The Principal Imports Of The Netherlands,
Both For Her Own Use And For The Supply Of Germany, Consist Of Baltic
Produce, English Goods, Colonial Produce, Wines, Fruits, Oil, &C.
There is perhaps no country in Europe which possesses greater advantages
for commerce than France:
A large extent of sea coast, both on the Atlantic
and the Mediterranean; excellent harbours; a rich soil and genial climate,
adapted to a great variety of valuable productions; and some manufactures
very superior in their workmanship, - all these present advantages seldom
found united. Add to these her colonial possessions, and we shall certainly
be surprized that her commerce should ever have been second, to that of any
other country in Europe. Prior to the revolution it was certainly great;
but during and since that period it was and is vastly inferior to the
commerce of Great Britain, and even to that of the United States.
The extent of sea coast on the Atlantic is 283 leagues, and on the
Mediterranean eighty leagues: the rivers are numerous, but none of the
first class. The canal of Languedoc, though from its connecting the
Atlantic and the Mediterranean it would naturally be supposed highly
advantageous to commerce, is not so; or rather, it is not turned to the
advantage to which it might be applied. In England such a canal would be
constantly filled with vessels transporting the produce of one part to
another. It is not, however, so; and this points to a feature in the French
character which, in all probability, will always render them indisposed, as
well as unable, to rival Britain, either in manufactures or commerce.
Besides the want of capital, which might be supplied, and would indeed be
actually supplied by industry and invention, the French are destitute of
the stimulus to industry and invention.
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