Commerce of Alabama, from 1818 to 1838. Comparative Statement of Exports of Cotton from the United States.. Commerce with Brazil-Rio Janeiro.. .284 80 92 464 .541 512 .542 .543 .543 .544 ..545 Ratio of Specie in the Banks of Boston.... ...549 Statement of the Situation of the Banks in New Orleans, on Oct. 21st, 1839. ..550 NAVIGATION. Liverpool Packets-A comparative Table of the Passages of the different Ships of Trans-Atlantic Steam Ships Company's Ships Royal William and Liverpool. Circular of the United States Consul at St. Johns, P. R. Bonded Ports of Mexico.... Commercial Treaty between Holland and the United States Quarantine Laws of Havre Regulations at Antwerp. Russian Quarantine Regulations. Whampoa Port Charges. Macao Import Duties.. Import and Export Dutics, Port Charges, etc., in Brazil.. Bills of Exchange.. To Mariners. ...... Boston Rates of Premium. INSURANCE. New York Life Insurance and Trust Company 270 357 360 361 362 453 453 453 .454 .545 .546 .547 ...547 364 .368 .... Never talk of your Designs till they have been accomplished, and even then the less 88 .475 Do not, like a foolish Mariner, always calculate on fair Weather.. 495 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE. No. I. JULY, 1839. ART. I. INTRODUCTION. IN legal phrase, we would prefer being judged by our acts-and in commercial parlance, being credited with our performances-to making promises in advance of our publication. But custom having rendered it necessary, on the appearance of a new work, to accompany it with some indication of the plan upon which it will be conducted, and the objects it is intended to subserve, we comply with the requisition. In the first place, as an excuse for its appearance at all, we may say, that such a publication as the present is imperiously demanded by the wants and wishes of the commercial part of the community, and we believe that such a work, conducted upon enlarged and liberal principles, is calculated to be eminently useful, and will prove highly acceptable, not only to the Merchant, but to all who feel an interest in promoting information on subjects deeply identified with the wealth, the greatness, and the happiness of our common country. Commerce is not only a business, but a science, extremely intricate in some of its developments, and calculated to elevate the mind, and enlarge the understanding, when pursued upon legitimate. principles, and with high and honorable views. Essentially and practically a trading people, the commerce of the United States has been pushed, by the enterprise of her citizens, to every part of the habitable globe - her ships penetrate every ocean, and her canvas whitens every sea, bringing home the varied productions of every soil and climate, and while rewarding individual enterprise and exertion, adding to the store house of general knowledge, and increasing the prosperity of the country. The questions which arise in such extended intercourse with the world, are multifarious and diversified. The knowledge and information necessary to guide the adventures to a successful termination, is often complex and difficult of solution; the sources whence it is to be obtained are not always accessible, and operations are often begun in a reckless spirit of speculation, and end, as might have been anticipated, in defeat, simply because some element necessary to success, or some piece of information essential to the adventure, had, in the ardor of pursuit, been disregarded. One of our prominent objects will be, to raise and elevate the commercial character to point out the requisites necessary to form the thorough and accomplished merchant. An expensive education, and a long course of study, is necessary to form the statesman, the physician, or the common lawyer; but every clerk seems to think he can at once assume the practical merchant, and spring, ready armed and equipped, into the active business of life, like Minerva from the head of Jove; forgetful that as pretenders in one case soon sink into oblivion and disgrace, he cannot expect otherwise than loss and discomfiture, if wanting the elementary information necessary to success. We shall, therefore, from time to time, point out the headlands in the commercial chart, and endeavor to mark the quicksands where oftentimes shipwreck has been made, not only of property, but of probity, and that high sense of honor, wanting which, however abounding in every thing else, a man may assume the name, and be totally deficient in all that forms the high and honorable merchant. With these views, it will necessarily be inferred that we are the strenuous friends and ardent supporters of the Mercantile Library Associations of this and of our sister cities. Wherever the minds of the young are to be formed, and an incentive given to those who, after the present busy actors in our crowded marts of commerce are removed, are to occupy their places, they will find us inspiriting them in their career, and doing all in our power to aid the incipient merchant in his high and honorable avocation. We say high, because commerce is now the most honorable pursuit in which a man of talent and enterprise can engage. Commerce is now the lever of Archimedes; and the fulcrum which he wanted to move the world, is found in the intelligence, enterprise, and wealth of the merchants and bankers, who now determine the questions of peace or war, and decide the destinies of nations. An adaptation to commercial pursuits does not, in our acceptation of the term, mean the mere accumulation of dollars and cents, which may be gained without merit, or lost without reproach, by disastrous reverses, which may baffle the most sagacious and well directed operations, and the most skilful combinations; not that ingenuity or tact which is directed to overreaching and circumvention, and to which the frank and the honorable oftentimes fall victims; but a profession embracing and requiring more varied knowledge, and general information of the soil, climate, production, and consumption of other countries—of the history, political complexion, laws, languages, and customs of the world—than is necessary in any other; and honorable, because a merchant, formed on our ideas of commercial character, would be fitted and qualified to act a part which would not only do himself, but his profession and country, honor. Inseparably connected with commerce, are its handmaidens, agriculture and manufactures, and we shall endeavor to point out how they mutually assist and sustain each other- Agriculture and manufactures being the circular segment, and commerce, as it were, the key stone of the arch, which renders every thing secure, and wanting which, they would want the incentive to production. With these objects and views, it will be seen that our plan is something like that laid down by Chief Justice Blackstone for himself, in his admirable |