The Most
Important And Permanent Effects Of The Progress Of Discovery And Commerce,
On The Wealth, The Power, The Political
Relations, the manners and habits,
and the general interests and character of nations, will either appear on
the very surface
Of our work, or, where the facts themselves do not expose
them to view, they will be distinctly noticed.
A larger proportion of the volume is devoted to the progress of discovery
and enterprise among the ancients, than among the moderns; or, - to express
ourselves more accurately, - the period that terminates with the discovery
of America, and especially that which comprehends the commerce of the
Phoeniceans, of the Egyptians under the Ptolemies, of the Greeks, and of
the Romans, is illustrated with more ample and minute details, than the
period which has elapsed since the new world was discovered. To most
readers, the nations of antiquity are known by their wars alone; we wished
to exhibit them in their commercial character and relations. Besides, the
materials for the history of discovery within the modern period are neither
so scattered, nor so difficult of access, as those which relate to the
first period. After the discovery of America, the grand outline of the
terraqueous part of the globe may be said to have been traced; subsequent
discoveries only giving it more boldness or accuracy, or filling up the
intervening parts. The same observation may in some degree be applied, to
the corresponding periods of the history of commerce. Influenced by these
considerations, we have therefore exhibited the infancy and youth of
discovery and commerce, while they were struggling with their own ignorance
and inexperience, in the strongest and fullest light.
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