Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

LONDON:

SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW, New-street-Square.

DICTIONARY,

PRACTICAL, THEORETICAL, AND HISTORICAL,

OF

COMMERCE

AND

COMMERCIAL NAVIGATION.

ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS AND PLANS.

BY

J. R. McCULLOCH, ESQ.,

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE.

A NEW EDITION,

CORRECTED, ENLARGED, AND IMPROVED;

WITH A SUPPLEMENT.

Tutte le invenzioni le più benemerite del genere umano, e che hanno svillupato l' in-
gegno e la facoltà dell' animo nostro, sono quelle che accostano l' uomo all' uomo, e
facilitano la communicazione delle idee, dei bisogni, dei sentimenti, e riducano il genere
VERRI.

umano a massa.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.

"Though immediately and primarily written for the merchants, this Commercial Dictionary will be of use to every man of business or of curiosity. There is no man who is not in some degree a merchant; who has not something to buy and something to sell, and who does not therefore want such instructions as may teach him the true value of possessions or commodities. The descriptions of the productions of the earth and water which this volume contains, may be equally pleasing and useful to the speculatist with any other Natural History. The descriptions of ports and cities may instruct the geographer as well as if they were found in books appropriated only to his own science; and the doctrines of funds, insurances, currency, monopolies, exchanges, and duties, is so necessary to the politician, that without it he can be of no use either in the council or the senate, nor can speak or think justly either on war or trade. "We, therefore, hope that we shall not repent the labour of compiling this work, nor flatter ourselves unreasonably, in predicting a favourable reception to a book which no condition of life can render useless, which may contribute to the advantage of all that make or receive laws, of all that buy or sell, of all that wish to keep or improve their possessions, of all that desire to be rich, and all that desire to be wise."

JOHNSON, Preface to Roll's Dict.

RITISH

NOTICE OF THIS EDITION.

In this Edition the principal changes which have taken place in the Commerce and commercial regulations of this and other countries, during the last three or four years, have been carefully noted under their proper heads. Of these, the repeal of the greater portion of the Navigation Laws has been the most important. Besides a full abstract of the new Navigation Act, we have endeavoured to exhibit the circumstances under which it originated, and to estimate its probable influence over the mercantile marine and well-being of the country. We have, also, given an abstract of the new Act for the improvement of the Mercantile Marine, with the regulations issued under its authority by the Board of Trade, in regard to the examination of the masters and mates of merchant ships.

Wherever it could be done, we have introduced the new matter and amendments into the body of the work. But this was not always practicable; and the Supplement contains a good deal of late and valuable information. It embodies, for example, in addition to the Mercantile Marine Act now referred to, and the new Act relating to Steam Ships, the latest information in regard to California, under the articles GOLD (PRODUCTION OF) and SAN FRANCISCO. The articles NICARAGUA and PANAMA comprise accounts of the water communication and railways that are now being made between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

We may, perhaps, be excused, if, before concluding this notice introductory to a work which he honoured with his approbation, we briefly advert to the irreparable loss which the U. Kingdom, and the commercial world generally, have sustained since the publication of our previous edition, in the premature death of Sir Robert Peel. There are but few of the more important topics treated of in this volume in which we have not had to refer to the enlightened and welldigested measures of that great statesman. The maintenance of our old standard, and the sound and comparatively satisfactory state of our banking system, are mainly a consequence of his exertions. To say that he did more to introduce enlarged and liberal principles into our economical policy, and to promote the public well-being, than any other minister, would be to say little or nothing; for, he did more to forward these great ends than all our other ministers put together, from the Revolution down to the present times. Not that we mean to say that we equally approve of all his measures, or think that some of them might not be advantageously abandoned or modified. We refer only to the spirit by which his policy is pervaded, its object, and its general influence.

England was the centre of his solicitude; but the majority of the measures which he supported and carried, and his example, will redound not to the advantage of this country only, but of the world.

Though slow to form a resolution, or to adopt a new course, yet when he had once satisfied himself that any novel measure or series of measures was necessary to promote or secure the public welfare, all difficulties and doubts vanished from his mind. His duty to his country absorbed every other consideration; and he spared no efforts, and did not hesitate for an instant to make the most unparalleled sacrifices to accomplish his patriotic purposes. Other ministers have equalled, and a few may, perhaps, have surpassed Sir Robert Peel in ability. But he stands foremost among British statesmen for disinterestedness, and for a determination to support, and advance, at all hazards, what he believed to be the lasting and real interests of all classes of the community.

London, December, 1851.

« AnteriorContinua »