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COMMERCE. 211 COMMERCY. following will be lounii useful: Cunniiigliara', 'I'hc Vrowlh of Enijlisli Industry and Vuiiiincivc ( Cambridge, IS'.IO) : Ciibbins, History of Com- merce in Europe (London, 1S91) ; Levi, History uf Ilritish K'ominvrce, llliS-lUliS (London. ISSO). Among popular compendia of information about comnieree, notiee should Ix' made of Ibe numer- ous works on commereial geography which have recently issued from the press. Due of the best is Chisholm, Handbook of Conimcrcial (Jcoyraphy (London. ISOO). See Balance of Tr.vde; Kx- CHAMiE; FdKEKlX MoXKY. COMMERCIAL COURT. A court consti- tuted of judges of the King's Bench Division, in England, for the trial of commercial causes — • that is, of causes arising out of the ordinary transactions of merchants and traders, such as those relating to the construction of mercantile documents, the export or import of merchandise, affreightnient. insurance, banking, mercantile agency, ami mercantile usages. It was not estab- lished by an act of Parliament, but was devised by the King's Bench Division for the conveni- ence of suitors and the more expeditious deter- mination of mercantile disputes. Yhile this court has no power to dispense with the ordinary rules of evidence, or to depart from the admin- istration of the law in the ordinary way. it is able, with the assistance of parties and counsel, to dispose of commercial disputes with as much promptness as an arbitrator. Conunercial cases are tried by this court upon the evidence pre- scribed by the orders made in chambers, with- out difficulty or delay, and with a great diminu- tion of the cost incidental to actions in which the ordinary modes of litigation are followed. This court is a reminder of the Court Piepou- dreux. in which the primitive law merchant (q.v.) of England was administered — the court which Lord Coke declares was "'ineident to every fair and market, because that for contracts, and iitjuries done concerning the fair or market, there shall be as speedy justice done for the advancement of trade and trafiic as the dust can fall from the feet." The connection of this court with merchants of the staple is disclosed by 27 Ed. TIL. c. 2, which declared that it was designed to give courage to mercliant strangers to come with their wares into the realm, and that it should dispense justice according to the law of the staple, or the law merchant, and not according to the conunon law. Courts for the rapid settlement of trade disputes, and called Pvjiowder courts, were provided for in Xew York in 1692 (vol. i.. Col. Laws, ed. 1894). (See CoLRT. ) Consult the article, '"llerchants of the Staple." in 17 London Quarterly Rcvicic, 56 (London. lOni). COMMERCIAL CRISES. See Crisis, Eco- nomic. COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. See Edu- cation. (.'(IMMKKCIAI.. COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. See Geog- R.PIIY. Ecoxo.viic. COMMERCIAL LAW. A popular term of varying and rather indefinite signification. It includes, ordinarily, the legal rules which relate most directly to every-day mercantile transac- tions, and which are based upon, or have been modified by. the u.sages of trade. These rules are presented in connection with the difTerent topics of commereial law, under such titles as Bailments; Inslkance; Negotiable Paper; Partnershu" ; Sale: etc. See also Law .es- ctiANT; -Mercantile Law. COMMERCIAL PAPER. See Bill of Ex- CU.NGE; >.'euoti.iu.e 1'aI'EK. COMMERCIAL REGISTERS. See Meb- cantii.e Agency. COMMERCIAL TEMPERANCE LEAGUE. See Lend-a-Hand Ch its. COMMERCIAL TRAVELER. A repre- sentative of a wholesale or joliliing house, sent througliout tile country for the ]iurposc of selling goods to smaller houses in the same line uf trade. The commercial traveler is the legitimate suc- cessor of the old peddler, though his operations are on a larger scale, and his manner of doing business quite difTerent. In former days, in addition to the peddler, who carried his stock of wares with him, producers frequently came into contact with the purchasers tlirough the great fairs which were held throughout the year in the ditlerent commercial centres, and which were a means of drawing sellers and buyers together from great regions of country. The commercial traveler sells by the aid of samples, price-lists, and the like, and carries with him no goods for sale. The system of employing commercial trav- elers is a natural outgrowth of the localization of interests in particular places, and of the ex- tension of the markets for particular conunodi- tjes. It is estimated by the commercial travelers themselves that their class numbered in the United States in 1S90 some 300,000 persons. It is claimed by them that since that time their number has decreased, largely through the con- centration of capital and the concentration of the management of business in the hands of the so-calied trusts. It is claimed by the man- agers of trusts that one of the chief advantages of their organization has been the saving in the cost of distribution, notably in that of selling goods. It is represented that the various fac- tories and enterprises each employ commercial travelers, whose main duty is not to induce the would-be purchaser to buy, but to persuade him to buy a particular make of goods. As the com- petition between the different sellers of the same goods ceases by the combination of interests, it is obvious that, instead of sending several sales- men into a district, one can transact all the business it offers. The conunercial travelers in the United States are organized in various asso- ciations for the purpose of promoting their in- terests as a class. Of tiiese, perhaps the most important is the Commercial Travelers' Protec- tive League. Consult : Testimony of P. F. Dowe before the United States Industrial Commission, in vol. iv. of the commission's Report (Washing- ten. lOflO) ; also Jenks, The Trust Problem (New York, 1000). COMMERCY, ko'mar'se'. The capital of an arrondissement in the Department of Meuse, France, on the ileuse. 18.3 miles east of Paris by rail (Map: France, il 3K It is a garrison town, and has an interesting seventeenth-century castle, with literary associations of Cardinal de Retz, which also for a time was the residence of Stanis- laus, King of Poland and Duke of Lorraine. A statue of Don Calmet, the historian, who was Ijorn near Commercy, stands in the towTi. Coal- mining constitutes the chief industry. The town