COMMERCE. The idea conveyed by this word is represented in the sacred writings by the word trade ; the Hebrew term 7» rekel signifying literally trade' or traffic.' Commerce, in its usual acceptation, means the exchange of one thing for another—the exchange of what we have to spare for what we want, in whatever country it is produced. The origin of commerce must have been nearly coeval with the world. As pasturage and agriculture were the only employments of the first inhabitants, so cattle, flocks, and the fruits of the earth were the only objects of the first commerce, or that species of it called barter. It would appear that some progress had been made in manufactures in the ages before the flood. The building of a city or village by Cain, however insignificant the houses may have been, supposes the existence of some mechanical knowledge. The musical instruments, such as harps and organs, the works in brass and in iron exhibited by the succeeding generations, confirm the belief that the arts were considerably advanced. The construction of Noah's ark, a ship of three decks, covered over with pitch, and much larger than any modern effort of architecture, proves that many separate trades were at that period carried on. There must have been parties who supplied Noah and his three sons with the great quantity and variety of materials which they required, and this they would do in exchange for other commodi ties, and perhaps money. That enormous pile of building, the tower of Babel, was constructed of bricks, the process of snaking which appears to have been well understood. Some learned astrono mers are of opinion that the celestial observations of the Chinese reach back to 2249 years before the Christian era ; and the celestial observations made at Babylon, contained in a calendar of above nine teen centuries, transmitted to Greece by Alexander, reach back to within fifteen years of those ascribed to the Chinese. The Indians appear to have had observations quite as early as the Babylonians.
Such of the descendants of Noah as lived near the water may be presumed to have made use of vessels built in imitation of the ark—if, as some think, that was the first floating vessel ever seen in the world—but on a smaller scale, for the purpose of crossing rivers. In the course of time the de scendants of his son Japhet settled in ' the isles of the Gentiles,' by which are understood the islands at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea, and those between Asia Minor and Greece, whence their colonies spread into Greece, Italy, and other western lands.
Sidon, which afterwards became so celebrated for the wonderful mercantile exertions of its inhabi tants, was founded about 2200 years before the Christian era. The neighbouring mountains, being covered with excellent cedar-trees, furnished the best and most durable timber for ship-building. The inhabitants of Sidon accordingly built nume rous ships, and exported the produce of the adjoin ing country, and the various articles of their own manufacture, such as fine linen, embroidery, tapes try, metals, glass, both coloured and figured, cut, or carved, and even mirrors. They were unrivalled by the inhabitants of the Mediterranean coasts in works of taste, elegance, and luxury. Their great and universally acknowledged pre-eminence in the arts procured for the Phcenicians, whose principal seaport was Sidon, the honour of being esteemed, among the Greeks and other nations, as the inven tors of commerce, ship-building, navigation, the application of astronomy to nautical purposes, and particularly as the discoverers of several stars nearer to the north pole than any that were known to other nations ; of naval war, writing, arithmetic, hook-keeping, measures and weights ; to which it is probable they might have added money.
Egypt appears to have excelled all the neigh bouring countries in agriculture, and particularly in its abundant crops of corn. The fame of its fertility induced Abraham to remove thither with his numerous family (Gen. xii. so).