NELSON ACCOUNTANT STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION.

Colonist, Volume XLVII, Issue 11436, 15 September 1905, Page 2

NELSON ACCOUNTANT STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION.

PAPER BY MR W. S. HAMPSON, A. I. A. At the monthly meeting of the <elson Accountant Students' Association, held on Wednesday evening, an interesting paper on the "Romance of Commerce" was given by Mr W. Spencer Hampson, A. I. A. Mr J. Porter Harris occupied the chair, and there was an attendance of about 2G members. In opening, Mr Hampson said it might appear incongruous to connect the term romance with commerce, but what m ? ght seem fiction with one generation would become fact with the next, and he thought also that they would be quite safe in drawing the inference that many things that seemed fiction to them now were gigantic facts to generations long departed. Commerce was the art of trading and making exchanges, and there was no doubt that it was the oldest art adopted by mankind. They could not conceive a community, no matter how barbarous, where somethiug in the nature of commerce had not existed, and Mr Hampson instanced the desire for gain which had b9en behind most of the wars and depredations of the earliest times where powerful tribes by conquering their neighbors were enabled to increase their powers of production. One of the earliest sources of wealth was the traffic in human flesh, and individuals and communities that could command the most slaves were considered the wealthiest. Thus to-day they studied with interest the course of nations whose records they ' were still unearthing, and who appeared to have amassed wealth that even now seemed incredible. Mr Hampson referred to the power and magnitude of the commerce of Egypt 5000 years ago, and later of the rise of the Assyrian, Persian and Phoenician Kingdoms, which carried commerce almost to a fine art. Later still there were the Kingdoms of Greece and Home, the latter of which formulated commercial laws that in many cases formed the basis of their present commercial laws. Excavations recently made in Egypt revealed what was described as a merchant's strong room, probably used 3000 years ago, "with urns methodically placed in recesses, upon which were inscribed the transactions with customeis, very