History of Commerce in Europe. By H. de B. Gibbins.
(Mac- millan.)—This is a most useful manual, giving, within a small compass, a sketch of commercial history from the Phomicians, who appear as the chief traders of the West with the dawn of history, down to our own time'. Our own mercantile develop- ment will naturally be the most interesting to English readers. Indeed, it is the most important chapter in the whole subject, apart from any patriotic prepossessions. In the fourteenth century our chief trade was in wool. Of a total value of 4212,338 5s. exported in 1354, about three-fourths were wool. Our total imports were 438,383 16s. 10d. Of manufactures at that time we had very little, though some unfinished cloth and other woollen goods were exported to be finished abroad. Our commerce took a start in this reign, but received its chief development before modern times under Henry VII. But its greatest "leap and bound" has been in this century. In 1840, our exports amounted to 451,406,430; in 1889, to 4315,592,659. Even in refined sugar, a trade ruined, we are told, by foreign bounties, there has been an increase, but it is the smallest on the list. Machinery, steel and iron (wrought and unwrought), have grown from a little over three millions to more than forty.
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