Page images
PDF
EPUB

1803, it has gradually diminished to 5 millions*. Although we generally form exaggerated ideas of the loss experienced by Europe, from the balance of trade with Asia, it is not the less certain that the exportation of specie, greatly exceeds the sum specified by the estimable author whom we have just now quoted.

The luxury of Europe at present, requires eleven times more tea than in 1721; but on the other hand, the commerce with the countries situated on this side the Ganges, has experienced a very considerable change, since the period when the English formed a great empire in India. The manufactories of Great Britain actually furnish to the commerce with southern Asia, goods to the value of more than 11,460,000 piastres per annumt. According to the valuable information contained in the Travels of Lord Macartney, the En

[ocr errors]

* Gerboux, p. 36 and 70. Consult also the researches of M. Garnier respecting the commerce of India, in his Commentary on Smith, t. v. p. 361-375, and Toze, p. 124-150.

+ Playfair's Chart. iii.

Macartney's travels (French Edit.), vol i. p. 47 and 58. By the table given, page 73, the importation of silver by the English East India Company would only have been from 1775 to 1795, £3,676,000 Sterling (F value the pound sterling at 4

piastres, or 463 sous

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 only amounted to 2,688,000 piastrest.

[ocr errors]

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 :

tournois). Author.

[ocr errors]

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

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

Raynal, t. i. p. 674.

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

[blocks in formation]

A pickle being7

245,021

258,185

260,756

120 pounds, 44,885,000 lib. 31,290,900lb.
Frenchweight.

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 mil lions of piastres, between 1787 and 1796.

}

According to M. de Guignes, who had the siugular 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 a Pekin, t. iii. p. 248. Ephemerides 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*. 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..

[ocr errors]

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 M. Playfair,

9,701,000 piastres.

2,200,000 Sterling, or 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.

fArnould de la Balance du Commerce, t. iii. No. 13.

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

1

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. were valued by M. Dundas

These treasures

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

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

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »