Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

1867 TO 1901 65and bamboo wares, strawbraids, spices, drugs and oils, toys,feathers and human hair, in addition to many products ofOriental skill in paper-making and printing.There were still left some descendants of the NewEngland ship-owners and traders who over a hundred andtwenty-five years ago used to sail their ships from New Englandaround Cape Horn and up the west coast, and trade theirof American wares for furs at the mouth of thecargoesColumbia river; then sailing on to China, the best fur marketof those days, sell their furs, and finally bring back a cargo oftea, hoping to be the first vessel to reach Boston with the newseason's crop. In quite recent years a New England customer ofThe Canadian Bank of Commerce used to send out his shipsloaded with cargoes of general merchandise of which keroseneformed the most important item. He would call at Aden andtrade his cargo for goatskins from North Africa, then atZanzibar for ivory, and at Madagascar, before the Frenchconquest, for ebony. But he bought more ivory at Zanzibarthan could be paid for in kerosene, and sold more kerosenein Madagascar than could be paid for in ebony, so the banksupplied him with letters of credit to pay for the ivory atfor theZanzibar, and bought his bills on Madagascarkerosene.When the United States came into possession of thePhilippines during the Spanish-American War, The CanadianBank of Commerce, having had correspondents at Manila formany years, carried out many transactions for the UnitedStates Government, such as the payment of troops, and thefinancing of shipments of food from many parts of the world toManila. Indeed, the number of pay-drafts for the UnitedStates army and navy and other government services,collected by the bank on account of its Asiatic correspondentsat this period, would have amazed many citizens ofthe United States who did not realize that the banks of thatcountry were not equipped for the transaction of a foreignbanking business.