Romance of Commerce

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. There has been a romance of commerce no less than a romance of war. Men have shown an equal enterprise and daring in the pursuit of wealth as in extending the bounds of empire, and gold has run close rivalry with glory in adding brilliant pages to the world's history. It has been the aim of the author to make some attempt towards recalling the more interesting of these pages for the benefit of the young people to whom this little volume is especially addressed, but before beginning his recital he wishes to make due acknowledgment to Messrs Harper Bros, and the publisher of the Cosmopolitan magazine of New York, for the privilege of reprinting those of the following chapters which first appeared in their periodicals.