COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. PAGE Tables of Value of New York State and City Stocks at 5 per cent on the Investment, 364 Commerce of the United States with the World,......... 365 Value of Articles Imported into, and Exported from the United States, designating the Countries from which received, and to which the same were exported,... 365–367 Cotton Wool Trade of Great Britain,........ 368 British Import of different descriptions of Cotton Imported from 1806 to 1845, being a period of 40 years, distinguishing the Growth,... 368 Statement of the Import of Cotton Wool into Great Britain from 1836 to 1845,. 368 Stocks of Cotton at the close of the last 6 years in the Kingdom,..... Import of Cotton Wool into Liverpool in each year, from 1791 to 1845,..................................... 369 369 370 370 370 Anthracite Coal Trade of Pennsylvania, Statistics of from its commencement,...... 375 British Manufactures Exported to the United States, compared with those exported to all countries, in 1844 and 1845,.. Import of Hides at New York from different countries, in 1845,......... French Cotton Wool Trade at Havre, from 1836 to 1845,.............................................. 371 372 373 374 377 Key West, and Wrecking for Salvage,.......... 66 Salvages Decreed and Awarded since 1831,..... COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. Circular of Instructions to Collectors of Customs,...... Goods Imported in Large Bales, and entered for Exportation,...... NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Trinity Corporation Rules of the Sea, etc.,. 380 New Light-House at St. Johns, Porto Rico-Discovery of a New Shoal,............ 381 Lights on the Island of Moen-Port of Caernarvon Lights, etc........... 381 RAILROAD AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. Statistical View of Massachusetts Railroads, in 1845,.. 382 ...... Massachusetts Railways, by J. E. Bloomfield, Esq.,. Effects of War on American Commerce-Copper Mines of New Jersey,. .... 392 Smuggling of Goods in Spain-Increase of National Wealth in Great Britain,....... 393 394 395 396 THE BOOK TRADE, Embracing notices of books for the month,.......... 397-400 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE. APRIL, 1846. Art. I.-SKETCHES OF VENETIAN HISTORY AND COMMERCE.* In the year 452, Attila, king of the Huns, emerging from the forests of Germany with a vast horde of Scythian soldiers, spread them like a pestilence over the rich and fertile plains of northern Italy; and the fearful threat of the barbarian conqueror, that "the grass never grew where his horse once trod," was fulfilled upon the devoted heads of almost the entire population of the country; and as he passed onwards at the head of his fierce Goths, cities, towns, and villages, upon which the morning sun had shone in peace and security, were left at its going down heaps of smoking ruins. Infancy and old age, and the weakness of woman, herself, met alike the same death with the strong-armed soldier, who opposed in vain that resistless band which had never met a reverse, and which, atter depopulating the east, seemed to grow more blood-thirsty as they approached the imperial city. The inhabitants of many towns yet unreached by the conqueror, not daring to face the approaching tempest, and seeking only peace and security, abandoned their houses and country to the victors, and fled to the numerous islands situated along the northern shores of the Adriatic Gulf. These islands promised them refuge from pursuit, and secu rity for their property. An invader, like Attila, who sought for spoil and plunder, could find little to attract him amidst these desolate and barren islands, which, though numerous, offered no inducement to an enemy in search of glory, wealth, or conquest. About the mouths of the many riv. ers which discharge themselves into this gulf, these islands are situated, and are partly protected from the sea by long intervening slips of land, which serve as so many natural breakwaters, and partly by deposits of sand and sea-weed, which, neither sea nor land, extend at the present day thirty miles from the shore. This whole expanse is called the Lagoon, * Anniversary address, delivered before the Young Mens' Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati, April 16, 1844, by John W. Ellis, now first published in this Magazine by the request of that association. and is navigable for large vessels only under the charge of experienced pilots. The inner harbors are safe and commodious, and are well adapted to the extensive commerce of which they afterwards became the centre. These wretched fugitives from the wrath of Attila, after becoming established in their new homes, subsisted by fishing, and the manufacture of salt, and the very scanty vegetation which the sandy soil of the island produced. Each principal island was governed by a tribune, until the year 697, when, in consequence of new disorders in Italy, a considerable number of fresh refugees seeking an asylum in these islands, the necessity was felt of adopting a system of government better suited to the exigencies of the rising state, than the indefinite system which had till then been acted upon; and it was wisely determined to confide into a single hand the power which had been heretofore divided among the various tribunes. The new officer was called Doge. His patronage and prerogatives were almost unlimited, and he was elected for life. Two centuries and a half rolled around, and the scanty returns from the laborious occupations of these hardy colonists began to produce their fruits, and gradually the inhabitants grew in wealth, power, and importance. The whole bosom of the Northern Adriatic was a hive of industrious islanders, who found there that security of which the rest of Italy was deprived. The sixty islands that clustered around Rialto, were connected with it and each other by bridges; a new capital arose within their circuit, a cathedral and a ducal palace were founded on the spot which they still occupy, and the name of the province on terra firma, Venezia, from which the citizens derived their origin, was given to the metropolis which they were creating. Such, in the year 809, was the birth of Venice. In our own country, we behold, without surprise, the creation in half a century of a rich city, and an extended commerce; but in those days of slothful progress, men were influenced less by a spirit of enterprise, than the predictions of astrology or pretended prophecy; and how great would have been the incredulity, had the wisest of their devotees foreseen that from the little band of refugees gathered together on these desolate islands, so small and narrow that the rising tides almost hid them beneath their waves, there would, within two or three centuries, spring up a nation so powerful, a city so wealthy, a community so intelligent and sagacious, and a government so eminently "wise in their generation," that every nation in Europe should ask their aid, and seek their counsel;— could they have foreseen that from this little band of refugees, a republic should spring, upon whose consent depended the very existence of those vast projects which engaged the attention of all Christendom-the armament of the Crusaders ;-could they have foreseen that from this source a republic should spring, whose army was to overthrow and subjugate the empire of the Constantines;-could they have foreseen that from the fish. ing vessels of the Lagoon, should spring that mighty commercial navy which was destined to gather into one great mart the untold wealth of Europe, Asia and Africa. How great would have been their incredulity, could the poor salt-makers of the Rialto have been foretold, that from their scattered habitations, should spring the most magnificent and wealthy city of the middle ages! The progress of our own country, in its vast development of wealth and resources, with all the advantages of modern science and civilization, was far surpassed by that of Venice, if, in the comparison, we duly estimate the various circumstances under which the two re publics attained their greatness. This surprising progress was made amidst a surrounding barbarism, so great that even the genius of an Alfred, or a Charlemagne, could scarce redeem the history of their time from almost an entire blank. The elements of this prosperity are to be found in the vigor, strength, and energy of a young and growing nation, ambitious of wealth and distinction, freed from the deadening weight of feudal law and exactions, encouraged by a firm and jealous government, ever alive to the pecuniary advantages of its citizens, and its own political supremacy; a government which, with all its advantages, has been a mystery and a riddle to the rest of mankind. In the year 827, eighteen years after the founding of the city, the captains of ten Venetian vessels trading in the harbor of Alexandria, (a fact showing the extent of their commerce at that early day,) resolved to carry off by force or stratagem the body of St. Mark, which was said to be reposing in a church in that city. The wondrous miracles which had been wrought at his shrine, had strongly attached the Egyptian populace to his memory. The Venetian captains, by bribing the priests, succeeded in obtaining the body of the holy saint, but got it on board with great difficulty. During the voyage home, the fleet was in great danger from a violent storm, and all would have been lost, but for the timely appearance of the saint on deck, who, taking command of the vessels, ordered the bewildered crews to furl their sails. The joy of the Venetians knew no bounds on the arrival of this precious cargo. The city was solemnly consigned to his care, and the saint himself, or his lion, was blazoned on her standards, or impressed on her coinage-and the shouts of the populace, whether on occasions of sedition or joy, and the gathering cry of the armies of the republic in battle, was henceforth" Viva San Marco!" Until the end of the tenth century, no great political events transpired in her history. Her largely extended commerce, by increasing her internal wealth and resources, had breathed into her government a desire for foreign conquest. The two centuries over which we have passed, had raised the small community of Venetians into a rich, powerful, and independent nation, and it had already become the commercial mart of Greece, and all the countries bordering on the Adriatic. In the year 991, the Doge concluded a treaty with the Greek emperor, and with the sultans of Syria and Egypt, acquiring exclusive and important privileges to the Venetians in the Levant. Pisa, Genoa, and Amalfi, subsequently her chief maritime competitors, were at that time hardly known. A few years afterwards the Doge conquered and took possession of the entire eastern coast of the Adriatic, as far as the Morea; and, with the consent of the Greek emperor, assumed the title of the Duke of Dalmatia. During the next hundred years, Venice became greatly distinguished as a naval and military power. Her success in her wars with the king of Hungary, and the Patriarch of Aquilea, gave her citizens that confidence in their own strength and resources, which enabled her government to maintain a firm security amidst the convulsions of the surrounding nations. But it was the part borne by Venice in the wars of the Crusades, that rendered her most illustrious, and the results were greater than her most sanguine citizens dared look for. We cannot now look into the causes which summoned the whole Christian population of the west to the rescue of the Holy Land-we cannot say whether they were impelled by a widespread religious enthusiasm, more than a desire for conquest and wealth, or to a love of romantic and perilous adventure. There can be no question that the prominent part which Venice bore in these expeditions must be attributed to reasons of commercial policy. However much she might wish to see the infidels expelled from the holy places of the east, and from the enjoyment of the vast wealth of Syria, her own interest demanded that she should not allow the other nations of Europe to become her rivals in the monopoly of the rich trade of the Levant, and she took part in these expeditions, even with the certainty of breaking her valuable connection with the Eastern empire. The brilliant results of the third Crusade amply rewarded the Venetians for their share in the enterprise. They distinguished themselves above all their allies for their single-hearted devotion and bravery at the siege of Tyre. The walls of this devoted city had been garrisoned by the joint forces of the sultans of Damascus and Egypt, and nineteen miles of ramparts bristled with armed defenders. The sea encompassed it on all sides, save where a channel, in its narrowest part more than half a mile in breadth, was crossed by the mole constructed by Alexander, 1400 years before, and which, if it bore witness that in the end Tyre might be won, proved at the same time the gigantic efforts demanded for its reduction. The conqueror of the world had almost abandoned this city in despair, nor was it till seven months of unparalleled toil, and the loss of more blood than all Persia cost him, that he entered its breach by storm. The most prodigious efforts of the first Crusaders had been vainly levelled against its walls; and for five months, amidst blood and carnage, the arms of the third Crusaders were now di. rected against it before it fell. About the middle of the twelfth century, the Venetians were humbled by defeat, and disgraced by disasters, in their wars with the Eastern empire; but during all her national reverses, and she suffered many, which in future years brought her to the brink of destruction, the patriotism of her citizens was unbounded; and even when her people were suffering under the tyranny of her government and nobility, they yet fought and died under the banner of St. Mark, with a devotion rarely equalled. Up to this time her government had been that of the simplest repub. licanism, and afterwards an elective despotism. The excessive power conferred on the Doge, at his election for life, was often abused, and this gave rise to numerous revolts and factions, which impaired the power of the state. No other authority appears to have existed except that of the Council of Forty, of whose origin and duties little is known, only that they acted as a check upon the power of the Doge, and they may be consid ered as the representatives of the most powerful families of the state, and were gradually acquiring the privilege of a strong hereditary nobility. To avoid the inconvenience of general assemblies of the people for the election of Doge, a Council of 480 was selected from the mass, to be renewed annually. From this body, still unwieldy, a Committee of Sixty was appointed to advise with the Doge on affairs of state. Another more private Council of Six was at the same time appointed, and were called Counsellors of the Red Robe, and were elected by the six different sections of the republic. The Doge, the Committee of Sixty, and the Council of Six, composed what may be called the Signory. Of these three divisions of government the Council of Forty may be considered as possessing the sovereignty, the Grand Council of 480 as forming the deliberative body, |