L. COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.-No. vi. Maryland-William Clayborne, her first Merchant-Connecticut-Ship Money-Salem-Providence-New Haven-New Swe- den-Commercial Legislation in Massachusetts-Tobacco, etc., in Virginia-Manufac- tures: Cotton, Iron, etc., in Massachusetts-Tariff in Connecticut Civil War in England-New England Confederacy-First Navigation Act-Beginning of the West India Trade. By ENOCH HALE, Jr., Esq., N. Y..... 275 ..... ..... III. TRADE AND COMMERCE OF BUFFALO IN 1853. By JOHN J. HENDERSON, Esq., V. WEALTH AND CAPITALISTS OF BOSTON.-The Rich not made so by Legislative Favor-flon. Nathan Appleton-Samuel Appleton-Hon. Abbott Lawrence-Amos Law- rence-Hon. Edmund Dwight-Hon. Theodore Lyman-John McLean-John Lowell, Jr. Libel to recover value of iron lost by the breaking of the pier......... ... Promissory Note Discounted.--New Law of Ohio relating to Debtors.. Fraudulent making away with, and Concealment of Property,--Bankruptcy-Wife's Estate..... 338 COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW: EMBRACING A FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC., ILLUSTRA- General Course of Trade-State of the Money Market throughout the Country-Spring trade in domestic Cotton and Woo en Fabrics-The Principle of admitting Raw Materials Duty Free -Prospects for Imported Fabrics-Review of the Bank Returns in New York city-Compari- Son of the Returns of the Philadelphia and New York City Banks, and of the Pennsylvania and New York State Banks-Change in the Condition of the New Orleans Banks-Cash Revenue at New York-Receipts of California Gold and Deposits and Coinage at the Philadelphia Mint-Foreign Imports at New York for January, in General Merchandise and Dry Goods- Exports from New York to Foreign Ports--Comparative Shipments of Produce--Supply of Cereals in Europe--Comparative Prices in Great Britain, with the Effect of Advanced Rates Savings Banks in Massachusetts.- Decimal Coinage in Great Britain.. Property and Taxes of New Orleans in 1853.-Increase of Taxable Property in Texas.. Montreal Stock Market in 1853.-The Free Banks in Wisconsin... Tobacco Trade and Inspections at New York Tobacco and Flour Trade of Baltimore.... Statistics of the Whale Fishery of the United States in 1853.. Imports of Liquor into the United States.-Wheat and Flour Trade of France Manufacture of Salt in New York.-A New Mode of Manufacturing Paint Brushes The Manufacture of Soda Ash.-Lake Superior Copper Mines.......... The Uses of Iron.-India Rubber Overshoes...... RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. Earnings of the Erie Railroad.-Earnings of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Mobile and Ohio Railroad.-Camden and Amboy Railroad and Canal Company The New York Cotton Market.... The Mercantile Character.-Insurance Brokerage.. Of the Removal of Commerce from Boston to New York.. The Mercantile Drummer, a Social Evil............... Government Contracts in Russia.-Eloquence of a Boston Merchant.. Profitable Investment of a Baltimore Merchant.-The Usury Laws....... Notices of 37 new books or new editions..... 395-400 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. MARCH, 1854. Art. I.--COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. NO. VI. MARYLAND WILLIAM CLAYBORNE, HER FIRST MERCHANT-CONNECTICUT-SHIP-MONEY-SALEMPROVIDENCE-NEW HAVEN-NEW SWEDEN-COMMERCIAL LEGISLATION IN MASSACHUSETTS-TOBACCO, ETC., IN VIRGINIA-MANUFACTURES: COTTON, IRON, ETC., IN MASSACHUSETTS-TARIFF IN CONNECTICUT-CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND-NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY-FIRST NAVIGATION ACT -BEGINNING OF THE WEST INDIA TRADE-REVIEW AT 1650. CALVERT, Lord Baltimore, after ineffectual attempts to establish a Catholic colony at Newfoundland, had obtained from Charles, in 1632, a grant lying within the domain that had belonged to the defunct Virginia Company. The charter stipulated that no tax whatever should be imposed by the crown upon the colony to be founded by Baltimore, and also expressly provided for the freedom of the fisheries within the adjoining waters. Baltimore made agriculture the basis of the settlement, granting most liberal terms to the settlers. To all persons defraying the expense of their own emigration, he gave one hundred acres of land, and as much for each adult of their families, and fifty acres for children under six years of age. To any one carrying out five persons and paying their expense, estimated at £200, the grant was one thousand acres. Full security of property and freedom of religion was guarantied. Although agriculture was to be the prime pursuit, Commerce was by no means designed to be neglected. Indeed, more favorable circumstances for its growth could hardly be named than those above stated. The first party sent out to form the colony of MARYLAND consisted of 200 emigrants under Leonard Calvert, provided, beside necessaries for themselves, with articles for trade with the Indians. Sailing in December, 1033, they arrived in March, 1634. Calvert bought of the Indians a large tract on a branch of the Potomac, the purchase including the present occupation of half of an Indian village, with the right to the corn growing adjacent, and the possession of the whole village at the end of harvest. The payment was made in hatchets, knives, hoes, cloth, and other articles. The harvest proved abundant, and the colony, unlike its predecessors, had neither want nor the fear of it. Great advantage was derived by the propinquity of the settlement to Virginia, with which a trade was instituted from the first, the Virginians supplying them with meat, poultry, &c. Clayborne, whose trading establishments in the upper waters of the Chesapeake, under a previous patent from Charles and the authority of Virginia, we have noticed, was summoned to yield obedience to the government of the new colony, which he refused to do. The government of Virginia upheld him, and complained of the settlement by Baltimore as an encroachment upon their charter, and its intercourse with the Indians as an invasion of their own rights of trade. The dispute was carried to the Court of the Star-Chamber in England, which decided that "things stand as they do;" the planters on either side to have free intercourse with, and to mutually assist each other. Our historians have uniformly done great injustice to the character of William Clayborne, as has been too much the case also in regard to an other merchant figuring largely in the early annals of another colony-Jacob Leisler, in New York. It is full time a better award were made to these men. Some amends have indeed been made toward Leisler; but no American writer, we believe, has essayed a defense of the first established merchant within the State of Maryland. The invariable style, followed even by so late a writer as Bancroft, is to speak of him as a turbulent, reckless fellow, whose whole desire was to harass and injure the colony of a man whose aim was to live on good terms with everybody, in which assumption an overjustice is done to the character of Baltimore. Clayborne's patent, indeed, referred to trade only, and did not expressly authorize settlement; but this distinction was only a subterfuge of the jurists who dared not displease Charles, with whom Baltimore was a favorite. The very idea of trade carried on in the heart of an Indian country implied settlement among them, without which it could not be conducted upon any considerable extent, or with much profit. All adventurers, of all nations, hitherto essaying continuous trade with the Indians, had considered the establishment of posts in the Indian country an essential part of the plan, and whoever asked of any king the right, of this traffic, was understood to receive in the grant, the right of forming these necessary establishments. Indeed, trade was itself regarded as a principal means by which the colonies were to be nursed into strength, and to become profitable to their founders and patrons, and, as we have noticed, in all the patents hitherto specified, by whatever nation granted, Commerce was the leading object indicated as a contemplated result of the authorized colonization. Trade, then, implying settlement, and settlement involving the extension of trade, matters so greatly in the desire of all the European governments possessing territory in America, these governments were not inclined to refuse applications for either object in that quarter, but usually insisted on the union of both in every patent that was issued for adventure thither. The English king and courts could not but know what Clayborne was doing under the grant to him. If he had violated the terms of his charter in establishing settlements, he would have been informed thereof. Not only was no dissatisfaction shown, but the government could not but be pleased that so enterprising a man had taken in hand to forward the object it so earnestly desired, |