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General Statement.

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There run through the writings of early authors on economic subjects two prominent ideas regarding commerce, one relating to its value and the other to its content. As regards the former Montesquieu, the immortal writer of the "Spirit of Laws," has tersely said: "the effect of commerce is riches; the consequence of riches, luxury; and that of luxury, the perfection of arts." The emphasis laid on not only the material but also the cultural value of commerce by early writers — a characteristic almost lacking in economic literature of the present day — is not difficult to understand. Trade among early civilized peoples, especially among the Greeks and, to a greater extent, the Romans, was largely in the hands of foreigners and was essentially piratical in character. These conditions stamped trade as an unworthy occupation and perpetuated traditions and prejudices which have taken centuries to eradicate. The civilized world has, however, been gradually converted, and but few writers of the present time think it worth while to demonstrate that the material advantages of trade are mutual and that commercial intercourse is civilizing in its effects.

As regards the second characteristic, the content of commerce, it may be stated that the ancients did not discriminate between commerce in its restricted and in its general sense;

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INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL POLICIES

that is, they did not differentiate commerce from navigation, transportation and communication, money and banking, and even, in some instances, from general industry or from political economy. They used the term in much the same sense in which in modern phraseology we speak of commercial education and schools of commerce, meaning thereby much more than mere studies of trade or even of general economics. The complex character of modern industrial life has led to a high degree of specialization not only in art but also in science. Such subjects as transportation and communication, or money and banking, have become so important and also so complex that, although of course recognized as perhaps the most important instruments of commerce, they are treated as special subjects in themselves rather than as synonymous with commerce. It should also be noted in this connection that there is a legal conception of commerce which may be, and in fact usually is, different from the economic use of the term. While economically considered the meaning of commerce tends to become more and more restricted, legally considered the opposite tendency is observable at least so far as the federal government of the United States is concerned, since the interpretation given by the Supreme Court to the meaning of commerce as used in the Constitution is much more extensive now than formerly. This discussion naturally brings us to a consideration of the meaning of commerce and its relation to economics and industry. In the treatment of the subject in the present text the term commerce " is used in its restricted rather than in its broad meaning.

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Meaning of Commerce. - Political economy, or economics, deals with those activities of man which are directed toward getting a living. It has often been defined as the science of wealth. Wealth in the economic sense consists of those goods and services which are useful to man, which possess utilities. These may be classified into elementary or material,

form, time, place, and quantity utilities. Both industry and commerce are important parts of the economic life of society. The former is primarily concerned with the creation of form utilities and the latter with those of time, place, and quantity. The agent in industry is the manufacturer; in commerce, the merchant. The separation between the two is never complete either in theory or in practice. Theoretically, many modern economists treat commerce as merely a part of economic production on the ground that the latter is incomplete until goods which have been manufactured or produced are put into the hands of final consumers. In practice there are many

occupations in which the manufacturer and distributor or merchant are united. A simple illustration is that of the baker who not only makes the bread, but often offers it for sale to final consumers. While the development of the division of labor has tended toward a differentiation of industry and commerce, the latest phase of industrial consolidation has led in many instances to a closer union. Giant concerns like the United States Steel Corporation and the Standard Oil Company are both industrial and commercial institutions. They are engaged not only in the creation of form, but also of place, time, and quantity utilities.

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Commerce is defined in the dictionary as "the exchange or buying and selling of commodities, especially the exchange of merchandise on a large scale." It is characterized as trade in its most extended form. The terms commerce and "trade" mean very much the same thing, although the former often refers to commercial dealings between nations, while the latter is more often applied to internal mercantile intercourse. Thus we speak, on the one hand, of the foreign commerce or commercial relations of the United States and, on the other hand, of the wholesale or retail trade of individual merchants. This distinction, however, is by no means consistently followed.

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