacrifices"-or else frauds on the purchaser, adulterations, even destruction of property* —or illegal and immoral expedients, as smuggling, false invoices, false bounties on fish, and the liquor trade, without which I am constantly told that no grocer or victualler in this town can make a living. II. This is the beginning of evil. Then arises the danger that the-mercantile class, becoming thus unnaturally large, and concentrated in towns where they hold not only the balance of power but an overbalancing power, will be led to overrate their own importance-so to overvalue it that they forget the simplest facts of political economy. I remember to have seen this statement in the Boston Daily Advertiser some time since; " Conzezerce being the source of qlealth," &c., &c. Commerce the source of wealth? As well say that canals are the sources of the rivers which they connect. Yet one can easily believe the writer really to have thought so. For as the great English Engineer, Brindley, on being examined before the House of Colmmons, and asked what he seriously supposed to be the object for which rivers were created, replied that it was to feed navigable canals; so anything upon which we fix our attention sufficiently becomes the 4 As in the well known case of the, BDatch spice trade. 13 Centre of the universe to us, and the sun, moon and stars, only revolve around it. I remember another passage in the same newspaper, at, the same time. In speaking of some attacks upon Mr'Winthrop, it terms them "slurs upon the Mlerchants of Boston and thteir' r'epresentative." Now the population of Boston is 138,000; and I find in the J3oston Almanac of this year, the whole number rated as merchants, including commission merchants, to be about 600; and supposing this number to be only one-tenth of the whole number, counting the retail trade, clerks, &c, we slhall lave 60000 or supposin g it to be one-twentieth, 12,000; who could. hardly, one would think, claiLm quite to monopoliz e thte representative of a population of 138,000. How much of the history of legislation in this countrvy has been the history of this same exclusive commercial. spirit, which here shows itself. It hlas for years been one of the great contending forces in every political battle, and, though dislodged successively from every position, on Bank. Sub-treasury and Tariff; has every time died hard. Nay, it has shaped political precedents to suit itself, and the present Secretary of State regards the "main object of the framers of the constitution to have been [not, as stated in the preamble, to ordain and establish liberty, but] to aid and protect trade and conmmerce!" The largest item of national expenditure for the current year, (that of the Navy Department*) is incurred confessedly for the protection of commerce; while its annual expenses were estimated a few years since by an experienced merchant of a neighboring town as fully equal to the iwhole annual prqofts of our foreign trade; in other words *Naval appropriations for the current year $8,935,d552; war ditto Fincludinzg fTxtifitions] $S,451,133; Civil and Diplomatic dlitto 7,G64S,30. 2 14 a payment for insurance of 100 per. cent on the value insured; an investment which would be hardly tolerated were merchants themselves called upon to pay the premium.~ The same predominating influence is seen in such maxims as that laid down by Mr Webster, in his New York speech, as the basis of his Union party: "The one great object of government is the prlotection of property." Now the strength of the merchant lies in his property, real and personal; deprive him of it he is weak, he onlyl knows'how to buy and sell what he needs; not to make it. But the strength of the mechanic is in his mind and his hands, lie may lose all his property, and still be rich enough to be independent as ever. A young mran fails in business; if no property is left we call him unfortunate, what can he do without a cent in his pocket? But how mlany an Irish laborer, how many a fugitive slave comes among us with-.out a cent in his pocket-na y, with scarce a whole pocket to hold a cent-and give himn but a chance to use his hands, places himself above want. Tell him of your theory of government —"that it exists to protect property" — what property has he to be protected, what property have, -the majority of any community except strong hands which protect themselves? And how is it with the question acknowledged on all sides to be the great political question of the present day? ~$;Slavery," says a distinguished foreign observer, "besides being a political question, and the shuttlecock with wihieh politicians are playing their game of conciliation, to win power and place, is a conmnrercial and trading question also. The chain that commences in New Orleans or {See the celebrated tract of Mr S. E. Coues, of Portsmouth, N. H. entitled "What i. the use of the American Navy," for elaborate calculations, which lhave Rner,bscen Ian Mwered. iexas, extends itself in unbroken continuity along the seaboard to Portland. The interests of the slave-holder, and the interests of the merchant, the agent, and the manufacturer, are intimately blended. These classes sympathize with each other. The chord that is struck at Galveston vibrates to Boston. The classes at the North, thus identified with the system, are the wealthy, the active, the influential, and the powerful, in their own several localities. They are the leading politicians-they patronize and support the press-they can command the co-operation of those who are dependent upon them —and they have the means, by public meetings, resolutions, and the control of the daily journals, of making loud and imposing demonstrations. They have done this often before, when they tlhought their interests were in danger. They did so in the days of John Randolphl who, upon the floor of Congtess, once said. " If this great agricultural nation is to be governed by Boston and New York, and Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and Norfolk, and Charleston, let gentlemen come out and say so, and let a committee of public safety be appointed from these towns, to carry on the government. I am forcibly struck," he continued, "by the recollection of a remark made (in the English House of Commons) by Sir Robert Walpole, who said that'the English country gentlemen (poor nmeek souls) came up here every year to be sheared; that they laid mute and patient, whilst their fleeces were taking off; but if he touched a single bristle of the commercial interest, the whole sty was in an uproar.'" III. I pass to the personal dangers of commercial life. -1. There is the danger of too great absorption in the details of trade. Doubtless a man must be willing to labor for his bread; but as it is unhealthy to thle body to think too 16 much of our bread as we eat it, so it is bad for the soul to think too much of it as we earn it. Disguise it as we may, there is something in the div-ine spirit of man so utterly foreign from day books and ledgers, that it refuses to be all concentrated on them, and the attempt to enforce such concentration ends in spiritual suicide. It is safe and right to trade in order to live, but if we live only in order to trade, we die. After all there is a certain point beyond which the human virtue of prudence ceases to be a virtue, and becomes penuriousness. There is a certain noble generosity and indifference in the use of money which commerce does not love and "success" may not follow, but whicn nature loves and God loves. The world judges a man by what he has received, but God and nature aslk also what has been given. A man gains house, lands, fame, wealth, station, power, and the world calls him successful in his life's bargain. But suppose he has sold his sirtue, sold ltinzself to obtain these things, and then where is the gain and the success? Suppose his heart, and his manliness, and his great thoughts and principles are all gone to pay for these things, then what are the possible returns that can make that bargain a successful one? I do not say that the world is not a good judge'according to its own standard. I do not say for instance that a man vwho sells first lhis time, and then his freedom, and then his soul, for a million dollars, does not make a better bargain than he who sells his time, and his freedom, and his soul, for fifty; but I do say that either of them makes a bargain to whichll the honest bankrupt is a millionaire —and that the poorest outcast vwho lies lonely, sick anid starving, in some bleak hut by the hill side, with every wind of heaven sweeping through upon his bed of straw, may lead a noble and a beautiful life in comparison with either 17 I know this is not the current prejudice of our time and place. "The first thing to teach a boy," said once an honest and sincere minded father to me in the presence of his son of six years old —"the filrst thing to teach a boy is the valtue qf a doll. —that's what I call the corner stone." The satire is not mine but his. He was a gentle and ]kind-hearted man, but that ras his theory, at least on week days, at his place of business; nor did it occur to him that he had said anything which Adam in Eden might not halve remarked to Eve. Practically it is the philosophy of many or most. I think it is essentially the philosophy of Benjamin Franklin, w hom we should have long since canonized, if we canonized any body in these parts. A recent English writer, after placing Franklin at the -xead of those who believe in "living by bread alone," sketches the w-hole Aimerican people as standing behind one 1ong counter, fomI M'al e to Texas, trading againrstthe rest of the vorld, llnder tthe auspices of this guardlian saint.: "A penny saved is a penny (got," Thormson calls a "scounudtrel axim. " i know thav t t 1is i-s only one side, one half the truth, abut th elr is do dt. ce of ints over —balanciu-g the other half: 1Jf i wovere to tal.. of it a wbol,, day and nfight it would do you 2.o harmn io will notyo e h world's voices talk for the six comnlih day s land nd!..7ts on the otiler side far loutlder As kuii t-lhat oocen j oa -— 0roct there stand two great bui.iings side by side, le fcto y and the church, and day by day f:on aro:ndiay to Sa "rd-lay tlhe clatter and roar of the factory- fils the street, and thlen for one day the vast machine pauses and lots the voice o the preacher echo faintly throu1h cli).sd Udoors upon the puassers by, and then begins gacitn MondayT morning, as busily as ever,for anotlher six Cay's ~-Leigolh unt's Autobiogriaphyr. roar and clatter;-so through all our society is tle spirit of business as six to one to anytlling else, and there is no fear of stating the highler wants of the soul so strongly as to more than counterbalance it. 2. I pass to another personal danger of commerce; its tendency to accustom the soul to a lower standard of virtue than the christian standard of absolute universal love. Is it not true that the prevalence of competition through almost all branches of traffic, in all but the smallest towns, is such as to make it almost accepted as a fixed axiom that "you cannot carry the golden rule into trade?" I do not venture to assert that this statement is without exceptions. I willingly believe in the possibility of occasions where the dealer may think of others as well as himself; if he makes little or no profit on a barg ain, mazay enjoy the thought that the purchaser has a better bargain out of it; if he loses a chance of profit himself, zmay illing-ly hear that his neighbor up street has gained it. And if there were enough business (or believed to be enough) for all-as it may be, for instance, in small villages where there are but one or two stores —I dare say this'would frequ:ently be the case. But how is it commonly i! A man must lice, he thinks; there is not business for all; his neighbor's gain is his loss; it is care enouglh for him to look out for number one, wvithout troubling, himself to look out for his neighbor also. "Besides," lhe says,"my cussomer, or my competitor, is a sharp man, more so perhaps than I am,-I wish to have the barg ain fair, certainly; but if I look to his interest, he will nevertheless look to his interest, and there wvill be twLvo to look/ to his inzterest and nobody to look to mine. Whereas, it is now an understood thing, a contest of wits, like two lawyers arguing, it being agreed that each shall do the best he can for one 1.9 side, and that this plan Nworks best on the whole."'Very well, very well, but oblserve that in all this you do not deny that which I asserted, but only try to excuse it —namrely, tlhat you do not carry the golden rule into trade. You explain how it is that it is arranged so, but you do not prove that this habit of looking to your own interest and leaving{ your nei lghbor to look to his, 11howeTver well it worked in practice, did not prove in the end to waro and witlher mind and conscience, as the one-sidedness of la wyers has, alwavys been admitited to do! Let us take an actual case vwhere all the circum'-stances were as favorable as will ordinarily happen, and see how it looks when the hirghest test is applied to it. "A. and B. were two merchaLts in Liverpool. A.was willing to sell 500 chests of tea from1 his warehlouse, and B. was willing to buy them, but objected to the price. So A. went home out of town, thinking no lmore of the bargain. B. lived near him, but staid in town an hour lonoger. MAeanwhile the news comes in of a rupture with China and a rise of a pound a chest in thle price of tea. B. therefore calls on A. on his way home, and says, "I have decided to give you your price for those 500 chests." A. acquiesces and B. goes home, having clea red -500 ($22500) by that lhour's work."* Now here there was no falsehood told, no direct dishonesty practised. The price asked was paid, and perhaps a profit wTas made o01t. it. It wias not B.'s fault if A. did not know as much as he did about China; " perhaps lie did; it w as not his business to ask." But suppose he hadc reasoned differently; suppose he had had a sudden twinge of brotherly love and had said to A.,-" WVhy should I have all the benefit of this accidental advantage. Tea has risen ~1 a chest and you shall share my profit, have 25 per cent. of it;-.:Rem;lJie: f' or the Perils cf the Nation, Page 81. 20 at least! ] ask you —would not one shout of laughter have gone throughll the Liverpool Exchange vwhen the story was told? Now I willr not inquire whether you would have lauglhed or not, my frie nds; but I put it to you, in the midst of that bargaining and that laugt hter, what becami.e of the golden rule? Or take another case. Tw o merchants on tae same. wharf in Boston, hear at the same time of a fall in the price of coffee at iRio Janeiro, and decide to despatch ships to take in a cargo there. One has a ship already, will freiglht her for that port and can do it in a feol days; the other cannot charter a nd equip one for a fortnight, perhaps loncger y rivTal wTill have a irtnightl s start of ne," he says, despondingly, " I nust givTe it up," but he looks at tihe vane: 6No! the wind is xw on-1his ship can-not leave the h a bor-tlet me lake haste and I mlay outwit him yet." }He hastens, hie labors, e works all day and. dreams all night of hiis project; day aftr day tle Tindl remains contrary: day'by day 1h exults 5 -- iis,ej,;o o'iD's.0 tis'foibtupe, xvhic}h is to be his g in —-(ecitn; ate Ia o pli i-iay, o bser e;) his I.st pray-er - at ight, ]us ri: t ivit tli.o onxr. m.f he cdarehs to say to God wvvAa+t 1he li_.7s5 1o himsel-I. i.i' A 0n- s`711 5" i ba! te,.,.. iv. 1t' h:oed; el.ve...l k'Isi Asmob ed`i1 this o5l thoiucht of C'i adie' ]' O Y ei';s 1'pes; -but stoIp na n foiend, wrh at, in te P I- t of ts d-noIet of anxietg, v ha..b.o.ne 0o tI aat ie GoldU ~e' Observe,:[ a m not a me rcilovt, do n;ot say how all this can b helped d if yeo say k; tou t t my ob)ections are all theory, land if I undert o 1ok to o,-ter trade, myiself I could do.no better-t I can only say yra1L iso admitting myi proT - osition, wh}i1ichi ys ora ni11lt so,et-i:s dleny, that on(>e ncat7vI. carre'' i/h4 goto/-n riCintlo iI "-af? 2 1 I have lately had thle privilege of reading the early correspondence of a noble man, whlo, though bred to trade, soon quitted it in disgust, and became AMinister-at-large in Cincinnati, in which office he was spared long enouglh to show himself one of the wisest practical philanthropists whom this country has produced. The crisis of his dissatisfaction with commerce seems to lhave arrived when he first went to the West Indies on a trading voyage. "Be thankful," he writes to a friend on the day after his arrival, "' that you are not a merchant. See howv I a mr placed.A gentleman invites me to his house, treats me as kindly as possible, does all in his power for me, and wbat then? Why, I must-2zust, observe-try to bargain him, coax him, drive him, cheat him, out of a dollar or tNwo. I'd rather lose a leg; and yet if I don't I'm a fool, a greenhorn, and he'll take me in, because I would not serve hinml If ever I get home, I'll quit trade for ever."*7 Dare you smile at that impulse of noble disinterestedness, oh, young mnan? Look well to your soul, for the base alloy is tarnishing it already. You are one for whomn it is not safe to ha ve had your life fall in these tradingj days. Go back a little to times of fresher impulses, times: which you boast that yotur commerce has uprooted, and learn that chivalry has a lesson to teach you yet. Study such a life as that of stout Godfiey of Bouillon, conqueror in the first crusade, of whom it was rejoicingly written "that if all the honor of all men on the face of the earth -was totally corrupted and destroyed, the honor left in the soul of Duke Godfrey would alone be enoungh to revive and restore it all;" and tell me if, should the hero come back to earth to-morrow, you would venture to invite him e~31nemoil and Writings of James H. Perkins; I. 47. dowvn and statioil him fort one little half hour behind youl counler in Newburyport? I have lately, however, been reading an Essay* which quite ably d(efends the spirit of Commerce as an essentially Christian spirit, upon this plausible theory, that coimsner'ce demzanzds the plros.per'ity of both the tr'ading p7arties. "MiIerchants must cease to sell when their customers grow poor. They consult their own interest by consulting that of others." Stated more pointedly, this sentinment seems to be this do not shear the sheep too close. As kind old Isaac Walton says of fislhing, " when you put the wornm on the hook, handle him as if you loved him." Make as good a bargain as you can out of your customer, but stop short of laking him a pauper, for then, instead of trading with him, you will be taxed for him. This plausible argument ends very nearly where that argument for slavery ends, that it is for the master's interest to feed and clothe the slave, and keep him in good condition, that lie may get more work out of him. But unhappily these conditons are not hard to fill, and experience has shown that you may keep a slave in excellent'working order and yet mnake his way of life far less decent and far less confortable than that of the cattle and horses which are sold from the same auction block; and so in trade, a dealer may keep his customners in excellent trading order, and yet keep thenm on the verge of starvation or bankruptcy. And as on some plantations, sugar plantations for instance, it is found cheaper to consume slaves year by year and buy new ones to replenish the stock, than to remit the work and keep the same set of victims-so In Hunt's Merchant's 3Magazine, to which I am also indebted ~,fr some preceding remarks, 23 we see the same terrible exceptions in our community, and your financiers, from the rich Boston broker down to the underground rumn-seller of country back streets, will grind down a hundred customers not into powder but into paupers to-day, and mhake their fortunes out of a hundred new ones who flock in to be ground down to-morrow. Talk to these men about "caring for tile interests of their customers." Secure in the possession of an everrenewing harvest of victims, they laugh you to scorn.Their circle is large enough to last their three score years and ten. They will not need, like Alexander, to cry for another world, after they have made this one bankrupt. i" Is not this ample room?" they ask;'";when Newburyport is exhausted, there is Boston; when Boston is exhausted there is fair game in New-York; exhaust NewYork, and there is still London, and Paris, and Vienna, and Russian loans, and all the business macllinery of all the Rothschilds. " Truly they say to us innocents —in the words of a noted European statesman —"you are unskilled in the art of fishing in so vast an ocean as the pockets of an hundred million people!" I think we had best let these men go and not attempt to convince them that honesty is the best policy. Reverse the motto, and they will like it better —for policy is their only hones-ty. 3. And this brings me to the third and last danger of mercantile life-its danger to common honesty. Setting aside tile'old(enz rutle of loving one's neiglhbor as one's self; and what we may call the siluer' r'ule of setting one's affections on things above, not below; how is it with tlhe simple colier r)'ale of "Ho Inoesty is the best policy." Does that hold in colmmiere r? I mlust colnfess thar: the persons wvho excite my suspi 24 Ctans most against in erchants are the merchants thellselves, when I see the excitement produced amlong them when. any one does an honest act-for instance, pays his debts after failure. It is remembered for years, and whenever the name of the individual is referred to, it is trunmpeted to his honor. Now, although it is pleasing to see thiis theo; tetical respect for simple Ihonesty, still, whlen e look -loser, it is alarimin that it should be so rare as to be talked about. Thus I remember reading in Anson's voynages that neearly all the shops in Canton have on the sign s the words " Pan IHIo, or " no cheating h lIre,' No w when a nian thinks it necessary to anno-unce on his sign "' no cheating here," though it does not demonstrate that. -he does not cheat, it prorves pretty conclusively that some of his neig'hbors co; and the nmore general the annonncenIent, the greater the suspicion; and so of this similar phenomenon in our mnercantile community. If it is sogenerally understood that honesty is the best policy-, pray why this sensation when any one is politic enouglh to trit? I sometimes think that the habits of caution prevalenti among us, the excess of documentary transactions, note: —~endorsements, receipts, Iiave rather a tendency to encour-.age fraud, by constantly suggesting the thougl-t of it, and seeming to reduce the whole thing to a maine of skill. I lhave been confirmed in this by hearing that in' places where there is less attention to these thingsj and more -trust in honor, the trust is better repaid. For instance, I am told that it is so in the West Indies arnd Spanish America generally. Mr. Schooleraft, who wxas Indian agent at Lake Superior for twenty-five years, said that lie had. never known an Indian to break a promise in the Nway of business. I read in a recent: e os:ay on the comm:ulerce of Brazit th.at tlre is(a _ade bcra. ei l c..trablia(. is carried] o0n entirely pl loor, "landl Ic' thi a;tr ad"IsveY Siin P, "frau is of rare o(Ct rr Cl." 0 ishes trade ill g'eTner1l could be (ecilared (cotal'banti, f s"icl be the rsulit. And ithere is an antecdote in point of,~r.'ox, thie British statesnman. A tradesimian Tho had Iften tdunlled him in vain for paymient of a note, clame in one day a'nd found hinwith two hundred pounds before him, and claimled his share No, said Mr. Fox, this is for a debt of honor i owe to Sheridan.'Theln, said the tradesman, I make mily debt a debt of honor, and thr.ew the note in the fire. IMr Fox acknowleIdged the ob1ig uation alnd paid him at once. But to return to our own aftiirts. My friends, or those of you wilo are lmerchatts I am not afrtail to ask the question, Is honesty practically tibund the best policy:L)oes it m-iake men rich most rapidlyt Let mre suppose a case and tell nle if it is an ideal case. A youngo man goes to church and hears a sermon preached froom this imaxim. It is illustratedl. Two characters are sketched, one a simple and truthlftil youth-the other a knave-but always a very transparent knave, not one of the deep kind. Their career is described; the knave conles uppermost at first-the Nvirtuous youth aftierwards, (it is easy to have it so;) knavery ends in the Penitentiary-virtue in wealth, honors, joy for this life and the inext. The doctrine is very satisfactory; temporal comforts and eternal at one stroke; and our young man goes out to try the experiment. He is placed in a store. His muaster possesses capital, energy, coolness, some talent and somze honesty,-i. e. lie would like as well to be holest as not, if nothing were lost by it. Our young man has a sensitive conscience, far more sensitive, lie soon finds, than his master's. False pretences, *North American Rieview, April 1349. evasions, even direct falsehood occasionally; le is soo01 shocked. "This man" he says, "is not what I supposed him; nor what others suppose him, certainly-for lie has a fair reputation." But soon a new puzzle. lHe has reasol to suspect that those who deal with his master understandc him, yet they are not shocked, but perhaps bow and cringe if his master is richer than they. flow is this? IHe consntlts his father, and his friends, and confides with some hesitation his suspicions. I-How are they received? One well meaning but ignorant father might reply. "Iiatters cannot be as you think, my son —your master is one of our leading men, director of the Bank, member of the church, a most respectable person. You must be altogether' mistaken. Bewvare of hasty judgments, my son!" Anothler fatherl, mlore sagacious, but not prepared to take any responsibility in the nmatter, might simply shruog his shoulders and seem to say "this is a matter I cannot inter.-:lere with. You lhad better let it rest." And a third, very likely wrould say to Iris son, "do not be so ready to judge your betters, youngr man. I ant you to be a practical man, niot a foolish visionary; try to im~itate your master, and if you can become as much of a lman as he is, I shall be satisfied and so may you be." "Then comes the trial. for the young nman's soul. If it is a sensitive and noble one,it may receive a permanent shock; butt more generally the careless easy youth takes the mat-. ter much as his father has done and says to himself that if he wants to "'succeed" he imust do as others do-and that lie z.ust "succeed" has been always laid down as the corner. stone of life. Thuls it goes on, our young merchant grad& ually becorninrg more and imore a practical denier of the preached doctrine of "honesty the best policy" and should he sometinm-e ge hack to chur1ch and hear the old sermoa preach-'ed oer again,1, ]110W w\ill. it strikle. ],iP1? S, ithit ing iIl thtte tuii consciousness that he is cdail gainning Ilone:,y and power and honor by petty departures from honesty, if not larger ones, how can lie hellp saying "this is all abstraction, not practical sense; it does for the young and simple, not for me; and if this is a specilen of what they call religion, it is all equally an, assrnmption!" Aind so he goes away, his heart hardened forever.i; MA;y frieUin 1:s, agree wiith:ii so far as this-that for one I do not believe that }honesty is the best policy, so i'ar as this world's external gainls and honors are in question. And I think if it were so, and honesty iwere pursuted as policy, it wvould cease to be honesty and beconme a mere manoeuvre, not wrong perhaps but no way meretorious. Doubtless the highest success is to be found in doing right, but it is not what men of the world call success, and it is not to be got by seeking it selfishly. It is truly written that lie who would save his life shall lose it, and only lie who is willing to lose it for Christ's sake, shall find it. It seems to be ordained that the interest of one is the interest of all, but it seems to be also ordained that this is not plain to any one, until he has ceased to think of his own interest. If you try to make others happy Tyou yourself become happy, but not if you do it in order to be happvy, for then you are thinking of yourself and not of them. "God gave the world these directions," says the Persian Touriat, "Oh world, be servant to him 1who is servant to me, not to him wvho is servant to you." Itighteous, in its Saxon derivation, means righlt-wise; and the fear of the Lord is truly the beginning of wisdom. When some one told old Bishop Latimer that the cut-;Compare "The Tradesman's Sermon," at Essay by a friend of the author, in "The, Present," (No. 4, New York, 18i3) to which I at much indebted. ler had c:heated him, matkirng hli:i pay tvwo pence for a knife not vworth a penny. "No," said Latimer, "'ie cheated not me but his own conscience." Alas, how often it hlappens thus around us every day; life is taklen ulp in obtainilg, by hook1 or crook, thle lnmea:ns to support life "to.make a livin-r" is the only object of labor —and whllat is tlle end of it;-only the body lives after all —and all the 1higlher faculties of the soul, love, honor, integrity, couragetheose sink, decavy an only vc make a, di;)'. Young men, wjTho hear me, and who are committed to a commercial life, will vou not think of these things? Somne of your temptations and opportunities you know better than I, because I am only a looker on-others I kno-w better than you, for the same reason. If whlat I have said of the dangers of a mercantile life is not a fair statement of w\hat it must be, but only a warning of what it may be —then prove it by taking the warning. Provce by your life that a merchant can live nobly in his profession-can be a merchant and still live a life of truth, oI love, and of hecav/cn. There is nothing intrinsically w-rorng in wislhinlg for pecuniary siuccess, and it is often a goo(d feel ing at bottom which stimulates it. All young men wish to obtain an influence, to gain a standincg in the commlianitya; ali -lheizr h1ees of usefinaess rest on. that. ThereFore thly'ish to stand weill a1it every poiit; to come u;p to all the cuIrent standac. ds, to have norlody look downi-k on them on anyi gnround.'veu ea i ise n ain ay'ee. sonmething of this. -f one i ent to tearh a savasea nation., who had no st-andar'-d of me erit ou skill -'d e bow aind arrkow,o-o, one vwoui.d na.uralHv I. k- to'be forin 1a o n -8iari'nslmani; first equal or excel themen on thaeir owTVn,grloun'1d, antdl. thIen. lead them a s.tep.. fart.h!er. So a yVoung man in thiOs eornlnllunitv: wVishii-'to dot as oter o helo, )eos) t a miiliat -aM 29 conpany, or ahi Odd Fellows Lodle, or is a. vote distributor everv November, or gets chlosen to (-:neral. Court, if possible-but above all, I/,aL,/es?2flolzy; and then e Ithals earned his freedonm, stannds on his own- foundation, andt no one need look do;-wn o ulim. lTe has gained "an independence" literall-y. So far so good; but the dang cer!-tlhe danger is that the endl is -forglotten in the means, and by the time he has got money, he has forgotten how to use it; lie wants general enliglitennment, thouoghlt, rcacding, observation, knowledge of society, practical beinceficence, faith in any new idea. -Poor creature! lie has staid nnderground in his gold mine till his eyes are as blind as tlhe sightless fishes of the Maalmmoth Cave; and so findinr that lie cannot escape out of money-making into anlything else, lie goes back to that again, and burrows a little more. "But surely (you say) this disastrots change will never conme to rme. I will not be one of those, old 11men vonderllwhoO have spun their souls into gold, and point to that as the only result of their liifes career." But do you not know that every one oI those old me1n said the same thing when hle was young' _Few men are born as base as the exclusive love of imney-making renders many. Guard against the temptations Twhiich have made them wvlhat they are.Iememlber those stern strong words of old Scripture, "As a nail sticketh fiast between the stones of a wall, so doth s fi stickl close between buying and selling." Buy an(d seill iwith your inner eyes open, as well as your outer-lest Thlile you protect yourself fronl being cheated by your neciigbor, you cheat yoursel-f out of sometlhing Tmore prec(-ous than anything he can ever get froma you. Among the ancients it is said talat )lutui, protector of merchants, was also God of lies, and lie still teaches his follo-wers to deceive'hlelnslsets (uite as oftenl as tlhey (deceive eacl It is wiell to be independent; but it is a sham indelpendelnce which is btouoht -w;ith mone. It is well to show what good can be done with wealth; but it is better to showIVI what - good can be done withX-aout it. Whence have come the great examples of this world thus -far, fi'om the rich. or from the poor? Ponder the answcer of St. Thomas Aquinas to the prelate twho once exhibited to him - great vesselsofprecioaus coins, and said,'"Behold, Master Thormas, notw can the church no longer say, as St. Peter said, Silver and gold. have I none!" "It is true," replied the holy man "neither can she say what immediately follows,'In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk!' But lastly, as there is nothling noble in colmmerce on the most magnificent scale, save for its uses; so there is nothing ignoble in trading on the smallest scale, save for its abuses. It is honorable says Horace AMann, "either to handle a yard-stick or to measure tape, unless it makes the faculties of your soul no longer than the one and no wider than the other." Live in your occupation so as to ennoble it while you stay in it; whlen the nobleness ceases, let thle occupation cease. Your opportunities are great —every act of trade g'ives you a chance to show tile difference between a true upright man and a base nmanceuvrer. If you do not find it so, do not stay in it, no, not on any conceivable pretext; no not even that last one of all that you "must get a living." It is the old plea of sin.'Tis what tlhe Flrench thief said to the priest long since. "But it is necessary that I should live, sir-and I have no other way." "I do not see that necessity, friend," was the calIn answer. Friends, it is not necessary that you and I should live, for has not many a man died before now rather than live basely? It is not neces sary that we should live —still less that w: sh,uld gaiti tIr. happiness and honors of lifie: but it is tecessary, it sh1o,uld be felt as inecessary by each one of us, that vwe should not soil our white raiment with one spot of baseness. Filrstl the?in glomdz oJ God a(ld this r'igohteouzsne,_ss, oh younug man, dare to write this for tlhe motto ol your ledgoer, and then you may dare to be a -MAerchlant.