Art. IV. TRAITS OF TRADE-LAUDABLE AND INIQUITOUS.

CHAPTER VII.

FAILURES.

Ir has been estimated that over nine-tenths of the merchants in this country fail at least once in course of three years devoted to mercantile pursuits. Why this calculation is applied only to this profession, is not apparent, for it is not too strong a statement to make that nine-tenths of the whole industrial population of the United States fail in course of their lives. The merchant stands in the foremost rank in all business operations. If there is shipwreck, fire or fraud, he is the first to suffer and to fall. The custom of the world with such unfortunate ones is to take from them all the little that is left, tread them under foot, close the ranks over them, and rush onward in the pursuit of the all tempting gain. Let the same usage be applied_to all classes and ranks of men, and who would escape the direful fate? Let the mercantile rule of payment to the day or the hour, with or without grace, be enforced as a general rule, and in default thereof, an assignee be appointed and administration commenced. Under such circumstances, the petty guiddler who stands one side, and exists on the very indulgence of the class of courageous men he derides, may consult the annals of bankruptcy to his heart's content and welcome, if it affords him any satisfaction. The farmer who has lived upon the expectant crop, which the summer's drought has curtailed, here finds no favorable extension to another season, but his farm and utensils must be brought to the hammer. The mechanic who, from ill health or accident, is withdrawn from his trade, would surely find a successor in his place. The physician who should neglect to collect his fees, would lack physic to prosecute his practice. The clergyman with his " forty pounds" delayed, would find an undoubted opportunity to practice some of the virtues, the theory of which he is supposed to understand. In short, the rule would effectually prostrate all excepting the drones of the world, who live on what others have stored up for them.

Notwithstanding the large majority of men who, in the pursuits of wealth, fall victims to false legislation, to the abrupt change of political policy, to fire, flood and famine, to fraud and pestilence, or to any other one of the legion of causes ever lying wait in the merchant's career, it is the habit of the world to look upon his fate as more or less ignominious. This fact seems often to spur on the sensitive merchant to reckless madness. His honor, his integrity, are at stake. He sees his own elevated position filled by another. His friends, his neighbors, look coldly upon him, or pass by without recognition. His wife and children are slighted, his home, with all its treasured associations, is violated. Himself, after a life of incessant toil, known to no other profession, is ground to poverty and may find his retreat in a workhouse or a madhouse. The mortal who lacks charity for such an one, most richly deserves the same tragical fate.

There are large classes of speculators who meet with failures in their operations, as frequent as the gambler loses his risk. Indeed, for the purpose of the present essay, this species of character, viz., all who blindly rush sort of speculation, without any regard to the legitimate rules of trade, are to be left entirely out of the question. They are no merchants, any more than those who purchase lottery tickets, or such as lay a risk upon the cast of a dye. Both are gamblers, and as such they may be left to

into

their fate.

In regard to true mercantile failures, the ground to be taken here is, that in the very nature of business operations, they are sure to occur to a very large proportion engaged therein, that there is, ultimately, no great evil in them, that there should be no ignominy attached to such a misfortune, and that of all living men in the world, the embarrassed or failed merchant most needs sympathy and kindness.

Merchants, as a class, take the responsibility of transporting and equalizing the necessaries, the luxuries, the property of the world. The profits of this business are nominally larger than for any other kind of industry. If there was no loss, the profits would be too large. Inasmuch as there is great liability, this loss must occasionally come upon the inexperienced or upon the small capitalist. Failures follow as a matter of course. Still, in the aggregate, the business goes on. The industrious, the rich, the valiant have fallen in the strife; yet the grand conquest is pursued. There may be one failure, one hundred, or one thousand, the city, as a whole, goes on in the steady acquisition of wealth. You may take Boston, New York, Philadelphia or New Orleans, and count the failures that have happened in either place during ten, twenty, or fifty years, and moralize upon them as you may, these cities have steadily progressed, and will continue to progress, in the acquisition of wealth, mainly by merchandizing. Many men have failed once or twice, have rallied again, and left not the field until they had conquered success. Many more have failed and thereby become convinced that they were unfitted for the responsibilities they had undertaken. Others there are who, with a craven, cowardly spirit, rush into dissipation, or commit suicide, thus proving their natural inability to battle manfully in such a profession. But," it is asked, "can you not give us any directions how to avoid failures, cannot the rocks and rough seas be pointed out?" There has never yet been any accurate mercantile chart promulgated, that could be safely relied on by the inexperienced adventurer. The old routes are being constantly changed, the old customs are renewed, and most fortunes are made in some new manner, unknown to few but those who make them. All that can be said by way of advice, is "Be cautious, conscientious and persevering. If loss and failure come, and you fall, begin and climb again. Most men succeed the second time. If creditors oppress and persecute you, what care you if you have done what you could? You will, probably, have an opportunity to see some of them in the same perilous position themselves.

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CHAPTER VIII.

MONEY AND ITS USES.

Let no one here squeamishly object to such a motive as "the love of money" being placed foremost in the forces that extend Commerce to the ends of the earth! There are other motives, undoubtedly, but this is, and ever will be, the leading impulse. Money, money is what men work for, suffer for, die for. It must be approved; it is the ruling passion; it ever has been, and it ever will be as long as human nature is human nature! Well, may not even the darkest deeds of sin be made to praise the Giver of all good! The conquests of the Roman Emperors extended Rome over so many countries, that Rome became a term synonymous with the world. It was upon the wings of this worldly power that the revelations of God were borne to all nations. Christianity thus received an impulse which nothing else but direct personal inspiration could have given it. Rome, after thus accom

plishing an end to which all other objects in the world are as nothing, became dismembered, and literally no more. Xerxes, weeping for more worlds to conquer, Cæsar on the shores of Gaul, these small men had small purposes of their own, and thought of little save their own aggrandizement. Thus philosophically may be treated unlawful, even dishonest gains. The poor tool, who flatters himself that he has "much goods laid up for many years," and sees naught in prospect but magnificence and ease, by the unquietness of conscience, or other causes, is made to disgorge his misgotten wealth. It may go to endow a church to make men better than he was. may found a college where the very children of those he has defrauded shall be reared and educated without price, for philanthropists, philosophers,

It

and statesmen.

It has been said that once upon a time a poor man lived upon the banks of a broad and beautiful river. His land was poor, but it afforded good pasturage for his sheep, and, as he guarded them, he gazed over the playfully tumbling waters, and was content. A fisherman, strolling along his premises one day, talked to him of richer lands in a neighboring town, where large crops of grain could be raised. But his description reached not the heart of the old shepherd. His father had lived there before him, and he thought that his children should live there after him. Other emissaries appeared to him afterwards under different pretenses, but no effect could be produced upon him. The next winter was very severe, and the poor man's sheep died. In the spring he was overjoyed to find that a stranger offered to sell him a new flock, and give him time to pay for them without any charge of interest. Here was the snare that he could not escape. The poor man's land was attached to pay for the sheep. The sheep must be sold for the shambles to pay for litigation. When it became certain that the land must be sold to pay the debt, it was sold at auction. One of the largest of New England manufacturing cities now stands upon that sheep pasture. The original owner died in the poorhouse. The purchaser is now one of the richest men in the country.

A captain of a small brig was once lying at a port in one of the West India Islands. An insurrection of the slaves broke out, and the wealthy citizens deposited their money and plate on board this American brig. The captain soon after sailed from the port. Some years after he was found in a very large and profitable importing business, and he is now a millionaire. He has even beer called an honorable man.

A shrewd lawyer, in the settlement of a bankrupt's estate, cunningly contrived to appropriate a valuable estate to himself by his misrepresentations to the creditors. He succeeded and became immensely rich, while the creditors of that bankrupt believe him to be a dishonest man.

A deacon of an evangelical church became largely indebted to a London banking-house, and, upon some quibble, refused to make payment. He invested his money in lands neighboring to a city, in another man's name, closed his business, and retired, apparently in poverty. He has recently turned up rich.

Facts like these are the most common occurrences in the annals of trade. There is nothing to be said in extenuation of such transactions. It can only be hoped that, when fortunes are thus accumulated, they will speedily fall to pieces for the benefit of the oppressed.

What will great wealth do for a man? Why, it will enable him to dine even on the rarest dainties, and sip champagne; no, not champagne, but

wines and brandies of age and reputation! It will enable your wife to outshine common-place people in her dress, diamonds, and equipage! It will make ignorant, foolish men envy you, and take off their tattered hats to you! It will make your sons spendthrifts, gamblers, and dissolute; your daughters weak, vain and foolish; while both sons and daughters will harbor a constant wish that "the old coon would evacuate !" It will furnish you with a bloated body and with gouty feet at an early age. Finally, it will provide you with a magnificent funeral and a costly tomb!

But, burlesque aside, seriously there are the strongest reasons for the best men to seek money and to labor for it. With money, he and his family can be sheltered, fed and clothed! The man who has ever been certain of these first necessaries of life, has never experienced the fearful misfortunes that lie at his very door. Oh, to lie down at nights, after a day's anxiety and struggle for the coarsest fare, not to sleep, but to be enshrouded with the thought of the sufferings that misfortune has borne down upon you and an endeared family; to feel the winter's piercing chills penetrating every crevice of the hovel you call your home; to fear that colds, croups and consumption are lying in wait for some little soul whose presence here is as necessary to you as your own health;-surely not to sleep, but to the torture of the anguish of want! To rise up in the morning without the certainty of honestly providing bread to prevent starvation. But whoever has not experienced actual want, cannot be made to understand what it is unaccompanied by filth, rags, and blasphemy. The general statement, however, can be comprehended. That is, place a man in such a position as to prevent him from suffering the terrific fears of want, and you have his capacities free for intense mental and physical action. And this is the first great good that wealth brings to him; the comforts, yea, the luxuries of a home! not the extravagant, but the convenient, comfortable home, furnished first with the absolute necessaries, then the means of education and refinement. The place, not merely for the business man to board and lodge, but where he holds sweet companionship with the confiding, sympathizing wife, who, with a spirit equal to his own, can nerve him on to great and good deeds; where his children climb upon his knees and lovingly lisp their tenderest endearments; where the best books are read and appreciated; where music is heard and pictures are seen; where, above all things else, a domestic altar is founded, upon which the incense of a sincere and humble piety is offered up unceasingly to Heaven.

If

These things alone are sufficient to force a man to strive after wealth; for without wealth they cannot be had. Are not all entitled to these blessings? Are they not lavishly provided by a beneficent Providence for all men? so, let them be realized and possessed, for without them there is danger of degradation and moral death.

As a merchant makes money, he is entitled to a wider range of benefits. He can indulge in travel to see the wonders of nature and of art. He can procure books the concentrated wisdom of the ages, he can have companionship, thus, with the greatest and best minds that have ever sojourned on the earth, and time to spend with them.

There too, are the luxuries of doing good. The opportunities, every day occurring, to aid the deserving and striving youth, in the way of benefit to himself and usefulness to the world. To save the widow and orphan sensitively secreted in some cold, dark attic; to project and carry out extensive plans of benevolence for the poor, the down-trodden, and the cast-away of

one's own city and the world; to found institutions of real and lasting benefit to general literature and science; to exert a powerful influence against political wrongs, and eradicate institutions that have grown old in oppression; to extend the holy truths of Christianity to the heathen who are living without God and without hope in the world. These are some of the privileges and blessings of wealth. Without wealth a man is comparatively powerless and insignificant.

Make money, then, acquire wealth, not for the gross love of lucre, but for the power it will give you; for the blessings broadcast you can bestow; for the right to be godlike in action; for your own highest good, and for the good of all within reach of your benevolence.

Art. V. TRADE OF TREBIZOND IN 1852.

THE Commerce of this great and chief port of the Black Sea, amounted in imports in 1852, to 224,179,300 piasters, or $8,967,172, and in exports, to 105,052,656 piasters, or $4,202,107, showing a difference between the two of 119,126,644 piasters, or $4,645,066. Part of the transit trade to Persia has been balanced, as in last year, by returns in specie, the greater portion of which go to Tifflis, in Georgia, where they are turned into paper, (bills of exchange on Europe).

In the notice of exports, detailed under this head, is comprised 38,683,100 piasters, or $1,547,324, in specie, sent from Trebizond to Constantinople by steam, to pay for goods for the transit trade with Persia. The bales of Persian productions amounted to some 17,116 in number, among which are 6,300 in silk, all brought from Persia, through Egeroom on horses or mules. On the other hand, there were imported for the transit trade of this country, 48,300 bales of manufactures, sugar, &c. By comparing the figures of the trade of last year with these of the present, a considerable diminution will be perceived in the imports in transit for Persia, which has its origin in the circumstance that a great amount of goods was amassed in Persia in 1851, so that it caused a considerable diminution in the prices of nearly all kinds of manufactures, and thus prevented any farther orders being given for more. However, from the figures of the present year, it will be observed that no unimportant amount of trade has been carried on. The products of Persia, especially silk, have found an active and free sale, and the loads of the present year surpass those of the last, 14,756.

The number of passengers which embark and disembark at Trebizond is very great. The Capital attracts vast numbers of emigrant people from the interior. In 1852, they amounted to 17,200, the greater portion of which took passage in the steamers belonging to the Imperial Arsenal, and to the Ottoman Company. The three companies, viz., Turkish, Austrian, and English, are declared rivals, and in spirit of competition have lowered the fare so much, that it cannot certainly leave any profit to either.

The trade of Persia still continues to pass through Trebizond and Egeroom. The road which, at the request of the British ambassador was commenced, between these places, has long since been abandoned. The peculations of the Governor of the Province, Ismail Pacha, absorbed nearly all the sums devoted to that purpose by the Porte; and it is not improbable also that Russian intrigue aided in putting a stop to an enterprise so useful