The
Principal Exports From These Mediterranean Towns Are Wines, Dried Fruits,
Oils, Anchovies, Wool, Barilla, Soap, Kermes, Antimony, Vermilion, Brandy,
Cork, Silk, &C. Barcelona Formerly Exported An Immense Number Of Shoes To
The Colonies.
The imports consist chiefly of Baltic produce, the articles
enumerated as forming the imports of the north of Spain, and some articles
from Italy and Turkey.
Portugal, not nearly so extensive as Spain, nor blessed with such a fertile
territory, is before her in commerce: she possesses two sea-ports of the
first consideration, Lisbon and Oporto; and five of the second class. There
are few cities that surpass Lisbon in commerce. The principal trade of
Portugal is with England; from this country she receives woollens and other
manufactures; coals, tin, salted cod, Irish linen, salt provisions, and
butter: her other imports are iron from the north of Spain; from France,
linens, silks, cambrics, fine woollens, jewellery; from Holland, corn,
cheese, and drugs for dying; from Germany, linens, corn, &c.; and from
Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, Baltic produce. The principal exports of
Portugal are wine, oil, fruits, cork, &c.
The Italian States, the origin of the commerce of the middle ages, are no
longer remarkable for their trade; the principal ports for commerce are
Leghorn, Naples, Venice, Genoa, Messina, and Palermo. The exports of
Leghorn are silk, raw and manufactured; straw hats, olive oil, fruits,
marble, &c.: its chief trade, however, consists in the importation of
English merchandize, which it distributes to all parts of the
Mediterranean, receiving in return their produce to load the British ships
on their home voyage. The greatest import to Naples consists in European
manufactured goods, and salt fish; its exports are those of Leghorn, with
capers, wool, dye stuffs, manna, wax, sulphur, potash, macaroni, &c. Venice
has declined very much, from the influence of political circumstances: her
exports are olives, looking-glasses, rice, coral, Venice treacle, scarlet
cloth, and gold and silver stuffs; the imports are similar to those of
Leghorn and Naples. The exports and imports of Genoa, consisting
principally of those already enumerated, do not require particular notice.
Sicily, a very rich country by nature, and formerly the granary of Rome,
has fallen very low from bad government: her exports are very various,
including, beside those already mentioned, barilla, a great variety of
dying drugs and medicines, goat, kid, and rabbit skins, anchovies, tunny
fish, wheat, &c.: its chief imports are British goods, salted fish, and
colonial produce.
The principal trade of Greece is carried on by the inhabitants of Hydra, a
barren island. The commerce of the Hydriots, as well as of the rest of
Greece, was very much benefited by the scarcity of corn which prevailed in
France in 1796, and subsequently by the attempts of Bonaparte to shut
British manufactures from the continent. These two causes threw the
greatest part of the coasting trade of the Mediterranean into their hands.
The chief articles of export from Greece are oil, fruits, skins, drugs,
volonia, and gall nuts, cotton and wool. The imports are principally
English goods, and colonial produce, tin, lead, &c.
We have already dwelt on the causes which produced the immense commercial
superiority of England; and we shall, therefore, now confine ourselves to
an enumeration of its principal ports, and the principal articles of its
export and import. London possesses considerably above one-half of the
commerce of Great Britain; the next town is undoubtedly Liverpool; then may
be reckoned, in England, Bristol, Hull, Newcastle, Sunderland, Yarmouth,
&c.; in Scotland, Greenock, Leith, Aberdeen, Dundee, &c.; in Ireland, Cork,
Dublin, Limerick, Belfast, Waterford, &c. From the last return of the
foreign trade of Great Britain it appears, that by far the most important
article of export is cotton manufactures and yarn, amounting in real or
declared value to nearly one-half of the whole amount of goods exported;
the next articles, arranged according to their value, are woollen
manufactures, refined sugar, linen manufactures, iron, steel and hardware,
brass and copper manufactures, glass, lead, and shot, &c. &c.; of colonial
produce exported, the principal articles are coffee, piece goods of India,
rum, raw sugar, indigo, &c. &c. The principal imports of Great Britain are
cotton wool, raw sugar, tea, flax, coffee, raw silk, train oil and blubber,
madder, indigo, wines, &c. &c. The principal imports into Ireland consist
of old drapery, entirely from Great Britain; coals, also entirely from
Great Britain; iron wrought and unwrought, nearly the whole from Great
Britain; grocery, mostly direct from the West Indies; tea, from Britain,
&c. &c. In fact, of the total imports of Ireland, five-sixths of them are
from Great Britain; and of her exports, nine-tenths are to Great Britain.
The principal articles of export are linen, butter, wheat, meal, oats,
bacon, pork, &c. &c.
On the 30th September, 1822, there belonged to the United Kingdom 24,642
vessels, making a total of 2,519,044 tons, and navigated by 166,333 men; of
the vessels employed in the foreign trade, including their repeated
voyages, in the year ending the 5th of January 1823, there were about
12,000, of which upwards of 9,000 were British and Irish, and the rest
foreign vessels. The coasting trade of England is calculated to employ 3000
vessels. We have already stated the proportion which the trade of Ireland
to Britain bore to her trade with the rest of the world; this point may be
still further elucidated by the following fact: that the number of vessels,
(including their repeated voyages,) which entered the ports of Ireland,
from all parts of the world, in the year ending the 5th of January, 1823,
was 11,561, and that all these, except 943, came from Great Britain.
From this rapid view of the commerce of the European states, it appears
that, with the exception of Great Britain, by far the largest portion and
greatest value of the exports of each country consist in the produce of the
soil, either in its raw and natural state, or after having undergone a
change that requires little industry, manual labour, or mechanical agency.
Britain, on the contrary, derives her exports almost entirely from the
produce of her wonderful mechanical skill, which effects, in many cases,
what could alone be accomplished by an immense population, and in a few
cases, what no manual labour could perform.
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