glish imported into Canton, in 1725, in the produce of their own manufactories and Indian goods to the value of 4,410,000 piastres. They received in return Chinese goods and produce to the value of 6,614,000 piastres. Supposing the balance of trade with China, to have been more unfavourable for the other nations of Europe, than for the English, we might estimate the importation of the precious metals into China, by Canton, Macao, and Emoui, at an average of 4 or 5 millions of piastres per annum. In 1766 it still amounted to 2,688,000 piastres only. t

*

Let us examine more narrowly the state of the trade of Canton. Lord Macartney in 1795 valued the quantity of tea purchased by all the nations of Europe, only at 34 millions of pounds, of which the English alone took 20 millions. But according to the interesting information communicated by M. de Sainte Croix +, there was exported from Canton:

The author in a note to page 16. estimates the English shilling at 25 sous: now 20 shillings=1=500 sous.

Trans.

* £840,000, or £1,050,000 Sterling. Trans.

+ Raynal, t. i. p. 674.

Voyage commercial et politique aux Indes Orientales, par M. Félix Renouard de Sainte Croix, 1810, t. iii. p. 153. 161. and 170. The price of a pic or pickle of bou tea at Canton, is from 12 to 15 taels (at 7 francs 41 cent.

The exportation of tea has then increased, between 1795 and 1806, more than one fourth. Yet we can hardly admit, that the loss of specie annually experienced by Europe increases in the same proportion: for the importation of English woollen stuffs alone into China, rose from 600,000 piastres to 3 millions of piastres, between 1787 and 1796.

According to M. de Guignes, who had the singular good fortune of penetrating into the interior of China, the quantity of specie imported into Canton by the English, did not amount in 1807, to more than 3 millions of piastres. If Great Britain did not possess a

the tael). Other sorts of tea are much dearer; the cangfou costs from 25 to 27 taels; the saoutchou costs from 40 to 50; the haysuen from 50 to 60 (Des Guignes, Voyage à Pékin, t. iii. p. 248. Ephémérides Geogr. de M. de Zach, 1798, p. 179-191.)

considerable part of the East Indies, her loss in specie would be more than doubled; for nearly 4 millions of piastres are annually paid to the Chinese by the commerce from one part of India to another, that is to say, by the cotton of Surat and Bombay, by the tin (calin) of Malacca, and by the opium of Bengal. The Dutch paid their balance with 1,300,000 piastres, the Swedes and the Danes together, with a million. * France, from 1784 to 1808, lost, in general, in her commerce with the East Indies, at an average, 6,968,000 livres tournois, or 1,327,000 † piastres. These partial data agree very well with the general result which we fixed on above, for the exportation of silver into China.

It is more difficult to estimate the loss experienced by Europe in her relations with the whole of Asia, from the commerce by the Cape of Good Hope. That part of the loss applicable to the commerce of the English, was, in 1800, according to the researches of Mr. Playfair ‡, £2,200,000 Sterling, or 9,701,000 piastres. It is true that the same author estimates the value of the exports from all Hindostan, at 30 millions of piastres; but

* De Guignes, iii. p. 206, 207. 210. 215.

+ Arnould de la Balance du Commerce, t. iii. N°. 13.

Trade to and from the East Indies. (Atlas pl. iii. p. 13.)

this vast country not only gains in its commerce with Europe, but also in its commerce with the other parts of Western Asia, and the islands in its vicinity. While we acknowledge the great uncertainty of these calculations of balance, and national accounts, we are forced to recur to them to obtain results which approach the truth. It appears from the information just given, that the exportation of gold and silver from Europe, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, amounts to more than 17 millions of piastres. In this calculation we have attended to the present state of the trade of Madagascar, Mokka, and Bassora, as well as the auriferous copper of Japan, supplied by the Dutch trade to Nagasaki, and the treasures which the servants of the East India Company bring from Bengal into England. These treasures were valued by Mr. Dundas at more than 4 millions of piastres per annum.

If a part of China should have the misfortune of being subjugated by some warlike nation, which was at once mistress of Mexico, Peru, and the Philippine islands, this conquest would occasion a smaller reflux of the precious metals into America or Europe, than we are generally inclined to believe. We

*Thunburg, Voyage au Japon, t. ii. p. 8.

see from the accounts of Macartney, Barrow, De Guignes, and other intelligent travellers, that gold and silver are not more common in China, than in the greatest part of the countries of Europe. The annual revenue of the state, is no doubt estimated at 1584 millions of francs * (301,714,000 piastres †; but the greater part of this sum is paid in the produce of the soil and Chinese industry; and according to M. Barrow ‡, the quantity which enters Pekin in specie annually, only amounts to 36 millions of ounces of silver, which are estimated at 52,914,000 piastres. The Chinese believe that large sums are annually sent to Moukden, the capital of the country of the Mantchou Tartars; but this opinion is not founded on facts. Several mandarins are in the possession of immense wealth. The prime minister of the Emperor Tchienlong, was stript of 10 millions of taels, or 74,500,000 livres tournois S in specie, which he had accumulated by extortion ; but the emperor is very frequently

*£64,653,000 Sterling. Trans.

According to Lord Macartney; 710 millions according

to M. De Guisnes. t. iii. p. 102.

Barrow's Travels (French Edit.) t. ii. p. 198.

§ £3,040,815 Sterling. Trans.

Barrow, t. ii. p. 173.