Page:The influence of commerce on civilization (IA influenceofcomme00ellerich).pdf/25

19 became her vassal; a British subject is the Governor-General of India, and 300,000,000 of people are now governed by their Emperor, the Kaisar-i-Hindh, our beloved and able King, Edward VII. The great Empire of China, the pearl of all price of the East India Company, who reckoned their trade with India far inferior to their trade with China, became, is now, and may it ever remain so, dominated by majority of influence and commerce by the Union Jack. From the Genoese, the Portuguese, the Venetians, and the Spaniards, all of whose efforts in commerce were turned on the fabulous and glorious East, Great Britain inherited all that these nations had acquired, thrown in her lap by the prowess in war of her fleets and battalions, and ]3y the indomitable energy of her mercantile pioneers. The control of markets, which had rested with the Portuguese, Dutch, and Venetians, reverted 'to Great Britain. The consequent and subsequent control of the ebb and flow to and from the East of the precious metals was vested in Lombard and Threadneedle Streets. Pliny has called the East "The sink of the precious metals". The same opinion is true to-day. We have now the same state of things as in Pliny's day, and what went on as regards interchange of gold and silver between East and West from the time of the Hittites, the ancient Egyptians and Arabians, and lastly of the Venetians, the Portuguese, and the Dutch, whose mantle has been cast on Great Britain, prevails now; but instead of Carchemish, Alexandria, Venice, Lisbon, or Antwerp being the centre where the intricacies of exchanges and arbitrages are settled, London is now the " drawing post " for the whole world. But we must not overlook another factor in the foreign exchange history. A new element has arisen as a gold-producer in late years, and the importance of this new factor in the science of foreign exchanges is neither generallv recognised nor acknowledged. Juvenal, the great Roman poet, said, "Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima eygno", and also " Felix ille tamen corvo quoque rarior albo". Now I do not know whether Juvenal ever saw a black swan or a white raven, but this we know, that our black