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Preface to Richard Rolt, A New Dictionary of Trade and Commerce

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By Johnson, Samuel

Samuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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PREFACE TO RICHARD ROLT, A NEW DICTIONARY OF TRADE AND COMMERCE (1756)

[Editorial Introduction]

In his Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1782), William Cooke tells the story of Johnson’s meeting with a group of London booksellers to discuss his proposal to write a Dictionary of Trade and Commerce:

This proposal went round the room without his receiving any immediate answer, at length a well known son of the trade, since dead, remarkable for the abruptness of his manners, replied, “Why Doctor, what the D____l do you know of trade and commerce?” The Doctor very modestly answered, “not much, Sir, I confess in the practical line—but I believe I could glean, from different authors of authority on the subject, such materials as would answer the purpose very well.”1

Boswell may be telling a version of this story, as Hazen suggests (p. 198, n. 1), when he reports Johnson’s publication of the preface to Rolt’s Dictionary,

in which he displays such a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the subject, as might lead the reader to think that its authour had devoted all his life to it. I asked him, whether he knew much of Rolt, and of his work. “Sir, (said he) I never saw the man, and never read the book. The booksellers wanted a Preface to a Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. I knew very well what such a Dictionary should be, and I wrote a Preface accordingly.” (Life, I.359)

Despite his diffidence, Johnson may have started work on his own Dictionary of Commerce,2 and he knew enough to discusses the subject briefly, with references to key works, in his preface to the Preceptor (pp. 188–89 above). The preface to Rolt, however, constitutes his longest continuous, extant treatment of the topic.3

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Although Johnson says he never met Richard Rolt, as Boswell reports, Rolt evidently liked to say, “I am just come from Sam. Johnson.” If this was a lie, it was not Rolt’s only one, for he also let on, in Ireland, that he was the author of Akenside’s anonymously published Pleasures of the Imagination (Life, I.359). Although Rolt may have been lying about visiting Johnson, he did have connections with him. He was Christopher Smart’s collaborator on The Universal Visiter, a journal to which Johnson contributed at least four pieces in 1756, one of which is closely related to work done by Rolt.4 Rolt did lots of other literary work in London, and since he married a cousin of Johnson’s friend Thomas Percy, acquaintance with Johnson is certainly plausible.5 Rolt did a good deal of work on the large folio volume of his Dictionary of Commerce, but it did not compete successfully with the old standard, Jacques Savary des Brûlons’s Dictionnaire universel de commerce (1723–30), which was newly translated by Malachy Postlethwayt and published from 1751 to 1755, a year before Rolt’s first edition. There was a second issue of Rolt’s book in 1761, but the publishers were trying to sell it off in parts as early as 1757, whereas Postlethwayt’s Savary went into a third full edition in 1769 (Hazen, p. 199). Johnson’s preface fared a little better than its parent work: Thomas Davies published it in Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces (III.282–89), and it was included in Works 1787 (IX.422–30).

THE PREFACE.

No expectation is more fallacious than that which authors form of the reception which their labours will find among mankind. Scarcely any man publishes a book, whatever it be, without believing that he has caught the moment when the publick attention is vacant to his call, and the world is disposed in a particular manner to learn the art which he undertakes to teach.1

The writers of this volume are not so far exempt from epidemical prejudices, but that they likewise please themselves with imagining, that they have reserved their labours to a

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propitious conjuncture, and that this is the proper time for the publication of a Dictionary of Commerce.

The predictions of an author are very far from infallibility; but in justification of some degree of confidence it may be properly observed, that there was never from the earliest ages a time in which trade so much engaged the attention of mankind, or commercial gain was sought with such general emulation. Nations which have hitherto cultivated no art but that of war, nor conceived any means of increasing riches but by plunder, are awakened to more inoffensive industry. Those whom the possession of subterraneous treasures have long disposed to accommodate themselves by foreign industry, are at last convinced that idleness never will be rich. The merchant is now invited to every port, manufactures2 are established in all cities, and princes who just can view the sea from some single corner of their dominions, are enlarging harbours, erecting mercantile companies, and preparing to traffick in the remotest countries.

Nor is the form of this work less popular than the subject. It has lately been the practice of the learned to range knowledge by the alphabet, and publish dictionaries of every kind of literature. This practice has perhaps been carried too far by the force of fashion. Sciences, in themselves systematical and coherent, are not very properly broken into such fortuitous distributions. A dictionary of arithmetick or geometry can serve only to confound. But commerce, considered in its whole extent, seems to refuse any other method of arrangement, as it comprises innumerable particulars unconnected with each other, among which there is no reason why any should be first or last, better than is furnished by the letters that compose their names.

We cannot indeed boast ourselves the inventors of a scheme so commodious and comprehensive. The French, among innumerable projects for the promotion of traffick, have taken

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care to supply their merchants with a Dictionaire de Commerce, collected with great industry and exactness, but too large for common use, and adapted to their own trade.3 This book, as well as others, has been carefully consulted, that our merchants may not be ignorant of any thing known by their enemies or rivals.

Such indeed is the extent of our undertaking, that it was necessary to solicite every information, to consult the living and the dead. The great qualification of him that attempts a work thus general is diligence of enquiry. No man has opportunity or ability to acquaint himself with all the subjects of a commercial dictionary, so as to describe from his own knowledge, or assert on his own experience. He must therefore often depend upon the veracity of others, as every man depends in common life, and have no other skill to boast than that of selecting judiciously, and arranging properly.

But to him who considers the extent of our subject, limited only by the bounds of nature and of art, the task of selection and method will appear sufficient to overburthen industry and distract attention. Many branches of commerce are subdivided into smaller and smaller parts, till at last they become so minute as not easily to be noted by observation. Many interests are so woven among each other as not to be disentangled without long enquiry; many arts are industriously kept secret, and many practices necessary to be known are carried on in parts too remote for intelligence.4

But the knowledge of trade is of so much importance to a maritime nation, that no labour can be thought great by which information may be obtained; and therefore we hope the reader will not have reason to complain, that, of what he might justly expect to find, any thing is omited.

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To give a detail5 or analysis of our work is very difficult; a volume intended to contain whatever is requisite to be known by every trader, necessarily becomes so miscellaneous and unconnected as not to be easily reducible to heads; yet, since we pretend in some measure to treat of traffick as a science, and to make that regular and systematical which has hitherto been to a great degree fortuitous and conjectural, and has often succeeded by chance rather than by conduct, it will be proper to shew that a distribution of parts has been attempted, which though rude and inadequate will at least preserve some order, and enable the mind to take a methodical and successive view of this design.

In the dictionary which we here offer to the publick we propose to exhibit the materials, the places, and the means of traffick.

The materials or subjects of traffick are whatever is bought and sold, and include therefore every manufacture of art, and almost every production of nature.

In giving an account of the commodities of nature, whether those which are to be used in their original state, as drugs and spices, or those which become useful when they receive a new form from human art, as flax, cotton, and metals, we shall shew the places of their production, the manner in which they grow, the art of cultivating or collecting them, their discriminations and varieties, by which the best sorts are known from the worse, and genuine from fictitious, the arts by which they are counterfeited, the casualties by which they are impaired, and the practices by which the damage is palliated or concealed. We shall likewise shew their virtues and uses, and trace them through all the changes which they undergo.

The history of manufactures is likewise delivered. Of every artificial6 commodity the manner in which it is made is in some measure described, though it must be remembred, that manual operations are scarce to be conveyed by any words to him that has not seen them. Some general notions may however

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be afforded; it is easy to comprehend, that plates of iron are formed by the pressure of rollers, and bars by the strokes of a hammer, that a cannon is cast, and that an anvil is forged. But as it is to most traders of more use to know when their goods are well wrought, than by what means, care has been taken to name the places where every manufacture has been carried furthest, and the marks by which its excellency may be ascertained.

By the “places of trade” are understood all ports, cities, or towns where staples7 are established, manufactures are wrought, or any commodities are bought and sold advantageously. This part of our work includes an enumeration of almost all the remarkable places in the world, with such an account of their situation, customs, and products, as the merchant would require who being to begin a new trade in any foreign country, was yet ignorant of the commodities of the place, and the manners of the inhabitants.

But the chief attention of the merchant, and consequently of the author who writes for merchants, ought to be employed upon the means of trade, which include all the knowledge and practice necessary to the skilful and successful conduct of commerce.

The first of the means of trade is proper education, which may confer a competent skill in numbers; to be afterwards completed in the counting-house, by observation of the manner of stating accompts,8 and regulating books, which is one of the few arts which having been studied in proportion to its importance, is carried as far as use can require. The counting-house9 of an accomplished merchant is a school of method, where the great science may be learned of ranging particulars under generals, of bringing the different parts of a transaction together, and of shewing at one view a long series of

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dealing and exchange. Let no man venture into large business while he is ignorant of the method of regulating books; never let him imagine that any degree of natural abilities will enable him to supply this deficience, or preserve multiplicity of affairs from inextricable confusion.

This is the study, without which all other studies will be of little avail; but this alone is not sufficient. It will be necessary to learn many other things, which however may be easily included in the preparatory institutions, such as an exact knowledge of the weights and measures of different countries, and some skill in geography and navigation, with which this book may perhaps sufficiently supply him.

In navigation, considered as part of the skill of a merchant, is included not so much the art of steering a ship, as the knowledge of the sea coast, and of the different parts to which his cargoes are sent, the customs to be paid, the passes, permissions, or certificates, to be procured, the hazards of every voyage, and the true rate of insurances. To this must be added, an acquaintance with the policies and arts of other nations, as well as those to whom the commodities are sold, as of those who carry goods of the same kind to the same market, and who are therefore to be watched as rivals endeavouring to take advantage of every error, miscarriage, 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 must not only inform himself of the various denominations and value of foreign coins, together with their method of counting and reducing;1 such as the milleries of Portugal,2 and the livres of France;3 but he must learn what is of more difficult attainment, the discount of exchanges, the nature of current paper,4 the principles upon

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which several banks of Europe are established, the real value of funds,5 the true credit of trading companies, with all the sources of profit, and possibilities of loss.

All this he must learn merely as a private dealer attentive only to his own advantage; but as every man ought to consider himself as part of the community to which he belongs, and while he prosecutes his own interest to promote likewise that of his country, it is necessary for the trader to look abroad upon mankind, and study many questions which are perhaps more properly political than mercantile.

He ought therefore to consider 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, because detrimental to the manufactures or other interest of his country, as the exportation of silver to the East Indies, and the introduction of French commodities; or unlawful in itself, as the traffick for negroes.6 He ought to be able to state with accuracy, the benefits and mischiefs of monopolies, and exclusive companies; to enquire into the arts which have been practised by them to make themselves necessary, or by their opponents to make them odious. He should inform himself what trades are declining, and what are improveable; when the advantage is on our side, and when on that of our rivals.

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

There is no knowledge of more frequent use than that of duties and imposts,7 whether customs paid at the ports, or excises levied upon the manufacturer.8 Much of the prosperity

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of a trading nation depends upon duties properly apportioned; so that what is necessary may continue cheap, and what is of use only to luxury may in some measure attone to the publick for the mischief done to individuals. Duties may often be so regulated as to become useful even to those that pay them; and they may be likewise so unequally imposed as to discourage honesty, and depress industry, and give temptation to fraud and unlawful practices.

To teach all this is the design of the Commercial Dictionary, which though immediately and primarily written for merchants, will be of use to every man of business or curiosity. There is no man who is not in some degree a merchant, who has not something to buy and something to sell, and who does not therefore want such instructions as may teach him the true value of possessions or commodities.

The descriptions of the productions of the earth and water, which this volume will contain, may be equally pleasing and useful to the speculatist9 with any other natural history; and the accounts of various manufactures will constitute no contemptible body of experimental philosophy.1 The descriptions of ports and cities may instruct the geographer as well as if they were found in books appropriated only to his own science; and the doctrines of funds, insurances, currency, monopolies, exchanges, and duties, is so necessary to the politician that without it he can be of no use either in the council or the senate, nor can speak or think justly either on war or trade.

We therefore hope that we shall not repent the labour of compiling this work, nor flatter ourselves unreasonably, in predicting a favourable reception to a book which no condition of life can render useless, which may contribute to the advantage of all that make or receive laws, of all that buy or sell, of all that wish to keep or improve their possessions, of all that desire to be rich, and all that desire to be wise.

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Editorial Notes

1 Early Biographies, p. 105. Cf. Hazen, p. 198.

2 See Arthur Murphy’s Essay on Johnson’s Life and Genius (1792) in Johns. Misc., I.412.

3 Johnson also talks about commerce in “Further Thoughts on Agriculture” (see n. 4 below) and in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (Yale, IX.101).

4 For a discussion of SJ’s contributions to the Universal Visiter, see Bibliography, I.662–63, and Bonita Ferrero, “Samuel Johnson, Richard Rolt, and the Universal Visiter,” Review of English Studies, 44 (May 1993), 176–86; for SJ’s continuation of an article by Rolt, “Further Thoughts on Agriculture,” see Yale, X.121.

5 For an account of Rolt’s life and works, see the entry by Betty Rizzo in ODNB.

1 Cf. Rambler 2: “Perhaps no class of the human species requires more to be cautioned against this anticipation of happiness, than those that aspire to the name of authors” (Yale, III.12).

2 Manufacture: “A manufacturing establishment or business; a factory. Now rare” (OED, 3).

3 A reference to Jacques Savary des Brûlons, Dictionnaire universel de commerce. Postlethwayte’s translation would be Rolt’s chief competitor (see headnote above).

4 Cf. SJ’s preface to his Dictionary: “many terms of art and manufacture are omitted. . . . I could not visit caverns to learn the miner’s language, nor take a voyage to perfect my skill in the dialect of navigation, nor visit the warehouses of merchants, and shops of artificers” (Yale, XVIII.102).

5 Detail: “A minute and particular account” (Dictionary).

6 Artificial: “Made by art; not natural” (Dictionary, sense 1).

7 Staple: “A settled mart; an established emporium” (Dictionary).

8 Accompts: an alternate spelling of accounts through the eighteenth century.

9 Counting-house: “The room appropriated by traders to their books and accounts” (Dictionary).

1 Reducing: simplifying the mathematical expression or monetary form.

2 The milreis, then issued as a gold coin, was worth one thousand reis (OED).

3 Livre: “The sum by which the French reckon their money, equal nearly to our shilling” (Dictionary).

4 Current paper: paper currency; SJ’s first definition of current in Dictionary is “Circulatory; passing from hand to hand.” He illustrates this meaning with a quotation from Genesis 23: 16: “Shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.”

5 Fund: “Stock or bank of money” (Dictionary, sense 2).

6 SJ’s opposition to slavery was settled and long-standing; see, e.g., Life, III.200–201. “An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade” was not passed in Parliament until 1807, and slavery itself was not abolished until 1834.

7 Impost: “A tax, a toll; custom paid” (Dictionary).

8 Excise: “A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid” (Dictionary).

9 Speculatist: “one who knows only speculation, not practice” (Dictionary, s.v. theorick).

1 “Experimental philosophy”: applied science.

Transcription

Document Details

Document TitlePreface to Richard Rolt, A New Dictionary of Trade and Commerce

AuthorJohnson, Samuel

Creation Date1756

Publ. DateN/A

Alt. TitleN/A

Contrib. AuthorRolt, Richard

ClassificationSubject: Trade; Subject: Commerce; Subject: Economy; Subject: Accounting; Subject: Weights and measures; Subject: Navigation; Subject: Currency; Genre: Preface

PrinterStrahan

PublisherT. Osborne, J. Shipton, J. Hodges, and J. Newbery

Publ. PlaceLondon

VolumeSamuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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