The literature of commerce comprises works of great practical value. For its general principles, the student will necessarily turn to the most celebrated works on political economy, especially those of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, Ricardo, M'Culloch, Thorold Rogers, Jevons, Cairnes and Bagehot. On banking, Gilbart's Works, Macleod's History, and Arthur Crump's Manual are valuable. For general information on trade and navigation there is no work so full as M'Culloch's Dictionary, and for facts and data relating to prices and currency, there is Tooke and Newmarch's History. Of special treatises there are many, such as Goschen on the Foreign Exchanges, Lord Overstone's Tracts, Francis's History of the Bank of England, Laing's Theory of Business, and Marshall's Economics of Industry. For information relating to the different commercial crises, and the operation of the Banking Laws, the student must consult the reports of committees of both Houses of Parliament in 1832, 1840, 1848, and 1857. Porter's Progress of the Nation shows the influence of commerce on the increase of wealth. The Statistical Abstracts of the United Kingdom, the Colonies, and foreign countries, will keep the student au courant with the present condition of commerce at home and abroad. If Cobden is gone, his Speeches, published by the Cobden Club, will always furnish the most unanswerable arguments in favour of the great principle of freedom of trade and industry. Generally, the Reports of Her Majesty's Secretaries of Embassy and Legation on the manufactures, commerce, &c., of the countries in which they reside are replete with valuable information. And, annually, The Economist gives the results of the commercial and financial history for the year, which may always be consulted with advantage. among civilised and uncivilised states. Every effort has, however, been made to attain accuracy in data and soundness in the conclusions drawn. In most cases the authorities quoted are given, and these are generally the highest and most trustworthy extant. As an account of one of the most important interests in the empire, as a repertory of facts for the financier and economist, as a manual for the British trader all the world over, and as a class book for students of political and commercial economics, I trust the History of British Commerce' may prove of practical utility. January 1872. LEONE LEVI. INTRODUCTION. CONTENTS. PART I. 1763-1792. FROM THE END OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. CHAPTER I. THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY II. DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL RESOURCES III. PROGRESS OF FOREIGN TRADE. IV. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND WAR. V. MR. PITT'S PEACE ADMINISTRATION. PART II. 1793-1820. FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE RESUMPTION OF CASH PAYMENTS. I. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND ITS EFFECTS ON BANKING AND II. STATE OF FINANCE DURING THE WAR OF THE FRENCH REVOLU IV. THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL AND THE BERLIN AND MILAN DECREES 101 (HAPTER IX. THE GOLD DISCOVERIES IN CALIFORNIA AND AUSTRALIA. PAGE 326 FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE TREATY OF COMMERCE WITH FRANCE I. TREATIES OF COMMERCE 417 THE ASSOCIATED CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL OPINION. 434 UI. CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES AND ITS INFLUENCE ON 442 |