The Principal Exports Are, Corn, Furs, Provisions,
&C.; Its Imports, Wine, Fruit, Coffee, Silks, &C. Russia Carries On A
Considerable Internal Trade With Prussia, Persia, And China, Especially,
With The Latter.
Nearly the whole of her maritime commerce is in the hands
of foreigners, the Russians seeming rather averse to the sea; and the state
of vassalage in the peasants, which binds them to the soil, preventing the
formation of seamen.
Latterly, however, she has displayed considerable zeal
in posecuting maritime discoveries; and as she seems disposed to extend her
possessions in the north-west coast of America, this will necessarily
produce a commercial marine.
2. The next portion of Europe to which we shall direct our attention
consists of Germany, the Netherlands, and France.
Germany, though an extensive and fertile country, and inhabited by an
intelligent and industrious race of people, possesses few commercial
advantages from its want of ports: those on the Baltic have been already
mentioned; those on the German Ocean are Hamburgh and Embden, of which
Hamburgh is by far the most important, while, to the south, the only port
it possesses is Trieste. It is, however, favoured in respect to rivers: the
Elbe, Weser, Rhine, and Danube, with their tributary streams affording
great facilities, not only for inland commerce, but also for the export and
import of commodities. The chief political disadvantage under which Germany
labours, affecting its commerce, arises from the number of independent
states into which it is divided, and the despotic nature of most of its
governments.
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