....... ........... III. FRANCE AND THE SUEZ CANAL. By E. W., of New York. IV. DEDUCTIONS FROM PRUSSIAN VITAL STATISTICS. By E. B. ELLIOTT, Esq., of VII. THE LAW MERCHANT.-No. vi. The Proper Contents of a Receipt-Of the occasion for giving and taking Receipts-How long to keep Receipts. By ABBOTT BROTHERS, The Vanderbilt Company-Charter-Party.. Common Carriers-Giving Through Tickets does not make Partners. Case of smuggling Silks to the United States-Breach of Contract.. Agency-When Principal bound by Contract of Agent-General Rule--Bill of Lading an exception 70 Agency Writing under Seal held binding only on Agent.... Shipowner-Power of Master to bind.-Joint-Stock Companies.. ......... Review of the Money Market-The effect of Political Agitations upon the Commercial Interests -Cause of the recent excitement-Speculations in Sugar-State of General Trade-The Bank Movement-Production of Gold-Deposits and Coinage at the Assay Office and Mint-Imports and Exports at New York for May, since January 1st, and for Eleven Months of the Fiscal Year-Cash Revenue for the same time-Imports of Dry Goods-Exports of Domestic Pro- duce, etc.................... New York Cotton Market. By CHARLES W. FREDERICKSON, Broker, New York ...... 71-79 2 JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. How to detect Counterfeit Bills. -Condition of Banks out of Boston.... Condition of the Banks of Ohio.-Condition of the Banks of South Carolina.. Amendment of the Usury Laws of Louisiana.. Purchase of United States Stocks by the Government.-Money: whence comes the word?.. Lighthouse on Troubridge Shoals, Gulf St. Vincent, South Australia Gunfleet Light, East Swin, England-Entrance to Thames Notice to Mariners.-Gunfleet Lighthouse, East Swin ................. Does a Man shorten his Life by insuring it? STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE, &c. Progress of Vegetables and increase of Animals in United States HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. JULY, 1856. Art. I. THE MERCHANTS, AND THE MERCHANTS' FUND* 66 'THE MERCHANT IS THE FRIEND OF MAN."-Gibbon. I. MERCHANTS-WHO AND WHENCE ARE THEY? 1. They are an historic class. Their existence as a body can be traced to the earliest annals of the world. As far back as the days of Abraham, nearly 2,000 years before Christ, we find the Patriarch buying the field of Machpelah, and paying Ephron for it "400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchant;" showing, not only the existence of merchants as a class, but also that they had standard weights and coins, and regulated the currency of the times. A little after this record, Moses writes of "Midianitish merchantmen," who "came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt." Job speaks of "merchants" in his day; and towards the splendor of King Solomon, merchants largely contributed. The vast quantities of gold, and ivory, and spices, and precious woods, and linens, and wool, and other articles, which he accumulated, were obtained not only by traffic with foreign traders, but also through those denominated "the king's merchants," who were the factors * We have been furnished with a copy of the address delivered before the "Merchants' Fund" Association of Philadelphia, on the occasion of their second anniversary, January 24, 1856. This article embraces, as will be seen, a comprehensive sketch of the merchants as an historic class, to gether with a brief sketch of the history and character of mercantile benevolence. For an account of the "Merchants' Fund" of Philadelphia our readers are referred to the department of "Mercantile Miscellanies," page 131, in the present number of the Merchants' Magazine. – ED. |