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HUNT'S

MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE

AND

COMMERCIAL REVIEW.

JANUARY, 1853.

Art. I-CONSCIENCE IN THE COUNTING ROOM: OR THE TRUE INTERESTS OF THE MERCHANT.

"My brethren, this is never to be forgotten, that our New England is originally a plantation of Religion, and not a plantation of Trade. Let merchants and such as are making cent per cent remember this. Let others who have come over since at several times, remember this, that worldly gain was not the end and design of the people of New England, but Religion. And if any man among us make Religion as twelve, and the world as thirteen, let such an one know he hath neither the epirit of a true New England man, nor yet of a sincere Christian."-John Higginson at Salem. 1663. Ir is claimed in our title that "the true interests" of the MERCHANT forms the subject of this article; but to define what those true interests are, must be left to the essayist. He must vindicate the claim of the interests he urges. The interests of the merchant are commonly supposed to lie in his money; but every merchant was a Man before he was a Merchant, and the interests of the Man must rank first. The changes of life or death may at any moment remove his riches from the merchant or the merchant from his riches; but the union between the man and his virtue is one which God hath joined, and none may put asunder.

There are practical interests of the merchant on which I have no advice to offer; instruction in these must be sought elsewhere. But inside of every Merchant there is a Man, and to that Man, modified as he may be by the education, habits, and pursuits of his avocation-to him and his interests I write. The ancient philosopher thanked God for his wealth; and when his property was destroyed by fire and shipwreck, he thanked God (it is recorded) yet more, because he had been taught the wisdom which left him as well off as he was before. It is this wisdom alone of which I can attempt to treat; nor can you wisely disregard this. For the end of life, as even you

must allow, is not money, but happiness and usefulness: and if I could teach you to extract as much of these from fifty dollars as you otherwise could from five hundred, I should plainly rival the most brilliant California "The only book a investment, and offer to your interests a solid advantage. business man needs," said one of this class once to me, in a public library, "That is the office of "is a book to transform a poor man into a rich one." all good books, I replied, and many there are which have done it. I do not now mean that by books you may learn new maxims of finance or new facts in Commerce though that is true. For who knows how long ago the mines of California might have become a familiar fact in the world's traffic, had men been more attentive to the hints and surmises which are now found to have passed unnoticed in old geographies and voyages? But it is California speculations? your not this I mean. For what will be the end of Perhaps, when all is done, a hundred dollars' balance-perhaps for you, perhaps against you-so closely are the scales adjusted in the end. But what are a hundred dollars to a new thought, a new aspiration, a new aspect of life and society, a new principle of faith and peace in the soul? And yet you, who devote hours and days and weeks to the hundred dollars, would grudge an hour to the book whose suggestions and thoughts might make you a rich man for ever; richer at least for ever, in your garret, than the wretched millionaire whose palace towers above, and has hitherto kept off every ray of sunlight from your dwelling and your heart.

"We cannot give all this populace bread," said Guizot, in his better days in the French Assembly, "and if we could, it might only make them thriftless and dependent, and so prove their ruin. Let us give them Truth, for this alone they cannot waste or abuse."

I shall seek to write for the Interests of the Business Man by writing for him the Truth.

I wish to consider the affairs of the Business Man,-I. In regard to his Position; II. In regard to his Dangers; III. In regard to his Opportunities.

I. The ISITION of the Business Man; comprising his Object, which is Wealth; and his Means, which is Commerce.

1. The professed object of the Business Man, as such, is Wealth. "The American people," says a French satirist, "educate their children in the fear of God and the love of Money." The sarcasm seems at first severe as was ever uttered. But let us look at it more closely.

What is Money? From the time when the accumulation of wealth first became a desire of man, there has been no such thing as the love of gold and silver for their own sakes. Selkirk spurned the lump of silver from beneath his feet; king Midas found the "golden touch" a curse and not a blessing. It is only representative value. As bank-notes only represent gold, so gold again but represents wealth; wealth means only the conveniences of life.

It means first the physical conveniences of life. How little do the needs What more? Meat, clothes, and of man require meat, fire, and clothes. fire. But to be supplied with these is to possess substantial wealth: and who shall fix the limit of adequate supply? The Irishman in his bogs has potatoes, turf, and a dreadnaught jacket; are these to be the acme of human demand? No philosopher has ever reduced himself to a minimum of physical convenience. Diogenes invested capital in a tub, which might

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