cies and arts of other nations, as well thofe to whom the commodities are fold, as of those who carry goods of the fame kind to the fame market; and who are therefore to be watched as rivals endeavouring to take advantage of every errour, mifcarriage, or debate.

The chief of the means of trade is money, of which our late refinements in traffick have made the knowledge extremely difficult. The merchant muft not only inform himfelf of the various denominations and value of foreign coins, together with their method of counting and reducing; fuch as the milleries of Portugal and the livres of France; but he muft learn what is of more difficult attainment; the discount of exchanges, the nature of current paper, the principles upon which the feveral banks of Europe are established, the real value of funds, the true credit of trading companies, with all the fources of profit, and poffibilities of lofs.

All this he muft learn merely as a private dealer, attentive only to his own advantage; but as every man ought to confider himself as part of the community to which he belongs, and while he profecutes his own intereft to promote likewife that of his country, it is neceffary for the trader to look abroad upon mankind, and ftudy many questions which are perhaps more properly political than mercantile.

He ought therefore to confider very accurately the balance of trade, or the proportion between things exported and imported; to examine what kinds of commerce are unlawful, either as being expressly prohibited, becaufe detrimental to the manufactures or other intereft of his country, as the exportation of filver to the East Indies, and the introduction

introduction of French commodities; or unlawful. in itself, as the traffick for negroes. He ought to be able to state with accuracy, the benefits aad mifchiefs of monopolies, and exclufive companies; to inquire into the arts which have been practifed by them to make themfelves neceffary, or by their opponents to make them odious. He fhould inform himself what trades are declining, and what are improvable; when the advantage is on our fide,

and when on that of our rivals.

The ftate of our colonies is always to be diligently furveyed, that no advantage may be loft which they can afford, and that every opportunity may be improved of increafing their wealth and power, or of making them useful to their mother country.

There is no knowledge of more frequent ufe than that of duties and impoft, whether cuftoms paid at the ports, or excifes levied upon the manufacturer. Much of the profperity of a trading nation depends upon duties properly apportioned; fo that what is. neceffary may continue cheap, and what is of ufe only to luxury may in fome measure atone to the publick for the mifchief done to individuals. Duties may often be fo regulated as to become ufeful even to those that pay them; and they may be likewife fo unequally impofed as to difcourage honefty, and deprefs industry, and give temptation to fraud and unlawful practices.

To teach all this is the defign of the Commercial Dictionary; which, though immediately and primarily written for the merchants, will be of use to every man of bufinefs or curiofity. There is no mau who is not in fome degree a merchant, who has not fomething to buy and fomething to fell, and who

does

does not therefore want fuch inftructions as may teach him the true value of poffeffions or commodities.

The defcriptions of the productions of the earth and water, which this volume will contain, may be equally pleafing and ufeful to the speculatift with any other natural hiftory; and the accounts of various manufactures will conftitute no contemptible body of experimental philofophy. The defcriptions of ports and cities may inftruct the geographer as well as if they were found in books appropriated only to his own fcience; and the doctrines of funds, infurances, currency, monopolies, exchanges, and duties, is so neceffary to the politician, that without it he can be of no ufe either in the council or the fenate, nor can fpeak or think juftly either on war or trade.

We therefore hope that we fhall not repent the labour of compiling this work; nor flatter ourfelves unreasonably, in predicting a favourable reception to a book which no condition of life can render ufelefs, which may contribute to the advantage of all that make or receive laws, of all that buy or fell, of all that with to keep or improve their poffeffions, of all that defire to be rich, and all that defire to be wife.*

* Of this preface, Mr. Bofwell informs us that Dr. Johnfon faid he never faw Rolt, and never read the book. "The Bookfellers wanted a preface to a Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. I knew very well what fuch a Dictionary should be, and I wrote a preface, accordingly." This may be believed; but the book is a moft wretched farrago of articles plundered without acknowledgment, or judgment, which, indeed, was the cafe with molt of Rolt's compilation:

C.

PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION

OF

FATHER LOBO'S VOYAGE

TO ABYSSINIA*.

THE following relation is fo curious and entertaining, and the differtations that accompany it fo judicious and inftructive, that the tranflator is confident his attempt ftands in need of no apology, whatever cenfures may fall on the performance.

The Portuguese traveller contrary to the general vein of his countrymen, has amused his reader with no romantick abfurdities or incredible fictions: whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable; and he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability, has a right to demand that they should believe him who cannot contradict him.

He appears by his modeft and unaffecting narration, to have defcribed things as he faw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have confulted his fenfes, not his imagination. He meets with no bafilifks that deftroy with their eyes; his crocodiles devour their prey without tears; and his cataracts fall from the rock without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants.

* For an account of this book, fee the Life of Dr. Johnfon, prefixed to this Edition.

VOL. II.

Y

The

The reader will here find no regions curfed with irremediable barrennefs or bleft with fpontaneous fecundity; no perpetual gloom or uncealing funfhine; nor are the nations here defcribed either devoid of all fenfe of humanity, or confummate in all private and focial virtues : here are no Hottentots without religion, polity, or articulate language; no Chinefe perfectly polite, and completely skilled in all fciences: he will difcover what will always be difcovered by a diligent and impartial inquirer, that wherever human nature is to be found, there is a mixture of vice and virtue, a conteft of paffion and reafon; and that the Creator doth not appear partial in his diftributions, but has balanced in most countries their particular inconveniencies by particular favours.

In his account of the miffion, where his veracity is moft to be fufpected, he neither exaggerates overmuch the merits of the Jefuits, if we confider the partial regard paid by the Portuguese to their countrymen, by the Jefuits to their fociety, and by the papifts to their church, nor aggravates the vices of the Aby finians; but if the reader will not be fatisfied with a popish account of a popish miffion, he may have recourfe to the Hiftory of the Church of Abyffinia, written by Dr.Geddes, in which he will find the actions and fufferings of the miffionaries placed in a different light, though the fame in which Mr. Le Grand, with all his zeal for the Roman church, appears to have seen them.

This learned differtator, however valuable for his industry and erudition, is yet more to be esteemed for having dared fo freely in the midft of France,

to