Page:The influence of commerce on civilization (IA influenceofcomme00ellerich).pdf/9

3 necessity is the mother of invention. Many are the theories expounded by civilization, and many the fads begotten of luxury derived from commerce, which have for a time held sway, but the Nemesis of cold fact and practice when brought into contact wjtli the visionary theories of so-called civilization, has shattered them as on an iron-bound coast on the sea of philosophy. Is there any civilization? Is what we have now worthy of the name? This will be my effort to elucidate.

Very much of what is good and honest in this world has been called into being by commerce. The pre-supposition of and the establishment of honourable dealing rendered imperative on the first traders, as their raison d'etre, their existence and their livelihood, has survived in the high moral tone and character in trade initiated by the pioneers of commerce. In the old policies of insurance in the East, still surviving some forty years ago, the phrase, "In the name of God, Amen", was the first line in a policy of marine insurance. This phrase or declaration was an oath by the signatories to such policy, binding even unto the third and fourth generations through their descendants. This form of insurance, the oldest in the world, was derived from the Arabians, but I am sorry to see the phrase no longer exists. The commercial morality of the Eastern nations, the Arabians, Parsees and Chinese, survives in all its strength, and is a pattern to all Western nations from its integrity. In China a debt is a debt: it descends from father to son, and Chinese law can compel the son to make good his father's debts. Civilization being a growth on commerce has of times raised its baneful arguments against the hereditary law of honesty, established by commerce, and brought about side issues and legal technicalities to evade true indebtedness: in this way so-called civilization has hindered commerce. Commerce always is the honest, practical fact in history: civilization often the theoretical fad. The older the period examined, the more unique the honesty of commerce disclosed.