THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE. Established July, 1839. EDITED BY J. SMITH HOMANs, (secretary oF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE STATE OF new york,) NUMBER IV. CONTENTS OF NO. IV., VOL. XLIV. I. SUGGESTIONS AS TO QUARANTINE. 1. Its Necessity-Origin-History-Modern Application-Reforms. 2. Our Own System-Incongruities. 8. International Code of COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW. Political Future - Events Depress Enterprise-External Commerce-Exports Paid in Specie -Cotton and Breadstuffs-Gold in London-Paralysis of Commerce-Bank of England- Lessened Market for Manufactures-New York Balances-Interior Exchange-Collec- tions-Stay Laws-Tariff-Unusual Effect-Cotton Spun-Non-employment of Hands- No Use for Money-Rates of Money-Bank Discounts-Specie Movement-Loan Opera- tions-Specie in the City-Assay Office-Coinage of New Orleans Mint-United States Mint-Foreign Coins-Austrian Florins-Foreign Exchange-Cotton Bills-Goods in Proceedings of the Chamber of Commerce, March 7th, 1861-Report of the Special Committee on the Coasting and Lake Trade, and Registration of Ships-Report of the Majority, Feb- Marine Statistics-Early Insurances-Laws of Mortality-Want of Statistics-Collection of Facts-Originated in Times of Ignorance-Romans-Lombards-Assurance Magazine- Pascal-Science of Probabilities-Investigations of Halley-Bills of Mortality-Carlisle MARINE LOSSES OF 1860-Condensed Report of the Marine Companies of New York for the year 1860, showing the Revenue, Expenses, and Losses of each, and their Aggregates 429 MARINE LOSSES OF 1861-Monthly List of Marine Losses-Name of Vessel and Captain. 2. Where Built. 8. Where from and where bound. 4. Nature of Disaster. 5. Loss on THE TARIFF OF 1861. Approved March 2, 1861-Operates April 1, 1861-Section 1, Au- thorizes the President within 12 months to borrow $10,000,000,- payable after ten years, to be applied to appropriation and balance of Treasury Notes-Section 2, Interest not over 6 per cent, Certificates Registered, none less than $1,000-Section 3, Proposals issued not less than 30 days-Secretary to report to the next Congress the amount borrowed, with a Statement of all the Proposals-No stock sold less than par, and none to be applied to the service of the present fiscal year-Section 4, If the Loan cannot be sold at pai, Treasury Notes of $50 each, bearing 6 per cent semi-annual interest, may issue-The Treasury Notes so issued to be receivable in payment of Public Debts, and may be paid out to a Creditor at his request at par-$20,000 appropriated for Expenses of the Loan-The holder of the Treas- ury Notes may exchange them for Bonds-The Notes may not be issued after two years— They are redeemable at pleasure, and bear no interest after they are called in-Section 5, Duties on all Sugars and Molasses-Section 6, Spirits, Ale, Segars, Tobacco, &c -Section 7, Clause 1st, Iron, Wire-Clause 2d, Pig and Castings-Clause 3d, Old and Scrap-Clause 4th, Band and Iron Articles, specific duties-Clause 5th, Sheet Iron, Tin, Screws-Clause 6th, Steel, Saws, Spikes-Clause 7th, Coal and Coke-Section 8th, Clause 1st, Lead-Clause 2d, Copper, Zinc-Section 9, Paints, Oils, Chemicals, &c., specific duties-Section 10, Salt, Vine- gar, Fish-Clause 2d, Beef and Pork, Provisions, specific duties-Section 11, Spices, Fruit, &c., specific duties-Section 12, Wool and Woolen Cloths-Section 13, Carpets-Clause 2d, Manufactures of Wool-Clause 3d, Delaines, &c.-Clause 4th, Oil-cloths-Section 14, Cottons and Linens-Section 15, Hemp, Flax, Bagging, &c.-Section 16, Silks-Section 17, Glass and China-Section 18, Books, Watches-Section 19, 10 per cent Schedule-Section 20, 20 per cent Schedule-Section 21, Gems, Jewelry, Hair Cloth-Section 22, 80 per cent Schedule Comparative Rates of Duties by the Tariffs of 1842, 1846, 1857, and 1861.................... THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. APRIL, 1861. Art. I.-SUGGESTIONS AS TO QUARANTINE. SYSTEM-INCONGRUITIES. 1. ITS NECESSITY-ORIGIN-HISTORY-MODERN APPLICATION-REFORMS. II. OUR OWN III. INTERNATIONAL CODE OF THE AMERICAN SANITARY CON. VENTION. IV. DUTY OF LEGISLATION. TRADE and commerce have their difficulties as well as their successes. The winds and waves are their constant enemies. While freighted with treasures, our ships sometimes bring pestilence, and the rich returns of enterprise are accompanied by infection and death. The diseases of tropical climates lurk among the bales and boxes taken on board, to break forth mortally at the moment, perhaps, when the destined port is in sight. Nor is this all. Death follows the unhappy victims of infection into the crowded harbors in which the anchor drops; spreads from the few to the many; from the sickly crew on board, to the dense population on shore. In a few hours, perhaps, the marine hospitals are filled with the dying; the city catches the pestilence; the bills of mortality lengthen; alarm pervades the public mind; the counting houses are closed; hearses are the only vehicles in requisition; whole districts are fenced off from the general use; and dismay and sorrow spread a funeral pall over the once busy scene. Is it any wonder that, against such ravages, humanity or self-protection, or both, should seek some such safeguard as that of the quarantine? Is it strange that, from the earliest days of regular commercial intercourse by sea and land, strenuous efforts have been made to avoid the communication of contagious disorders, incidental to the climates from whence have come the richest of national products, or that restrictions of the severest character, at first those of undisciplined fear, or pitiless ignorance, should have been adopted in the early maritime States? For four hundred years an unenlightened legislation has dictated the codes by which the evil was sought to be averted, and it is only now, within a few years past, that the subject has been successfully grappled by the hand of science, and in the light of a careful inquiry. have unquestionably arrived at the solution of its difficulties, as far as practicable by human wisdom, and the two-fold effort to prevent the approach of pestilence, and to disarm it upon its arrival, has not been made in vain. We feel assured, from an actual experience, that we can check its ravages, disarm it of its terrors, and diminish the number of its victims. A retrospective view of the subject may prove interesting to those of our readers, whose lives and property have been, or may hereafter be, lost or saved by a badly or a well regulated quarantine. It may be defined, says a competent authority, as an "interruption of intercourse with a country in which a contagious disease prevails, or is supposed to prevail, and in the employment of precautionary measures respecting men, animals, goods, and letters otherwise communicating with it." The particular designation was given it, because these precautions were usually adopted for a period of forty days, modified in modern times to shorter periods according to circumstances, varying with the character and crises of the disease to be guarded against. The system owes its origin to the Milanese and Lombardians, who, in the latter part of the fourteenth century, began to be intimidated by the frequent ravages of the plague, which desolated a great part of Europe, was introduced from the Levant, and was the attendant and evil genius of the lucrative commerce which enriched the Italians. The regulations adopted for its prevention were of a very severe character, the principal object of them being to guard against any intercourse with the infected. Those suffering from the disease, were usually carried into the open air and left there, to die or recover as they might. Capital punishment and confiscation of property were, in 1374, the penalties for the violation of the laws, and in 1383 the sick were not permitted even to enter the country. The authorities differ somewhat as to the original date of the institution of quarantine itself, but nearly all agree as to the establishment of a sanitary council or magistracy in 1475, by the Venetians, (Sopra la Sanita,) to whom the prevention of infection was specially entrusted by the State. This consisted of three nobles, but their powers were not, however, found to be sufficiently large to prevent the introduction of the disease. They were accordingly enlarged to the extent of authorizing the council to imprison, and even put to death, without appeal from their decision, those who violated their regulations. Lazarettos were established on two islands, and there a rigid inspection took place of the crews which entered the port, and the letters of health from the places of departure were scrutinized. Venice, therefore, deserves the credit of the first practical treatment of the subject, if it has not of the origin of the institution itself. These quarantine arrangements were soon generally adopted by other countries, and have been continued down to our own times Those who are curious to examine into the early history of the theory and prevention of contagion, may consult the writings of Dr. William Brownrigg, a learned Englishman, who, about the year 1771, when the plague reappeared in Europe, published his views on the communication of pestilential contagion, and of eradicating it in infected places. In this be treated the subject in a masterly manner, and he is good authority even now. It is not an uninteresting fact, that he was a friend of Dr. Franklin, and with him and Sir John Pringle, made the celebrated experiments on Derwent Lake, of calming the roughness of water by coating it with oil. Dr. Richard Mead is another English authority, who, during the alarm of plague at Marseilles, in 1719, at the request of the Secretary of State, gave his opinion to the government, as to the best method of preventing the spread of the disease to England, and his views were engrafted upon the quarantine system of that time. To yet another, John Howard, whose name is dear to philanthropists, we are indebted for important information on the subject of contagion and quarantine. In the year 1785, from motives of well known benevolence, he set out to visit all the lazarettos in Europe, not even taking a servant with him, lest it might expose him to the danger which he incurred himself. Passing through the south of France, Italy, Malta, Zante, Smyrna, and Constantinople, he incurred frequent risks of contagion, and at Smyrna, on his return, voluntarily submitted, for the purpose of observation, to the restrictions of its quarantine laws. The results of this remarkable journey were embodied in a book published in 1789. It was his misfortune finally to perish a martyr to his zeal. In a subsequent visit to Russia, while passing through Cherson, which was afflicted by a pestilential disease, he caught a fever from a young lady on whom he was invited to call during her illness, which caused his own death. There are many curious historical facts connected with the history of quarantine, and some old German and Italian authorities, in relation to it, are quoted by Beckmann in his History of Inventions. They are not, however, of much value to us for our present purpose. One thing, however, is noticeable, that the first systematic attempts at quarantine regulations were owing to commercial rather than medical influences. They have from age to age spread themselves over the civilized world, and are now probably on the eve of assuming a universal international character. New York is of course deeply interested in this subject. Such are the preponderating influences of its locality, its capital, its population, and its command of the vast trade of the interior, that it is now, and probably ever will be, the first and greatest city in the Western world. It is a model already in its public institutions, and must for these, as well as other reasons, continue to be the greatest Western mart for the sale and exchange of European and tropical products. There are sagacious merchants yet alive who did business here when the population of the city was but 70,000. It is the opinion of some of these that at the close of this century it will be several millions. The sanitary condition of such a city, and such a port, assumes, therefore, a magnitude scarcely to be appreciated, and the movements of our sanitary conventions are admissions of the sense of the responsibility upon us already. To our medical friends we owe the highest obligations for what they have thus far done to enlighten the public mind, and to give proper direction to the public authorities in relation to these subjects. When they speak, we should listen with respect and confidence. We are disposed to give them precedence in the column of sanitarians, and conceive it our duty to follow closely in their support, to give them the influence of capital and the suggestions of commercial experience. At the same time we expect them to remove, as fast as practicable, the formal restrictions which that experience has taught us are unnecessary and obsolete. We are fortunately aided in these views by the recent action of the French and English authorities, and by recent assemblages of eminent men of our own country, who have |