Envelopes were first used in 1839.

The first lucifer match was made in 1829.

First steamer crossed the Atlantic in 1819.

The first horse railroad was built in 1826-7.

The first newspaper advertisement was in 1652.

The greatest grain port in the world is Chicago.

Cork is the bark taken from a species of oak tree.

Edward III. is called the Father of English commerce.

The canning industry is making great headway in Georgia.

There are 20,000,000 acres under cotton in the United States.

Soap was first manufactured in England in the sixteenth century.

First American express ran from New York to Boston - W. F. Harn-den's.

Until 1776 cotton spinning was performed by the hand spinning wheel.

The first mill-stones sent over here from England paid £ ll freight in 1628.

Postage stamps first came into use in England in 1840; in this country in 1847.

The Wetherills of Philadelphia made white lead before the American Revolution.

During 1891 there were 584 factories in this country engaged in the silk industry.

Since 1840 the world's production of meat has increased 57 per cent, that of grain 120 per cent.

The exports of this country in the fiscal year 1891-2, amounted to $970,506,282; imports, $828,321,646.

The largest number of whaling ships in the world is sent out by Nantucket and New Bedford, Mass.

Certificates for proficiency in commercial knowledge are now granted at Cambridge and Oxford universities.

Ostrich taming is a very profitable industry in Africa, where it is computed there are over 150,000 tame birds.

First sugar-cane in the United States was. cultivated near New Orleans, 1751; first sugar mill was built in 1758.

From August '91 to August '92 our cotton crop was reported at 9,035,-379 bales, an increase of 382,000 over previous year.

The Harrisons, who figure so extensively in our manufactures, made oil of vitriol in Philadelphia in 1806, the first in the country.

The leather industry in the United States was worth $130,000,000 in the administration of Gen. Taylor and employed 146,000 persons.

Virginia led off just before the Constitution in putting a tariff on foreign leather and shoes, and Congress soon followed the example.

It is said to cost less to send the product of an acre of wheat from Dakota to England than it does to manure an acre of land in England so that it can grow good wheat.

In 1860 Chicago had less than twelve millions of total products for all her factories, while today such factories as the Pullman works turn out that value of cars alone in a year.

The name demurrage in mercantile law means the sum paid by the owner of a ship to the charterer for keeping the ship in port a longer time than that provided in the charter.

According to Orfila, the proportion of nicotine in Havana tobacco is two per cent; in French six per cent, and in Virginia tobacco seven per cent. That in Brazilian is still higher.

The production of mercury reaches about 55,000 to 66,000 frascos a year. The frascos are enormous bottles of cast iron, which contain four arrobes of about twenty-five pounds each.

The Cinchona tree is indigenous to Peru, and from it quinine is extracted; it derives its name from the Countess of Chinchon, who was cured of fever by the bark (Peruvian bark).

Paper making ranks high among the industries of the United States. Last year there were about 1,100 mills in operation in this country, having an average capacity of about 16,000 pounds of paper.

A new substance called valzin is now being manufactured in Berlin under a patent, and it is claimed to be two hundred times sweeter than sugar and free from certain objectionable properties of saccharin.

A commission agent, or merchant, is a person employed to sell goods consigned or delivered to him by another who is called his principal, for a certain percentage, commonly called his commission or factorage.

The world annually consumes about 650,000 tons of coffee. Estimating coffee as being worth about $400 per ton, which is about a good average, this represents an outlay of $260,000,000 for this one beverage each year.

New Orleans boasts the largest custom-house in this or any other land. It was begun in 1848 and over thirty years elapsed before it was finished and ready for use. It is built of Quincy granite and the interior is finished in finest marble. It has 111 rooms. The height from the pavement to the top of the cornice is 80 feet, and to the top of the light on the dome, 187 feet. The dome itself is 49 feet square and 61 feet high. The estimated total cost of building, $4,900,000.

Caviare is the salted roe of the common sturgeon and other fishes of the same genus. It is esteemed by epicures as a delicacy, but the taste is purely an acquired one - hence the phrase, "caviare to the multitude."

A commercial traveler is a person whose occupation is to transact business as the accredited traveling representative of a trading house to other trading houses. In this country he is commonly styled a "drummer."

The latest authority puts the silk production of the world down at |320,000,000 worth of silk annually, of which France produces two-fifths of the whole, with her 230,000 looms. China and Japan grow one-half of all the raw silk.

Clipper is a name familiarly given to a sailing ship built expressly for speed. Aberdeen was long celebrated for building swift tea-clippers, which since 1860 have been gradually superseded by steamers. The Baltimore clippers were also famous.

The Zollverein ("Customs Union") was a union of the German States for fiscal purposes under the leadership of Prussia. The first step towards its establishment was taken in 1818. It continued to exist until the German Empire was founded in 1871.

In 1820 we made only 400 tons of white lead in the whole country, and at the end of the civil war we made 14,000 tons. A white lead manufacturer of Cincinnati, Mr. Goshorn, was the President or Director-General of the Philadelphia Exhibition.