It  will  be  obvious  to  you  that  I  can  treat  this  vast  subject  only  in
outline. There  is  very  little  printed  Hterature  which  is  more  copious-
than  that  which  deals  with  diplomacy  and  trade. The  great  work
of  Dumont proposes  to  give  up  tothe  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,
the  various  treaties,  political  and  commercial,  which  have  been
negotiated  between  the  different  states  of  Europe. The  numerous
volumes  of  Eymer,  historiographer  to  Charles  11.,  are  a  selection  from
the  public  papers  which  are  preserved  in  the  national  archives. But
neither  of  these  authors  is  as  copious  as  Muratori,  whose  volimies
are  a  repertory  of  the  infinitely  various  relations  which  subsisted
from  time  to  time  between  the  numerous  ItaUan  cities. The  col-
lection of  Muratori  is  not  only  interesting  to  the  student  of  modem
history,  but  is  valuable  as  it  enshrines  in  it  many  scattered  pieces
of  information  about  ancient  commercial  law,  the  most  ancient  and
contiauous  of  all  law,  for  it  is  probable  that  this  branch  of  inter-
national custom  and  comity  reaches  back  to  the  time  when  the  Eome


EFFECT  OF  THE  INTEBC0UB8E  OF  NATIONS. 93

of  the  kings  and  the  early  republic  made  treaties  with  Carthage  and
the  other  colonies  of  Tyre*

The  economical  benefits  of  trade,  and  of  that  under^standing
between  nations  which  leads  to  the  exchange  of  products,  which
protects  merchants  arid  merchandize,  and  gives  temporarily  to  the
foreigner,  ilnder  more  or  less  easy  conditions,  the  opportunities  of
commerce,  are  obvious  and  trite. The  distribution  of  products  to
the  greatest  possible  reciprocal  advantage  is  the  first  and  most
enduring  stimulant  to  trade. In  all  acts  of  exchange  the  buyer  has
the  strongest  inducement  to  get  what  he  most  needs,  and  in  com-
merce both  parties  buy  and  both  parties  sell. Trade  is  again  the
most  efficient  instructor  as  to  the  natural  benefits  of  soil,  climate,
and  material,  and  it  teaches  this  with  the  greatest  rapidity, and
accuracy. •  The  greatest  service  which  imimpeded  trade  does  to  a
fiommunity  which  has  accepted  it,i  is  that  it  informs  the  people,  who
desire  to  exchange  their  products,  what  are  the  best  kinds  of  material
on  which  to  exercise  their  industry,  and  develop  that  utility  which
is  the  sole  end  of  economical  labour. 