ART. CONTENTS OF NO. V., VOL. XXXI. ARTICLES. PAGE I. COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.-No. xi. Bucaneering-Spanish War-Louisiana-Crozat-The Mississippi Company-The Lake Region-Bubbles-Products of the Sea-Cod and Whale-Louisburg-Fur Trade-The West-Prohibition of Trade with Canada-Naval Stores and Lumber-Pine-tree Preservation-Iron Manufactures-Copper and Lead. By ENOCH HALE, Jr., Esq., of New York 531 II. TRADE AND COMMERCE OF CINCINNATI IN 1853-54. By RICHARD SMITH, Esq., of Cincinnati, Ohio.... 544 III. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CITIES OF EUROPE.-No. XII.-ANTWERP IN BELGIUM. Location of Antwerp-Description of the City-Its Cathedral-ChurchesHarbor-History-Commercial Growth-Exports-Shipping-Trade and Tonnage-General commercial condition in 1853-4, &c... IV. MERCANTILE INTEGRITY AND ITS SECURITIES. A SERMON FOR MERCHANTS AND FINANCIERS. By Rev. D. F. HUNTINGTON, of Massachusetts..... V. MERCANTILE LAW IN SURROGATES' COURTS ..... 558 565 571 VI. COMMERCE OF RUSSIA WITH THE UNITED STATES. By M. DE TEGOBORSKI.... 575 VII. THE SEPARATE PROPERTY OF HUSBAND AND WIFE. Family Settlements by separate Property of Married Women -The Husband's Courtesy in the Property of the Wife. By JOHN MILTON STEARNS, Counsellor at Law, of New York... 579 JOURNAL OF MERCANTILE LAW. Construction of the Free Banking Law of New York........ 584 COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW: EMBRACING A FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC., ILLUSTRA TED WITH TABLES, ETC., AS FOLLOWS: Continuation of the Money pressure-Causes of commercial embarrassment-Frauds in Failures-Growing disregard of commercial Dishonor-Change of Policy in the management of Bankrupt Estates higuly important-Depression of the Railroad Interest, with the Causes and Cure-Loss of the Arctic-Marine Insurance-Bank Panic, with Statistics of Bank ReturnsDeposits and Coinage at Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco Mints-Cash Duties received at New York, Philadelphia, and Boston-Foreign Imports at New York for September, and from January first-Imports of Dry Goods-Exports from New York for September, and from January first-Exports of Produce, &c. 589-598 598 COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. Virginia Tobacco and Flour Trade in 1853-4..... Statistics of the Trade and Commerce of Cincinnati Synopsis of Canadian Commerce in 1853.. Export of Cotton, Rice, and Lumber, from Charleston in 1852-54.. Progress of the Import and Export Trade of England.-Price of Wool in England for 30 years.. PAGE 600 601 604 605 606 606 COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. The Reciprocity Treaty Between the United States and the United Kingdom... 607 607 610 .... 611 Molucca Islands, Free Ports.-Venezuelan Commercial Regulation....... .... 612 612 Gold Shipments at San Francisco.-Rates of Foreign and Domestic Exchange at Mobile in 1853-4 618 New York Chartered Banks.-Debt and Finances of Philadelphia.. Condition of the Banks of South Carolina.-Value of Property in New Jersey in 1854.. Exports and Imports of Specie.-Gold Coin Counting and Carrying Calculations.. The Merchants Underwriters of New York with Reference to Marine Insurance. NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Ports and Harbors of Japan.... Northern Lighthouses: North Unst, Shetland-Temporary Lighthouse.. RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. The Canals and Other Public Works of New York, No. V., The Comparative Cost, Capacity, and Revenue of the Erie Canal, and the Parallel Railroads, and the Cost and Charges of Transportation thereon A Commercial and Economical View of a Railroad to the Pacific..................... Anthracite Burning Locomotive.... Steamboat Arrivals and Departures at Cincinnati in 1853-4... Cotton Received at Vicksburg by Railroad.—Engineers' Railway Clock.. STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c. Results of the Census of Great Britain, No. IV., Families and Houses. 623 G26 626 629 629 633 635 636 636 637 639 640 640 641 642 642 .. 642 Production of Hogs in Indiana.-Brief History of Sheep, and Export of Sheep and Wool.. JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES. The Mining Districts of California.-Gold, and other Minerals of Canada Important Suggestions Relating to Certificates of Stock.. HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. NOVEMBER, 1854. Art. I.-COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. NUMBER XI. BUCANEERING-SPANISH WAR-LOUISIANA-CROZAT-THE MISSISSIPPI COMPANY-THE LAKE REGIONBUBBLES PRODUCTS OF THE SEA-COD AND WHALE-LOUISBURG-FUR TRADE-THE WEST-PROHIBITION OF TRADE WITH CANADA-NAVAL STORES AND LUMBER-PINE-TREE PRESERVATION-IRON MANUFACTURES-COPPER AND LEAD. BUCANEERING, as usual at the conclusion of war, broke out with great violence in the West India and neighboring seas, after the peace of Utrecht. John Theach, or Blackbeard, became a most noted pirate chieftain, the terror of peaceable traders. The island of New Providence, one of the Bahamas, was "a kind of outlawed capital." In 1718, George I. sent a squadron under Woodes Rogers, who reduced this stronghold. The desperadoes attempted to establish another at the mouth of Cape Fear river, in North Carolina, but were ousted by the governor of the colony. Many of the pirates had surrendered on the proffer of pardon, some of them afterwards returning to their old pursuit. In the next twenty-five years twenty-six pirates were executed. A war of two years commenced between England and Spain, in 1717. It ruined the projects in hand of the great company of the South Seas, which had commenced operations under the Presidency of his majesty George of Brunswick, and which lost 200,000l. in effects, at its factories; but does not seem to have much affected the trade or other interests of the English colonies. The power of Spain was, at this time, too reduced to occasion either England or them great inconvenience. She suffered more severely from them. In December, 1701, D'Ibberville, who had gone to France, returned to his colony in Louisiana, and found only 150 living. In 1702, some more emigrants arrived from France, and settled at the Mobile river, (Alabama,) whither Bienville soon after removed the first colony. D'Ibberville died at Sea, in 1702, and the settlement thereafter languished, France being involved at the time in war. Bancroft thus describes the condition of Louisiana, at this stage of its colonization :— "Louisiana, at this time, was little more than a wilderness, claimed in behalf of the French king. In its whole borders there were scarcely thirty families. The colonists were unwise in their objects-searching for pearls, for the wool of the Buffalo, or for productive mines. Their scanty number was dispersed on discoveries, or among the Indians in quest of furs. There was no quiet agricultural industry. Of the lands that were occupied, Biloxi is as sandy as the desert of Lybia; the soil on Dauphine island is meager; on the Delta of the Mississippi, where a fort had been built, Bienville and his fellow soldiers were insulated and unhappy-at the mercy of the rise of waters in the river; and the buzz and sting of musketoes, the hissing of the snakes, the cries of alligators, seemed to claim that the country should still for a generation, be the inheritance of reptiles-while at the fort of Mobile, the sighing of the pines and the hopeless character of the barrens, warned the emigrants to seek homes farther inland.” In 1711, the close of the war drawing near, Louis XIV. granted to Anthony Crozat, a wealthy merchant, who was also the king's secretary, a patent for fifteen years, of the province of Louisiana, extending "from the mouth of the river Mississippi, in the Bay of Mexico, to the Lake Illinois, northward; and from New Mexico on the west to the lands of the English, or Carolina eastward." Crozat was to enjoy the sole trade of this region, and the profit of all mines, after paying one-fifth of the mineral proceeds to the king, his Commerce being exempt from all custom, outward or homeward, The government was to be dependent on that of New France, that is, Canada, of which colony this was merely an attempted extension. Crozat's views referred almost exclusively to trade. Traffic with the Indians was the object of first attention; the other part of the scheme was the establishment of a Commerce, legitimate or contraband, with Mexico and other Spanish possessions, by which he expected to obtain gold and silver plentifully, in exchange for French manufactures. His plans were extensive, and not badly conceived, as trading speculations merely, but his agents were stupid and fraudulent. The English managed to retain the principal control of the Indian trade of that region, and he failed in his effort to establish commercial relations with the Spanish provinces. In 1716, two ships were sent to France, from the Mississippi, richly laden, being the first which had carried any merchandise from the colony to France, since it was founded. . In the same year fort Rosalie was built on the present site of Natchez, the first settlement made within the limits of the State of Mississippi. Natchitoches on the Red River, was founded in 1717. In 1717, Crozat, being disgusted with his adventure, was easily induced to resign Louisiana to a new commercial association, called the Company of the West. Their privileges of trade were the same as had been granted to him, together with the beaver traffic of Canada, for twenty-five years. Florida was also included in their patent, which brought them into collision with the Spaniards. The company was organized by the Scotchman John Law. The designs were, first, profit by Commerce with the Mississippi country, and, second, the payment of the enormous public debt of France, of about fifteen hundred millions of livres, or 70,000,0007. sterling, by drawing the creditors into this association, as stockholders. The scheme was similar in this respect, precisely, to that of the English South Sea Company. The entire population of Louisiana, at this time, did not exceed 700. In 1718, one hundred millions of the public debt being subscribed in the Mississippi stock, four millions were allowed for the interest thereon, and for a further allurement, the entire farm of tobacco was granted to the company for nine years. The stock of the company was now up to 120 per cent. The company sent out, the same year, a body of eight hundred emigrants, artificers, planters, laborers, and soldiers; most settled at Biloxi Bay, some settled at NEW ORLEANS, where a solitary hut had been erected in 1717, and which Bienville had, with much judgment, selected as the commercial and political metropolis of the colony. Most of this party had soon perished. The culture of Wheat, Rice, and Silk was introduced. In 1718, the colony felt strong enough to attack, but was driven from Texas, where La Salle's colony had existed for a while; and also attacked and was attacked from Pensacola, which the French took soon afterward, and held, as part of Louisiana, until peace. The Senegal Company had been merged in the Western or Mississippi Company, as it was now called, and in 1719, the French East India Company, which was in a very reduced condition, doing very little trade and unable to pay its debts, was united also, the name of the association being changed to the India Company. It had now the monopoly of the whole trade of France and America, Africa, and Asia, and the king engaged to institute no other company in France. By the same decree, making this arrangement, the complete control of the bank, born contemporaneously with the company, was confided to it, and the whole revenue of France was farmed to it, the condition being the advance, by the company to the government, of 1,200,000,000 livres, equal to about $216,000,000, at three per cent, to be used for paying off the public debt. This issue was more than all the banks in Europe united, could circulate. The price of their stock rose to 500, 600, 1,200, and in 1720 reached 2,050 per cent, which brought the valuation of their capital of 300,000,000 up to 6,150,000,000 livres. A further loan of 300,000,000 livres, (about twelve millions sterling.) was made to the government. The French people were made to believe the wealth of the Missssippi region was such that it would immediately repay almost any price paid for the stock of this company. The richness of the gold and silver mines was described as exceeding all belief, and almost conception. For the exclusive right of working them for nine years, the company paid the government 50,000,000 livres (about two millions sterling.) As for tobacco, naval stores, and other products of wood, of field, and of pasture, which could not be expected to receive much attention from the colonists, where the precious metals were so abundant, Mississippi could supply France with any quantities she might require, either for her own use, for her colonies, or for export to other parts of the world. The policy of the company toward the colony was wretched in the extreme. To the poor settlers already there, no encouragement was given other than they could find in the imposition of every possible restraint and inconvenience. The inducement to further emigration was very small. The grand operations were not in the resources of America, but in the stock of the company. Premiums were demanded on the export of merchandise from France to the Mississippi, of fifty, sixty, eighty, and one |