commentator

[Lat. commentator, from comment at us, pa. par. of commentor.] [COM IMG:content-0287.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0288.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0289.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0290.png:[blocks in formation] trade, the merchants of Bristol doing so with the Canary Islands, and those of Plymouth with the coasts of Guinea and Brazil. The English traffic with India created the Anglo-Indian empire, and it again favorably reacted on the commerce which had given it birth. (3) Commerce of the United States: Even before the Revolutionary war the commerce of the colo- nies had grown to a considerable extent, so much wholesale firms to travel about the country solicit commercial traveler. An agent employed by ing orders. commercial treaties. Treaties made between indeed as in some departments to excite the jeal- of the mother country and cause the enact- ment of stringent customs regulations, discrimi- nating against the colonial products. For a long time after the war had ceased, the unsettled conditwo nations for the promotion of commerce between tion of Europe, while it gave an extensive market for American products, yet was a source of consid- erable risk and annoyance to shipping, by reason of the exposure to privateering, piracy, ., which such a condition of affairs engendered. Despite these annoyances, however, American commerce continued to increase, until the stars and stripes were familiar in every port of the earth. At the outbreak of our civil war our commerce was at its height, so far as transportation in our own ships is we pa ed was a great blow to our shipping, one from which we are just beginning to recover, as from that time to the present a very large prop or- tion of the commerce of this country has been car- ried on in foreign bottoms. It is curious to note how the centers of commerce have shifted within the past century and a half. At one time within that period Fred ericks burg, Va., was the main port of entry south of Philadelphia and north of Charles- ton. Now it is but an inland country village where a foreign (or for that matter, with one exception, any other) ve el is never seen. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1898, the value of the foreign com- merce of the United States, as reported by the U. S. Bureau of Statistics, was: Exports -Domestic mer- chandise, $1,210,291,913; gold, $15.406.913; silver, $55,105,239-total exports, $1,280.803 543 Imports- Merchandise, $616.049,654; gold, $120 391.674; silver, $30,927,781-total imports, $767,365,909; balance of trade in favor of U. S., $513,437,634. and others meeting at intervals to discu matters connected with commerce. The first is said to have arisen at Marseilles, France, in the 14th century. *com-mērçe (sometimes in poetry (?), with accont on second syllable), v. i . [COMMERCE, 8.] 1. Lit .: To trade; to engage in traffic with others. IMG:content-0291.png:[merged small][ocr errors] 2. Fig .: To have social intercourse; to mix so- cially with. "From all men, and commercing with himself, He lost the sense that handles daily life." Tennyson: Walking to the Mail. *com-mērçe-le , a. [Eng. commerce; -le .] Without or destitute of commerce. "the savager commerce le nations of America, †com-měr-çer, s. [Eng. commerc(e); -er.] One who traffics or holds intercourse with another. com-mer-cial (cial as shal), a. & s. [Fr.com- mercial , from Lat. commercium .] 4. Pertaining to, or connected with, commerce; relating to trade or traffic. "The old tie, they said, had been parental: the new tie was purely commercial ."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. xiii. traffic. 2. Carrying on commerce or trade; engaged in is but a part of a rich commer- "-Burke: Speech at Bristol , 1774. IMG:content-0292.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0293.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0294.png:[blocks in formation] "On two or three comminatory terms, Would run their fears to any hole of shelter." B. Jonson: Magnetic Lady. com-min-gle (gle as gel), v. t. & i. [Lat., ., pref.com con, and Eng. mingle (q. v.).] †A. Trans .: To mingle or mix together into one body; to unite or blend intimately. [COMINGLE.] *B. In trans.: To unite one with another; to coalesce; to become united or blended. "Di olutions of gum tragacanth and oil of sweet almonds do not commingle, Reminisc . ."- Bacon : Physical com-min-gled (gled as geld), pa. par. or a. [COMMINGLE.] com-min-gling, pr. par., a. & s. [COMMINGLE.] A. & B. As pr. par. & particip. adj.: (See the verb.) C. As substantive: IMG:content-0295.png:[blocks in formation] another. unite or coalesce. 2. The act or proce of coalescing or uniting. ." ". pre-occupation has probably played an important part in checking the commingling of species -Darwin: Origin of Species (ed. 1859), ch. xii., p. 403. *com-min-u-āte, v . t . [COMMINUTE.] To grind, to reduce to a fine or small state; to pulverize. "It will comminuate things of so hard a substance that no mill can break." -Smith : Portraiture of Old Age , p. 104.