By having Jewish consuls, we place ourselves in a
false position with the Emperor, who is obliged to submit to the
prejudices of his people against Hebrews. British merchants ought to be
allowed to visit their own vessels whilst in port, to superintend, or
what not, the stowing or landing of their goods, as they are entitled to
do by treaty. Spanish dollars are the chief currency in Morocco; but
there are also doubloons and smaller gold coins. This currency, the
merchants manage very badly. A doubloon loses sixteen pence, or four
Maroquine ounces in exchange at Mogador, whilst at the capital of
Morocco, three days' journey from this, it passes for the same value it
bears in Spain and Gibraltar.
As to the revenues of the Government of Morocco, our means of
information are still more uncertain and conjectural, than those we
possess regarding commerce. A French writer asserts, that the tithes
upon land assigned by the Koran and the capitation tax on the Jews,
produce from twenty to thirty million francs (or say about one million
pounds sterling) per annum. This, perhaps, is too large a sum.
About a century ago, the revenues of Moocco were estimated at only
L200,000 sterling per annum. But if Muley Abd Errahman has fifty
millions of dollars, or ten millions sterling in the vaults of Mequinez,
he may be considered as the richest monarch in Africa, nay in all
Europe. It is positively stated that Muley Ismail left this amount, or
one hundred millions of ducats in the imperial treasury, which Sidi
Mahommed reduced to two millions. It may have been the great object of
the life of the present Sultan to restore this enormous hoard. No
country is rich or safe without a vast capital in hand as a reserve for
times of trouble, war, or famine. But it is not necessary that such
reserve should be in the hands of a government.
This, a Maroquine prince cannot comprehend, and he decides as to the
riches and poverty of his country by the amount he possesses in his
royal vaults.
In treating of trade, and comparing its exports with the peculiar
products and manufactures of the cities and towns, hereafter to be
enumerated, we may approximate to an idea of the resources of the
Maroquine Empire, but everything is more or less deteriorated in this
naturally rich country.
Cattle and sheep, grain and fruits, are of inferior quality, owing to
the want of proper culture. No spontaneous growth is equal to culture,
for such is the ordinance of Divine Providence. Half of this country is
desert. The iron hand of despotic government presses heavily upon all
industry. If we add to this defective state of culture, the miserably
moral condition of the people, we have the unpleasant picture of an
inferiority civilized race of mankind scattered over a badly cultivated
region.
