In Reviewing The Commerce Of The Remaining Parts Of The World, We Shall
Find The Articles That Constitute It Almost Exclusively The Produce Of The
Soil, Or, Where Manufactured, Owing The Change In Their Form And Value To
The Simplest Contrivances And Skill.
We shall begin with Asia.
Turkey possesses some of the finest portions of this quarter of the globe;
countries in which man first emerged into civilization, literature, and
knowledge; rich in climate and soil, but dreadfully degraded, oppressed,
and impoverished by despotism. The exports from the European part of Turkey
are carpets, fruit, saffron, silk, drugs, &c.: the principal port is
Constantinople. From Asiatic Turkey there are exported rhubarb and other
drugs, leather, silk, dye stuffs, wax, sponge, barilla, and hides: nearly
the whole foreign trade is centered in Smyrna, and is in the hands of the
English and French, and Italians. The imports are coffee, sugar, liqueurs,
woollen and cotton goods, lead, tin, jewellery, watches, &c.
China, from the immense number of its population, and their habits,
possesses great internal commerce; but, with the exception of her tea,
which is taken away by the English and Americans, her export trade is not
great. She also carries on a traffic overland with Russia, to which We have
already alluded, and some maritime commerce with Japan. Besides tea, the
exports from China are porcelain, silk, nankeens, &c.; the imports are the
woollen goods, and tin and copper of England; cotton, tin, pepper, &c. from
the British settlements in India; edible birds' nests, furs, &c.
The trade of Japan is principally with China: the exports are copper,
lackered ware, &c.; the imports are raw silk, sugar, turpentine, drugs, &c.
The trade of the Birman empire is also principally with China, importing
into it cotton, amber, ivory, precious stones, betel nuts, &c., and
receiving in return raw and wrought silk, gold leaf, preserves, paper, &c.
European broad cloth and hardware, Bengal muslins, glass, &c. are also
imported into this country.
But by far the most important commerce that is carried on in the eastern
parts of Asia, consists in that which flows from and to Calcutta, Bombay,
and Madras. In fact, the English country trade there, as it is called, is
of great value, and embraces a very great variety of articles. Bombay is
the grand emporium of the west of India, Persia, and Arabia; here the
productions of those countries are exchanged against each other, and for
the manufactures, &c. of England. The principal articles of export from
Bombay to these places, as well as to England, are cotton piece goods,
sugar, and saltpetre, received from Bengal; pepper from Sumatra; coffee
from the Red Sea. The imports from Europe are woollens, tin, lead, &c. A
very lucrative trade is carried on from Bombay to China, to which it
exports cotton in very great quantity, sandal wood, &c., and receives in
return sugar, sugar-candy, camphire, nankeens, &c. There is also
considerable traffic between Bombay and Bengal, Ceylon, Pegu, and the Malay
archipelago. The exports of Ceylon are cinnamon, arrack, coir, cocoa nuts:
the imports are grain, piece goods, and European merchandize. The commerce
of the eastern coast of Hindostan centers in Madras: the exports from this
place are principally piece goods, grain, cotton, &c.; the imports, woollen
manufactures, copper, spirits, pepper, and other spices. The trade of
Bengal may be divided into four branches: to Coromandel and Ceylon, the
Malabar coast, Gulph of Persia and Arabia, the Malay archipelago and China
and Europe. The principal exports by the port of Calcutta are piece goods,
opium, raw silk, indigo, rice, sugar, cotton, grain, saltpetre, &c.: the
principal imports are woollen goods, copper, wine, pepper, spices, tea,
nankeen, camphire, &c.
A considerable trade is carried on in the Malay archipelago from Prince of
Wales Island, which, since it was settled by the English, has become the
emporium of this trade. - Batavia, Bencoolen, and Achen; the principal
articles of export from these islands are cloves, nutmegs, camphire,
pepper, sago, drugs, bichedemer, birds' nests, gold dust, ivory, areca
nuts, benzoin, tin, &c.: the imports are tea, alum, nankeens, silks, opium,
piece goods, cotton, rice, and European manufactures. Manilla is the depot
of all the productions of the Philippines, intended to be exported to
China, America, and Europe. The exports of these islands are birds' nests,
ebony, tobacco, sugar, cotton, cocoa, &c. The commerce of New Holland is
still in its infancy, but it promises to rise rapidly, and to be of great
value: a soil very fertile, and a climate adapted to the growth of
excellent grain, together with the uncommon fineness of its wool, have
already been very beneficial to its commerce.
The external commerce of Persia is principally carried on by the foreign
merchants who reside at Muscat, on the Persian Gulph: into this place are
imported from India, long cloths, muslins, silks, sugar, spices, rice,
indigo, drugs, and European manufactures; the returns are copper, sulphur,
tobacco, fruits, gum-arabic, myrrh, frankincense, and all the drugs which
India does not produce.
The Red Sea, washed on one side by Asia, and on the other by Africa, seems
the natural transit, from this consideration, of the commerce of the former
quarter of the globe to that of the latter. Its commerce is carried on by
the Arabians, and by vessels from Hindostan: Mocha and Judda are its
principal ports. The articles sent from it are coffee, gums and drugs,
ivory, and fruit: the imports are the piece goods, cotton, and other
produce of India; and the manufactures, iron, lead, copper, &c. of Europe.
Egypt, in which anciently centered all the commerce of the world, retains
at present a very small portion of trade: the principal exports from
Alexandria consist in the gums and drugs of the east coast of Africa,
Arabia, Persia, and India; rice, wheat, dates, oil, soap, leather, ebony,
elephants' teeth, coffee, &c. The imports are received chiefly from France
and the Italian States, and England; and consist in woollen and cotton
goods, hardware, copper, iron, glass, and colonial produce.
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