To Open The
Budget Would Be A Breach Of Good Breeding, And Would Shock The Imperial
Modesty.
Fifteen merchants were introduced, and the ceremony of presentation
lasted about twenty minutes; this being concluded, the merchants were
permitted to perambulate the gardens of the Emperor, and to pluck a
little fruit.
They were afterwards delayed a fortnight, waiting to
present a _cadeau_ to the Emperor's eldest son. Such are the details of
this journey, which I got from the merchants themselves. Mr. Willshire,
being a consul and great customer of his Imperial Highness, also
received a gift of a horse in exchange. The united value of the presents
to the Emperor, on this occasion, was fifty thousand dollars, which
amply indemnifies him for his money-lending, and the credit that he
gives. They consisted principally of articles of European manufactures.
His Imperial Highness afterwards sells them to his subjects on his own
account. Of course, amongst this mass of presents, there are many nice
things such as tea, sugar, spices, essences &c., for his personal
comfort and luxury, as well as for his harem, besides articles of dress
and ornament.
It will not be out of place here, to give a brief account of the
commerce of Morocco. In doing so, we must take into consideration the
prodigious quantity of imports and exports, of which there are no
statistics in the Imperial custom-houses, and no consular returns. Let
us estimate the population of Morocco at its general compensation of
eight millions, and suppose that each spends a dollar per annum in the
purchase of European manufactures. This will raise the value of imports
at once to eight millions of dollars per annum. It is notorious that the
contraband trade of Tangier, and Tetuan, and the northern coast
generally doubles or trebles the commerce that passes through the
customhouse; but the legal trade is not well ascertained.
Mr. Hay once sent, I believe, to the Agent of Mogador, a list of
questions to be answered by the consular department. The gentleman, who
was an unsalaried vice-consul, appalled at the number of
interrogatories, immediately replied, "That he had his own business to
attend to; he could not sit down to compose consular returns, which
would require weeks of labour; and if it were considered part of his
duties to answer such questions, he begged to resign at once his
vice-consulship."
As to the Barbary Jews, who have charge of some of the vice-consulates,
they are necessarily incapacitated, by reason of their want of
education, for such an employment. It is, therefore, hopeless to attempt
to give any accurate account of the commerce of Morocco, I can only
annex a few details of those things of which we are actually cognizant.
Whatever may be said of the indolent habits of the Moors, they were
once, and still are, a commercial people. Spain, the neighbour of
Morocco, still feels the loss of the Moors. They were the really
industrious classes settled in Spain. The merchants, the artists, the
operatives, and agriculturists unfortunately have left behind them few
inheriting their habits of perseverance. Little, indeed, can be expected
in Spain, where the maxim is adopted, that "nobility may lie dormant in
a servant, but becomes extinct in a merchant." Spain lost upwards of
three millions of intelligent and industrious Moors, a shock she will
never recover.
The bombardment of a commercial city of this country would not do the
injury which is commonly imagined. The ports are numerous though not
very good. A single house or shed on the beach of Mogador, or Tangier,
is a sufficient custom-house for the Moors. There are no great deposits
of goods on the coast, for as soon as the camels bring their loads of
exports, these are shipped, and the camels immediately return to the
interior, laden with imported goods or manufactures.
Mogador is the great commercial depot of the Atlantic coast, and
therefore "the beautiful Ishweira, the beloved town," of Muley Abd
Errahman. Its trade is principally, however, with the south, the
provinces of Sous and Wadnoun, and the Western Sahara. Mogador is also
the bona-fide port of the southern capital of Morocco. Two-thirds of the
commerce of Mogador is carried on with England, the rest is divided
among the other nations of Europe; but of this third, I should think
France has one half. The port of Mogador has usually some half-a-dozen
vessels lying in it, but from twenty to thirty have been seen there.
They are usually sixty days discharging and taking in cargo. Each vessel
pays forty dollars port-dues, which must press very heavily upon small
vessels, but it is seldom that a vessel of less than one hundred tons is
seen at Mogador. The grand staple exports are only two, gum and almonds;
upon the sale of these, the commercial activity of this city entirely
depends. English vessels come directly from London, the French from
Marseilles; but so badly is this commerce managed that, at the present
time, Morocco produce is higher in Mogador than it is in London or
Marseilles; for instance, Morocco almonds are cheaper in London than
Mogador.
Mazagan, and some few other ports, export produce direct to Europe, but
Tangier is the next commercial port of the empire. There is an important
trade in manufactures and provisions carried on between Tangier and
Gibraltar. The Fez merchants have resident agents in Gibraltar. Curious
stories are told of Maroquine adventurers leaving Tangier and Fez as
camel-drivers and town-porters, and then assuming the character and
style of merchants in Gibraltar, throwing over their shoulders a
splendid woollen burnouse, and folding round their heads a thoroughly
orthodox turban in large swelling folds of milk-white purity.
In this way, they will walk through the stores of Gibraltar, and obtain
thousands of dollars' worth of credit. The merchant-emperor found it
necessary to put a stop to this, and promulgated a decree to the effect,
that "he would not, for the future, be responsible for the debts of any
of his subjects contracted out of his dominions."
This was aimed at these trading adventurers, and the decree was
transmitted to the British Consul, who had it published in the Gibraltar
Gazette while I was staying in that city.
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