NAVIGATION, TRADE, IMPORTS, AND EXPORTS.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE TRADE AND COMMERCE OF GREAT BRITAIN, THE EFFECT OF THE WAREHOUSING SYSTEM, &C. ALSO, TABLES OF THE NAVIGATION, SHIPPING, &c. OF GREAT BRITAIN, FOR SIX YEARS, ENDING JANUARY, 1808. [Ordered to be printed, June 29, 1808.] Parliament, during its last session, ordered to be printed several accounts relative to the Trade and Navigation of Great Britain, the contents of which are extremely important. They have been delivered from the press, since our last number; and, we presume, they will be subjects of discussion in the course of the approaching Session. We find it impossible, from the nature of their contents, which consist wholly of figures and tables, to give a satisfactory analysis of them, and therefore must content ourselves with a few general observations.

We have, nevertheless, selected one of them, as being highly proper to convey to our readers some ideas on the extent and consequence, with the present state of our shipping and mercantile concerns. This we have given entire; and trust that it will prove satisfactory.

The commerce of Great Britain and Ireland, is not a thing, the mere growth of yesterday; it is no sudden or instantaneous shoot, of mere mushroom celerity. It is the result of plans, laid ages ago, and pursued by generation after ge-. neration, with that steadiness which characterises our countrymen. We believe, that the value of the trade maintained by these islands in early ages was more, when the circumstances of the times are taken into consideration, that is generally supposed. The spirited attempts of the virtuous, humane, pious, and enterVOL. V. [Lit. Pan. Jan. 1809.

prising ALFRED, can never be too much admired and though they were rendered of no avail by adverse events, after his decease, yet the meed of applause due to him is not diminished. We see him on one hand, holding intercourse with the Indies, and procuring the rich products. of the East, by means of the Mediterranean; and on the other, causing the North Sea to be explored, and patronising attempts to break up that barrier of ice, which had effectually precluded the visits of merchants from ports and places, where now the adventurous prow of navi➡ gation finds no difficulty. He was a great prince: he knew well that the interior arrangement and prosperity of his kingdom was true glory; but he did not consider that as incompatible with the pursuit of commerce in foreign states.

There could hardly fail to be some desire of obtaining foreign commodities," operative among a people, whose very religion led them to visit a distant country,' the seat of learning, refinement, and' whatever was deemed polite or instructive. Could those who travelled to Rome, on ecclesiastical purposes and pursuits, do otherwise than bring back with them some Specimens of that ingenuity which they beheld there, and of those arts, the productions of which had delighted them in that city? They had experienced gratifications, which they would desire to renew, as far as possible, after their arrival, at home and which they would earnestly wish to communicate to their friends, and in so doing, to increase and diffuse their own personal enjoyments.

This must have led to commerce of some kind for if, as is usually understood, the English paid considerable sums in coin, yearly, to Rome,-they must have obtained this coin, by purchas ing it with a value, paid not in bullion, but in commodities.

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After the Conquest, when the opposite shores of the British channel were held by the same sovereign, there would naturally be a very frequent, and indeed constant, passage from port to port; and the productions of the two countries would be introduced into each other, without those multiplied impediments arising from hesitations and jealousies, which rival states too often indulge. It is true, that for ages, we are to regard valour and spirit, deeds of arms, the high mettle of chivalrous adventure, as the staple commodity of England. The sons of Albion relinquished the care of her flocks, for the conduct of troops, and studied less the productions of her soil, than the honours attached to the standard and banner. They held their lands by military tenure, and military tenure engrossed their contemplations. The ravages of civil war, and the fury of contending parties, could not but retard the bursting forth of that mercantile spirit and splendour, which was destined to become the distinction of succeeding generations. When martial ardour had subsided, the attention of the nation was directed to adventurous undertakings of a different description, and the youth engaged in enterprises of which we now reap the benefit.

The discovery of America was not productive of instant emolument to those of this country who engaged in it. They laid the foundation for the wealth of after times: But, Sir Walter Raleigh was not enriched by Virginia; and William Penn, though a man of sagacity, derived no pecuniary advantage from the province that bears his name. In fact, the power of capital; and the vast and necessary extent of that power, were understood and calculated by very few, if any, in those times; and it was not till after the Dutch had shown what advantages might be derived from money, as an active agent, that calculators endeavoured publicly to establish principles on that subject. Since the institution of the Fanding system, and the increase of the national debt, money has been attended to with the utmost diligence, and those who are jealous of the true prosperity of our country, are far from finding gratification in the sway which accompanies the command of money. But we pass this, though a very serious consideration, at present, to ob

serve, that the desire of making the most of the advantages, presented by the possession of money leads to a sparingness and economy in the use of it, which is beyond the contemplation of the bulk of mankind. Hence have arisen the various substitutes for coin. Paper, which has no natural pretensions to represent money,has, when applied for that purpose, and supported by convention, the same ability to represent a thousand pounds, as an hundred: since this ability does not depend on the bulk, the beauty, or any other property of the paper, but on the respon sibility attached to the party, whose handwriting pledges him, to the amount of the value it imports. Paper, then, saves the employment of money: but even the employment of paper, itself, is dispensed with as far as possible, since advantage may be made of it, as the substitute for money, equal with what may be derived from solid coin. The bankers of London, therefore, do not draw from each other, daily, in Bank notes the various sums for which they receive checques, but exchange these checques with each other,and pay only the balances in Bank notes, thereby suffering each other to hold the paper, in which such demands would be paid, in the greatest quantity, and to the latest moment, possible.

The same principle of sparing capital, has led to a system, in favour and ease of merchants, which, within these few years, has proved of infinite accommodation and convenience. Formerly, when a ship arrived in port, and was to break bulk, the duties demanded by the state, were to be paid, before any part of the cargo was of use to the merchant. Hence he was obliged, either to keep a great quanti-, ty of money by him, entirely useless, to meet exigencies of this description, whenever they occurred, or to send to his banker ample deposits, and procure by way of loan, and at interest, the necessary sums to honour his vessel at the custom-house. It was not uncommon for the most respectable merchants in London, to clear their sideboards from plate, and to send it safely packed in its iron chests, to their bankers, a security for a loan, at the very juncture when their wealth was arrived in greater abundance than they had expected, from foreign parts.

Such embarrassments tended to vex the importer of foreign commodities,

and to limit their distribution, by enhancing their price to the consumer; since the importer would not only repay himself the actual sums that had been advanced by him, but, also, a profit on them; and, in addition, a gratification for the inconveniences, and dis-arrangements he had undergone in landing them.

The wisdom of Government at length perceived that this was a fit occasion for indulgence to the commercial world. And that, as itself was the cause of the inconvenience, and this inconvenience became more burdensome as duties were increased, that it would be well to remain a creditor for the amount of duties for a reasonable time, during which interval the gou is and commodities might be sold to those, for whose use they were primarily intended. This gave rise to the Bonding system, under which the payment of the duties is secured to government within a determinate period, by the bonds of the merchants, and thus their advance of cash is dispensed with: and hence, too, the Warehousing system, by which the goods, subject to heavy duties, are kept for a time under the king's locks. They may be sold, while in the warehouse, and be taken away at any time, on payment of the duties, by the purchaser, if so agreed with the owner. arguments are necessary to prove, that a rapid extension of trade, would be great ly facilitated by this arrangement and indeed, could hardly be effected without it; since, on the contrary principle, the greater the influx of trade, the greater were the difficulties of the merchant.

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Indian deer skins

to, rum; rice, tobacco, wine, brandy and brimstone, cork, hemp other spirits ; undressed, iron in bars, kelp, mahogany, pitch, rosin, staves, tallow, tar, timber, half drest, other skins and furs undrest, spertow, turpentine, wood; maceti, train, and other fish oil, blubber and whalefins of British fishing; almonds, anchovies, aniseed, balsam copaiba, barilla, bees wax, bristles undressed, cantharides, Turkey carpets, chip hats, clover seed, cochineal, cotton wool, cotton yarn, currants, elephant's teeth, feathers for beds, figs, ginseng, gum Arabic, gum Senegal, jalap, jesuit's bark, indigo, juniper berries, plain linen of all sorts (except sail cloth), manna, mohair yarn, oil of olives, palm oil, sallad oil, oil of turpentine, opium, prunes, quicksilver, raisins, rhubarb, saffron, senna, raw silk, thrown silk, waste silk, smalts, straw hats.

N. B. By the 9th section of the act 43 Geo. III. cap. 132. the commissioners of his Majesty's treasury are empowered to permit the warehousing of any goods or merchandize not enumerated above.

Desirous of ascertaining the benefits. derived from this system, Parliament directed a report to be made of the quantities of goods warehoused, and of those remaining in the warehouses, at two distinct periods, the first, for the three years ending January 5, 1793;-the second, for the four years, ending January 5, 1803.

The number of ports, and of the different kinds of merchandize, is so great, that we relinquish as impossible, the attempt to communicate an idea of the returns to our readers. Yet we shall, by way of specimen, select a few articles for their information, as stated for the port of London. E. gr.

Of gum Arabic there was imported in 1790, 60 cwt.; in 1791, 45: 3:4; in 1792, 602: 3: 13; in 1799, 1,870; in 1800, 1,732:3: 4 ; in 1801, 4,6y9:1:3'; This increase in 1802, 7,105: 3: 4. from 65 cwt. to 7,105, is truly deserving of notice for not a pound weight of it. appears to have been exported. It must, therefore, have been employed and expended in the country: and as this gum is used in certain manufactories, the inference is, that those manufactories, by their enlargement, have demanded this immense increase. Or, if it be thought that new manufactories in which this gun is employed, have been established within these few years, the political inferences, to be drawn from this fact, remain unim peached.

to the amount of 4,566 cwt.; in 1807 to 7,725; in 1808, 6,096 cwt. the exportation differing nothing worth notice. "Currants and raisins are, however, something diminished as imports; which we are sorry to discover, as we are hearty friends to plum-pudding at Christmas; aye, and plum-porridge too, -when we can get it. That our grief. need not to be immoderate, will appear, when we state that the importation of currants, in 1804, was 65,025 cwt.; in 1808, it was 58,819 ext. but, the article raisins has declined full 50,000cwt. !-Aias! Alas! for how can we longer deny the inference of Mr. Alderman-in opposition to Mr. Spence, that Britain is not "independent of commerce -for raisins and plums?

Happily, we do not depend on importation for roast beef; and while we can obtain that, we shall console ourselves as king Louis, good man! consoles the broad-bottomed Dutchmen, that " we must undergo some privations for the good of our country; but at a peaceyes, Mynheers, at a peace-if it happen in our time, we shall not be forgotten" and then," plum-pudding shall be the order of the day!"

That the importation of bar iron is diminished from 20,000 tons to 10,000, we hope and trust is caused by improvements made in our own British production; and if we be correct in our conjec ture, something of that nature is the true state of the case; for the exportation has increased as the importation has diminished; for of 20,000 tons imported in 1804, only 3,160 were sent abroad; whereas of 10,000 tons imported in 1808, we could spare 5,905 tons; so that we retained but little more than 4.000 tons for our own use. The adva,tages of science, when directed to manufactures, have never appeared more conspicuously than on the subject of our iron works; and we rejoice in the thought, that for almost all purposes of elegance as well as utility, British iron may now vie with foreign; such a fact, we deem, an instance of National Independence.

In what light to view the importation of cambrics, increased from 20,000 demy pieces to 40,000, we can scarcely tell; or, that of Flanders linen, advanced from 2,366 ells to 122,875. The exportation though increased from 465, to 20,780

does not account for it. Are more foreign linens worn among us?-if so, let our Irish friends look well to the excellence and body of their fabric; this, their duty, will prove to be their interest.

We might confess equal indecision in respect to various other articles; rhubarb is increased from 2,991 lbs. to 4,438; is this becomingadyeing drug? To suppose that a greater quantity than formerly has been ordered in prescription but we have no desire of livelling the faculty, Quicksilver is another inexplicable article. What operations performed in Britain demand quicksilver? But if the distant Spanish provinces, unable to obtain this mineral from Europe in ships belonging to their own nation, have been obliged to have recourse to the intervention of British ships for supply, then we see the mutual benefits derived from commerce to the Spanish main and the British West India islands. We have received from thence an immense quantity of Peruvian bark, and they have received from us, in 1804, 88,778; in 1806, 234,676, and in 1807, 633,480 lbs. of quicksilver. So that we may safely consider Spanish gold, as having been amalgamated with quicksilver furnished by Britain-in spite of war between the two countries-in spite of Buonaparte, emperor and king though he be! Our readers, will hence discover some of the reasons that irritate the mind of that honest and upright potentate, in his protestations that he intends nothing but good to the Spanish nation, by his pious design of placing king Joe on the throne; and as to separating a single colony from the mother country, "he won't suffer any such thing: no, that he won't: "UNLESS HE CANNOT HELP IT. Will the Spanish colonies adhere to a country notoriously too weak to supply them with necessaries; or will they take such measures as may insure them the most beneficial and indispensable intercourse? Would Buonaparte, if king in Mexico, Peru, or Terra Firma, abandon such a productive connection with Britain, for the profitless protection (protection!) of the nominal sovereign at Madrid. He is not so foolish: neither are they so mad,

We shall add a few articles in support of our inferences, and by way of directory to the sentiments of our friends.

The East Indies has supplied cochineal in 1804, 8,200lbs. in 1806,