H. Osman Newland
Published: 2016-06-28
Total Pages: 340
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Excerpt from The Romance of Modern Commerce: A Popular Account of the Production of Cereals, Tea, Coffee, Rubber, Tobacco, Cotton, Silk, Wool, Timber, Cattle, Oils, Furs, Precious Stones, &C. &C. &C In the later internal struggles in Britain for liberty and 'progress it was the commercial class in the towns which decided the victory. On the Continent also the in uence of commerce was so great that prominent ports and cities were able to throw off allegiance to kings, princes and emperors and establish themselves as independent municipalities or states, while forming international alliances like the Hanseatic League. In commerce the German emperors found a grave and modern citizenship a cradle. Co-operation as well as con ict and competition have played important parts in the Romance Of Com merce. The merchant and craft guilds brought peoples Of all sorts and conditions together by means of a new bond of interest instead Of the Old bond of blood. They opened their gates to the runaway serf and decreed that residence within a guild for a year and a day made a man free. They did more. They raised the standard of handicraft by insisting on good work; and their in uence caused special Offices and dignities to be conferred upon merchants who conducted com merce with other peoples successfully. The celebrated Hanseatic League, one Of the greatest achievements of commerce, stands out conspicuously in the Middle Ages, because, amid robbery, rapine and internecine warfare of the feudal nobility, and between empire and papacy, it was able to hold aloof from all and act as a court Of arbitration for con icting interests. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."