History of the Currency in Massachusetts.-We have been for some time desirous of inviting the attention of our readers to the elaborate and useful work of Mr. Felt, on the History of the Currency of Massachusetts, from the earliest times. It contains much information which is not only curious but may be made to afford much useful instruction. We shall endeavour, at some future period, to make some useful application of some of the facts recorded in this work. For the present we cannot give a better notice of it than by copying the following:-Independent Chronicle. From the Worcester National Egis. magistrate and the surveyor of lands were satisfied with good merchantable corn. Contributions to the College, when made in wampum-peage, were purchased by the colony treasurer, in amounts not exceeding £25 at one time. In 1644, each family was ordered to bestow a peck of corn or 12 pence in money for the maintenance of poor scholars. The stated prices of the products of the earth varied less in a series of years than might be expected.―They were as follows: 66 In 1642 Wheat 4s. Barley 4s. Peas 3s. 4d. Corn 2s. 6d. 66 Ss. 66 5s.6d." 4s. 66 3s. 5s. 66 4s. 3s. 4s.6d. " 4s.6d." 4s. 2s. 6d. Cattle also were taken in payment, both of the public and private dues. The office of collector was, at that time, no sinecure, he being liable for the safe transportation of these cumbrous treasures from the various towns to the place of deposite. As this natural money had often to go back in the way of expenditure to the very places from whence it had been taken, it finally occurred to some sagacious persons, that, in many cases, a schedule would be as convenient in the treasury as the actual presence of grain or live stock. Sub-treasuries were therefore multiplied about the country. The constables of the several towns had charge of the portions collected in their districts; and warrants were drawn upon them for public disbursements. In 1652 the colony made a great stride in finance by the establishment of a mint. This remarkable act of sovereignty was defended by the plea of necessity, and was artfully sus⚫ tained, many years, under the constant frowns and even prohibitions of the British government. The greatest embarrassments and difficulties that attended the old system led to a constantly increasing desire for a more convenient medium, and great pains were taken to enlarge the stock of silver. Severe laws were enacted against its transportation, involving no less than a forfeiture of the transgressor's whole estate, and searchers were appointed in every port of entry. The early Currency of Massachusetts.-Few readers of history have been able to follow the fluctuation of the early currency of Massachusetts with any satisfactory clearness of perception. Almost every one must have been conscious of confusion amid the perplexities of old tenor, new tenor, and middle tenor, and felt a desire for a better understanding of them than could be derived from a mere table of value. The Rev. Joseph B. Felt, in a work on the subject, has drawn from the public records of the state, and from other sources, a series of historical facts that exhibit the financial expedients tried at various periods for supplying a circulating medium adapted to the wants of a growing people, and conforming to the exigencies of the times. His account comes down quite to the present period. We avail ourselves of his labours, and some old pamphlets that happen to lie by us, to furnish a rough outline of the state of the currency previous to the revolution, its condition then being, perhaps, the least generally known, yet by no means the least interesting. When New England was first occupied by the pilgrims, coin was exceedingly scarce at home, and great efforts were made to prevent its being carried out of the kingdom. It is easy to understand how the first settlers of the country should have suffered for the want of a sufficient circulating medium, since, having not much else wherewith to pay for importations, the little money the people had brought with them was soon collected and sent abroad for that purpose. The balance of trade being always against New England, while the spirit of traffic was ever disposed to go ahead of its resources, the rising colony was always embarrassed in providing means of payment of foreign luxuries which habit made necessary, and in meeting the domestic disbursements rendered heavy by the constant wars in which they were engaged. Private contracts, at home, were more easily arranged by the transfer of some commodity or article of produce. The want of a fixed and permanent standard for the adjustment of debts, and also some portable representative of smaller values, drove our good fathers into a great variety of speculative schemes as well as odd and awkward expedients.-Having no prominent staple like that of Virginia, where the price of all commodities, (not The mint being established, the famous pine tree coins excepting wives,) was estimated in tobacco, they made use were issued, being made two pence in a shilling less valuable of almost every marketable article as currency. Wheat, rye, than the English coins, to keep them in the country. In 1654, Indian corn, peas, fish, and beaver, were, however, more es- the difference in exchange between our coin and that of Engpecially used as money, while musket-balls, at a farthing land, amounted to 25 per cent. The old currency, however, a-piece, and white and blue shells at three and four for a penny, was by no means superseded and country produce and wampanswered, many years, as small change. It is quite a remark-um-peage still found their way to the public treasury. It was able fact, that our ancestors should find among the aborigines, a circulating medium which could be adapted to their own purposes, and be used both in public and private transactions. The manufacture and use of wampum-peage, or shell-money, it is said, had enriched the Pequots and Narragansetts, and given them an ascendancy over other tribes; and as this article was always convertible into peltry with the natives at definite rates, and as peltry was next to specie in fixedness of value, our fathers gladly availed themselves of so convenient a pecuniary substitute. Wampum and beaver, with the ar- In 1687, a public demand on Hingham was paid in milk ticles before enumerated, were the legal and almost only cur- pails. The mint had been suspended under the administrarency of the first thirty years. In these were a great proportion of Andros, and was not renewed after the accession of tion of the taxes paid, by far the largest part being in grain, so that the public treasury resembled the storehouses of Joseph in Egypt, being filled with corn instead of money. The salaries of ministers were paid in the same manner, having just a little silver added to buy such clothing and other articles as must be imported from the old country. The Deputy to the General Court was allowed money or beaver, but the town The Dutch coins, ducatoons, guilders, and half guilders, rix dollars, and ryalls, were in some numbers obtained from the Hollanders, at New York.-But the most important circumstance favourable to an increase of specie, was the oppor tunity that occurred at this period, to obtain bullion from the buccaneers who were disposed to bring their plunder into the ports of the colony. found expedient, now and then, to bribe the king to wink at the assumption of a coining power, by occasional presents. The colony, worried along in this way, always pressed for a sufficient circulating medium to supply its growing wants, till 1686, when a corporation for issuing bills, in the nature of a banking institution, was established. An obscurity rests over this period for want of records, the public papers having been forwarded to London without the preservation of copies here. This bank did not survive the revolution of 1688. William and Mary. This was partly owing to the debasement of the coin, which the officers of the London mint had reported to be 22 per cent. lighter than the English. Disappointed by the non-renewal of their mint, and burdened with a heavy debt, incurred by an unfortunate expedition against Canada, the General Court now commenced those issues of paper money which continued for more than half a 1869.] HISTORY OF THE CURRENCY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 183 century to cause by its fluctuations much confusion, fraud, and the buccaneers, among whom was the celebrated Capt. private distress, and deterioration of public morals. Producers Kidd, supplied to some extent the specie that was constantand traders were enabled, in some degree, to guard against ly drained off to the mother country. Great annoyance the effects of depreciation, by raising the price of their com- was experienced from counterfeiters, and from the mutilamodities, but soldiers, clergymen, and all depending upon in- tion of bills by cutting them into quarters for change. In come or wages for support, were often reduced to the greatest 1714, a private bank was started by an association of indistraits. During this period, while Massachusetts was flooded viduals, without legislative sanction. Its bills, however, with the paper of other colonies as well as its own, all those were long in circulation, and were in better credit by 33 expedients which are usually tried to bolster up a discredited per cent. than the Province issues. To put down this incurrency, were attempted by the legislature. They endea-stitution, the government commenced a sort of banking voured to sustain fictitious values by penalties. They com- themselves, and issued bills on loan, secured by mortgage manded and exhorted, and pretended a confidence they did of real estate, at an interest of 5 per cent. These loans not themselves feel; while old issues were replaced by new were from time to time repeated. ones only to share the same fate, and add increased perplexity to the transactions of trade. There is one point of view in which a history of the financial concerns of that period as sumes a peculiar interest. They led to constant collisions with the mother government in England, by which a spirit of resistance was fostered, and the habit of evasion of British laws, or disobedience to their provisions, was gradually formed, which induced both the feeling and the practice of independence. The process of training for self-government, can be nowhere so distinctly traced, as in the measures pursued in relation to the establishment and regulation of a currency. A command to abolish the mint was long evaded by dating tenor. About this time the celebrated Land or Manufac the new coinage back to 1652. In 1665, irritated by the requisition of the king's commissioners on this subject, they use this bold language to their sovereign:-" Royal Sir, a just dependence upon all allegiance unto your majestye according to the charter wee have and doe professe and practice, and have by our oaths of allegiance to your majestye confirmed. But to be placed upon the sandy foundations of a blind obcdience unto that arbitrary, absolute, and unlimited power, which these gentlemen (i. e. the commissioners) would impose upon us—this, as is contrary to your majestye's gracious expressions and the liberties of Englishmen, so we cannot see reason to submit thereto." The different tenors had their origin as follows: In 1737 the general court, perceiving that the credit of the old notes could not be restored, resolved to have others made, differently expressed. New bills were accordingly issued, set at one for three of the old yet the people passed then at one for four. A sinking fund was established for the redemption of these notes, which were called the new tenor, the others still in circulation being the old tenor. In 1749 another emission was made in the form of the old tenor bills, payable in one, two, and three years. This was denominated new tenor, and the other was thence called middle tory Bank was got up, afterward resulting so disastrously to the shareholders as well as to the public. The s'ock of this bank consisted of real estate or other good security, and its bill were made payable, after twenty years, in manufac tures of the province. "Old Charter bills," were those issued previous to the second charter of William and Mary. In 1742, £4 old tenor equalled 26s. 8d. middle tenor, equal to 2.s. new tenor, the last being 9s. 8d. for an ounce of silver. A contemporary writer estimates the value of an ounce of silver in England, at 5s. 2d. There were besides in circulation, Connecticut new tenor at 8s. the ounce of silver-Rhode Island new tenor at 6s. 9d.-private bills of merchants, issued in 1738, 33 per cent. better than province bills-another emission of merchants' notes of 1740, equivalent to cash, because paid in silver-and lastly, the bills of the Land bank, payable in twenty years in goods at an arbitrary price. By a singular concurrence of circumstances the first paper money system was brought to an end just before the commencement of our revolution. The public had become convinced, by experience and the arguments of a few intelligent men, among whom Thomas Hutchinson stands conspicuous, that the integrity of no currency could be maintained unless it was founded upon a specie basis, and The affairs of the last named institution were already immediately convertible int coin. The capture of Louis- in a state of confusion, and a winding up of its concerns burgh happily furnished the means of substituting hard was commenced, not destined to be completed for many money for paper, which, after much opposition, almost years. The climax of confusion seems to have been fairly amounting to rebellion, was fortunately accomplished; one reached. The study of arithmetic must have been deemed pound sterling being paid for ten pounds in bills. Thus as important as the opportunities for its practical applicathe way was cleared for a new career of artificial credit and tion were numerous and favourable. We can easily confluctuating currency, into which the events of the revolu- ceive the perplexity of a farmer, not well versed in comtion soon plunged our patriotic sires. pound rules, striving to reckon up the value of his produce In 1699 began the issue of public bills from 5 shillings in the various kinds of money he would be likely to reto 5 pounds, declared to be in value equal to money, and ceive for it. In this state of things, our fathers struggled accepted in all public payments, and for any stock at any on, unable to devise any remedy for pecuniary trouble but time in the treasury. These soon began to depreciate; a continued issue of new bills, in fact aggravating the evil, when Sir William Phipps came forward, magnanimously, but a measure for which the people were always clamorous. and exchanged at par a large amount of the coin which he The causes of existing trouble were the subject of warm dishad raised from the Spanish wrecks. This, however, pro- pute between the friends and opponents of a paper currency. duced little effect. The government finally announced In a pamphlet now before us, printed in 1740, it is argued that the bills would be received in all public payments at 5 with great ingenuity and earnestness, that public bills are per cent. premium, and that they shall pass current as the only thing that can be depended upon as a measure of money. The last command was obeyed only by debtors value; and that the Massachusetts currency had not deprewho had been so fortunate as to make no special contracts. ciated, but that specie had risen, as any other commodity The first provision, however, gave the bills additional credit might, because in America there was not enough of it for for some years. Articles of produce, and wampum, were foreign commerce; and therefore, that a withdrawal of pubstill a part of the circulating medium. The state of the lic bills, or a refusal to issue more, would only add to the currency is well described in an extract made by Mr. Felt, general distress. Nothing but a miracle seemed capable of from the "Travels of Madam Knight." The value of affording alleviation, and that was finally provided in the goods is rated in "pay money, pay as money, and trusting. remarkable conquest of Louisburg. From the proceeds of Pay is grain, pork, and beef, &c., at prices set by the Gene- this conquest the commissioners for redeeming the province ral Court. Money is pieces of eight, ryalls, Boston or Bay bills, commenced in 1750 their labours, and from being in shillings, or good hard money, (as silver coin is called) also the lowest state of credit, Massachusetts soon acquired the wampum or Indian beads, which serves as change." For name of " the hard money colony." instance, a sixpenny knife is twelve pence in pay, eight The process of substituting specie for government paper pence in pay as money, and sixpence in cash. There was was of course somewhat gradual in its accomplishment. a considerable amount of the pine tree money remaining, After this date it was pursued as a system, and although new issues were still occasionally made, for temporary purposes, yet they were not made to take the place of a more substantial currency. In 1774 Gov. Hutchinson congratulated the province upon its being entirely free from debt. We have copied the following memoir in regard to the early history of this place, from the original plan of Pintado, now hung up in the City Hall. Pintado was for many years Surveyor-General of West Florida, and was a man remarkable for his accuracy and research. The memoir may be relied on as strictly correct: "CHRONICLE.-The Bay of Pensacola was discovered by Paupila de Narvaez, in 1525. Various adventurers gave it different names-as Port of Anchuse, St. Mary's Bay, but that of Penzacola, or rather Pensacola, which has prevailed, was the true name among the Indians or natives of the country. The first establishment was made in it by the Spaniards in 1696, and its first Governor was Don Andrew Arivala, who made a small enclosure, picketing or fort, called Fort St. Charles, and a church, on the broken ground (Barancas) at the entrance of the port. The French took Pensacola in 1719, the Spaniards retook it, and the French again took it in the same year, and kept it until 1722, when it was restored to Spain. The Spaniards in the meantime removed to St. Joseph's Bay, and in 726 formed a small town at the west end of the island of St. Rosa, about the present ruined fort, which was originally made by them, although improved after wards by the English General Haldemond. The establishment remained there until 1754, when being partly inundated, the town was removed to the place which it now occupies. It was ceded to the English in 1763, and they laid off the town with regularity in 1765. It surrendered to the Spanish arms in 1781, and since then H. C. M. has possessed it. On the 7th November of the present year, the American army, under the command of Major General Andrew Jackson, entered into said town, and in the evening of the same day and morning of the 8th, the English in the Bay robbed and destroyed the forts of St. Charles of Barancas and St. Rosa. Pensacola, 9th of December, 18 4." [Pensacola Gazette. In travelling through Illinois, from Quincy to Springfield, and thence to Chicago, by the way of Peoria and Ottawa, I did not notice a single swamp large or small; and I cannot recollect, that I saw an acre of really waste land in any one place. But suppose the whole state to contain a million of acres of such land there are then no less than thirty-seven millions fit for cultivation and by far the greater part of it, of the very best quality. I have not a single doubt, that Illinois alone, is capable of sustaining a population of twenty millions. Forty-five bushels of corn to the acre, is less than an average crop; and with better cultivation it might easily be increased twenty per cent. Put 15,000,000 of acres into corn and multiply it by 45, and see what it will amount to. Put ten millions more into wheat and estimate the average product at the very moderate quantity of 20 bushels to the acre, and it gives you 300,000,000 of bushels per annum. Thus you have thirteen millions of acres left for rye, barley, hemp, farinaceous roots, grass, timber, &c.-Would it be strange, if before the thousand years of the millenium shall have half rolled away, Illinois, with such an extent of territory, and such a soil, should feed and clothe 30,000,000 of people?-Missouri is nearly as large as Illinois, and is probably capable of sustaining nearly as dense a population. And then, there are all the other great and fertile states of the valley, besides the immense unexplored regions, perhaps equally fertile, upon the tributaries, and about the sources of the Missouri and Mississippi.-Dr. Humphrey. The Journal of the American institute for July, states that last year, a gentleman in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, sold from his garden $7000 worth of grapes. Another in the neighborhood of Brooklyn, L. I. sold $1500 worth of raspberries from an acre of ground. A third, in Jamaica, L I. sold asparagus at the rate of $80 per week, during the season for that vegetable. A fourth, in New Haven, sold $700 worth of flowers. Iron. The almost universal introduction of Railroads into civilized countries, will greatly increase the consumption of iron. It has already had a great effect in this way. There are at this time, in Scotland, fifty furnaces in blast, five out, seven building, and twenty-six contemplated. In South Wales, 122 furnaces are in blast, seven out, thirty are in the process of building, and ninety are contemplated. In 1740, the annual produce of the kingdom was only 17,350 tons of cast iron. In three years, Scotland alone, it is computed, will produce 360,000 tons ;-and, within five years, 1,000,000 of tons will be produced annually in South Wales. Large Claim-On Saturday last a deed was shown us dated several years before the treaty of William Penn with the Indians. The deed secures many thousand acres of land in New Jersey to the holder of it and his heirs. A few days ago one of the heirs ascertained that this deed was in the possession of an individual who, at the conflagration of the recorder's office about 50 years ago, probably saved and retained it. The heir immediately called upon him, demanded, and obtained it. Suits, we understand, will shortly be instituted for this land by the claimant, who is a shoemaker by profession. Several counties in the State of New Jersey, are included in this claim.-Public Ledger. Honey Dew in Ohio.-The Lower Sandusky Whig says "This curious phenomenon so inexplicable to many, has been unusually abundant in this section for the last few weeks; indeed, we do not recollect of ever seeing it more so. Upon examining some leaves upon which this substance was discovered, we found it very palpable, quite thick, gummy, and yielding an agreeable saccharine taste." Death of Commodore Patterson.-The Nat. Intelligencer of yesterday says,-" We regret to announce that our esteemed fellow-citizen, Commodore Daniel T. Patterson, of the United States Navy, and Commandant of the Navy Yard and Station in this city, expired on the morning of Sunday, the 25th ult., at a quarter past 8 o'clock, at his residence in the said yard, after a short but severe illness of about 30 hours." at Lombard street wharf, arrived a few days since from Rio Unprecedented Speed.-The ship Roanoke, now lying de Janeiro, having made the passage in the wonderfully short time of 28 days. This is a degree of despatch, it is believed, unexampled in the history of ship navigation, the distance being between six and seven thousand miles. The Roanoke is commanded by Capt. George Harris. Inquirer. Rutland Vt. August 6.-Wool. This great staple article of our fertile mountain State, we are happy to learn, continues to be taken off the hands of the growers at about fifty cents per pound. The proceeds of the wool in this State, if all sold at an average of fifty cents per pound, will not vary much from fifteen hundred thousand dollars. Add to this the probable income from the sale of sheep, beef, pork, butter, cheese, &c., one million and a half more, making three millions.-Herald. 1839.] COFFEE-HISTORICAL-STATISTICAL. COFFEE-Historical-Statistical. As Coffee is one of our chief staple articles of import, we do not know of a treat that will be more acceptable to our patrons at this time, than a sketch of its history, progress of consumption, and statistics generally. Taken abstractly, it is calculated to impart much interest to business men; and by presenting it in an analagous position with other articles of import of similar importance, the policy of imposing excessive or moderate duties, is at once apparent. We are indebted to McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary for the principal items which follow, closing with the annual Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States made to Congress, which includes also the last, to September 30th, 1838. Historical Notice of Coffee.-The coffee plant is a native of that part of Arabia called Yemen; but it is now very extensively cultivated in the southern extremity of India, in Java, the West Indies, Brazil, &c. We are ignorant of the precise period when it began to be roasted, and the decoction used as a drink, though the discovery is not supposed to date farther back than the early part of the fifteenth century. No mention of it is made by any ancient writer, nor by any of the moderns previously to the sixteenth century. Leonhart Rauwolf, a German physician, is believed to be the first European who has taken any notice of coffee. His work was published in 1573, and his account is, in some respects, inaccurate. Coffee was, however, very accurately described by Prosper Albinus, who had been in Egypt, as physician to the Venetian consul, in his works, de Plantis Egypti, and de Medicina Egyptiorum, published in 1591 and 1592. A public coffee-house was opened for the first time in London, in 1652. A Turkey merchant of the name of Edwards, having brought along with him from the Levant some bags of coffee, and a Greek servant accustomed to make it, his house was thronged with visiters to see and taste this new sort of liquor. And being desirous to gratify his friends without putting himself to inconvenience he allowed his servant to make and sell coffee publicly. In consequence of this permission, the latter opened a coffee-house in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, on the spot where the Virginia Coffeehouse now stands. Garraway's was the first coffee-house opened after the great fire in 1666. 185 the quantity entered for home consumption amounted to 1,170,164 lbs., yielding a revenue of £161,245, 11s. 4d. In 1808, the duty was reduced from 1s. 8d. to 7d.; and in 1809, there were no fewer than 9,251,847 lbs. entered for home consumption, yielding, notwithstanding the reduction of duty, a revenue of £245,856, Ss. 4d. The duty hav ing been raised in 1819, from 7d. to Is. a pound, the quantity entered for home consumption, in 1824, was 7,993,041 lbs., yielding a revenue of £407,544, 4s. 3d. In 1824, how. ever, the duty being again reduced from 1s. to 6d., the quantity entered for home consumption, in 1825, was 10,766,112 lbs. ; and in 1831 it had increased to 22,740,627 lbs.; yielding a net revenue of £583,751. The introduction of tea and coffee, it has been well remarked, "has led to the most wonderful change that ever took place in the diet of modern civilized nations-a change highly important both in a moral and physical point of view." These beverages have the admirable advantage of affording stimulus, without producing intoxication or any of its evil consequences. Lovers of tea or coffee are, in fact, rarely drinkers; and hence the use of these beverages has benefited both manners and morals. Raynal observes that the use of tea has contributed more to the sobriety of the Chinese than the severest laws, the most eloquent discourses, or the best treatises on morality. Supply on Consumption of Coffee.-Owing to the rapidly increasing consumption of coffee in this country, the Continent, and America, the great value of the article, the large amount of capital and labour employed in its production, and the shipping required for its transport, it has become a commodity of primary commercial importance. It deserves particular attention, too, inasmuch as there are few, if any, articles that exhibit such variations, not only as to consumption, but also as to growth and price. These are occasioned partly by changes of commercial regulations and duties, and partly, also, by the plant requiring four or five years before it comes to bear; so that the supply is neither suddenly increased when the demand increases, nor diminished when it falls off. St. Domingo used formerly to be one of the greatest sources of supply, having exported, in 1786, about 35,000 tons; and it is supposed that, but for the negro insurrection which broke out in 1792, the exports of that year would have amounted to 42,000 tons, The de M. de la Roque mentions that the use of coffee was first in-vastation occasioned by this event caused, for a series of troduced into France in the period between 1640 and 1660; and he further states, that the first coffee-house for the sale of coffee in France was opened at Marseilles, in 1671; and that one was opened at Paris in the following year. Some time between 1680 and 1690, the Dutch planted coffee beans they had procured from Mocha, in the vicinity of Batavia. In 1690, they sent a plant to Europe, and it was from berries obtained from this plant that the first coffee plantations in the West Indies and Surinam were derived. Progressive Consumption of Coffee in Great Britain. Influence of the Duties.-In 1660, a duty of 4d. a gallon was laid on all coffee made and sold. Previously to 1732, the duty on coffee amounted to 2s. a pound; but an act was then passed, in compliance with the solicitations of the West India planters, reducing the duty to 1s. 6d. a pound; at which it stood for many years, producing, at an average, about £10,000 a year. In consequence, however, of the prevalence of smuggling, caused by the too great magnitude of the duty, the revenue declined, in 1783, to £2,869, 10s. 104d. And it having been found impossible otherwise to check the progress of clandestine importation, the duty was reduced, in 1784, to 6d. The consequences of this wise and salutary measure were most beneficial. Instead of being reduced, the revenue was immediately raised to near three times its previous amount, or to £7,200, 15s. 9d., showing that the consumption of legally imported coffee must have increased in about a ninefold proportion !-a striking and conclusive proof, as Mr. Bryan Edwards has observed, of the effect of heavy taxation in defeating its own object. The history of the coffee trade abounds with similar and even more striking examples of the superior productiveness of low duties. In 1807, the duty was is. 8d. a pound; and Vol. I.-23 years, an almost total cessation of supplies. Recently, however, they have again begun to increase; and are understood to amount, at present, to above 20,000 tons a year. From Cuba, the exports of coffee have within these few years rather declined, owing partly to an increased consumption in the island, and partly to the efforts of the planters having, a little time back, been more directed to the cultivation of sugar; they may at present amount to from 18,000 to to 20,000 tons; or, including Porto Rico, to 25,000 or 27,000 tons. In Java, also, the exports of coffee have, of late, been on the decline, but not to any considerable extent. In Jamaica and the other British West India colonies, the cultivation of coffee was greatly extended during the prevalence of the high prices, but the imports have fallen off from 12,000 tons in 1829, to about 10,800 tons in 1832. In Brazil, the growth of coffee has increased with unprece dented rapidity. So late as 1821, the quantity of coffee exported from Rio de Janeiro did not exceed 7,500 tons; whereas it now amounts to about 30,000 tons!* This extraordinary increase has probably been, in some measure, owing to the continuance of the slave trade; and it remains to be scen, whether the growth of coffee may not now be checked by the late cessation of that abominable traffic. The culture of coffee in India and Ceylon is daily becoming of more importance. In India it is raised chiefly on the coast of Malabar, and the quantity exported is, at present believed to exceed 4,000,000 lbs. The exports from Ceylon, in 1830, *M. Montveran is pleased to inform us, in his Essai de Statistique sur les colonies, a work in other respects of considerable merit, (Pieces Justificatives, p. 11,) that the exports of coffee from Brazil in 1830-31, amounted to 1,865.000 kilog =1,836 tons! In point of fact they were more than 20 times as much. 1.86 Dutch West India colonies, 5,000 French West India colonies and the Isle de Bourbon, 8,000 147,000 [Bullimore Price Current. From the National Gazette. MULBERRY AND SILK FACTS. Messrs. Editors,-The following interesting facts in relation to the progress of the silk business, are taken from Tons. the Saturday Number of Mr. Morris's Silk Farmer, pubThat little work, of which 1,500 lished at No. 45 Chesnut street. 40,500 several thousand copies are every week circulated over the 32,000 country, contains much that the culturist will find of value to him. An important feature in this little publication is a 35,000 price current of articles connected with the raising of silk; 20,500 and as the utmost care is taken by the editor to publish nothing which is not strictly correct, its reports are entitled to the confidence of the public. The following is from the price current of Saturday last, the 24th ult. 138,500 Of this quantity, the consumption of Great Britain and America amounts to nearly a fourth part, and may be said to have arisen almost entirely since 1807. "Cocoons 2 50 to 5 dollars per bushel; the demand exceeding the supply. Silk Worm Eggs, 10 dollars per ounce of clear eggs. American Reeled Silk, 5 dollars and 50 cents per pound. Brooks's Reel for reeling and twisting silk, 35 to 40 dollars. Dennis's Reel, about 30 dollars. Gay's complete Silk Machinery, 400 dollars. Piedmontese or Italian Reel, 15 dollars. Of the entire export of coffee from Arabia, not more, perhaps, than 5,000 or 6,900 tons finds its way to the places mentioned above; so that, supposing these estimates to be about correct, it follows that the supply of coffee is, at present, about equal to the demand. The latter is, however, rapidly increasing, and it is impossible to say whether it be destined to outrun, keep pace with, or fall short of the supply. On the whole, however, we should be inclined to There is a cash market in this city for all the raw silk think, that though they may occasionally vary to the extent that can be produced; the supply is far short of the demand, of a few thousand tons on the one side or the other, the pro-and it commands a higher price than any of the foreign arbability is that they will be pretty nearly balanced; so that, supposing peace to be preserved, we do not anticipate any very great variation of price. The prices of 1827, 1828, 1829, and 1830, seem to have been a good deal below the average. This depression naturally checked production and stimulated consumption, so that prices rose considerably in 1831, 1832, and 1833; but the advance, in the last, has not Such oscillabeen maintained, at least to the whole extent. tions will, no doubt, continue to take place; but unless the cost of producing coffee should be permanently increased or diminished, they can only be temporary. The consumption of coffee in the United States has been more than quadrupled since 1821, in which year it amounted to 6,680 tons. Part of this increase is, no doubt, to be ascribed to the reduction of the duty, first from 5 to 2 cents per pound, and its subsequent repeal; part to the fall in the price of coffee; and a part, perhaps, to the increase of temperance societies. Probably, also, it was in some degree ascribable to the comparatively high duties formerly laid on the teas imported into the United States; these, however, finally Account of the Imports of Coffee into the United States, the Exports from the same, and the quantities left for Home Consumption, during each of the 18 years, ending the 30th of September, 1838: ceased in 1833. ticle." So much has been said concerning what is called the "tree excitement," and so systematic have been the efforts to depress the price of mulberry trees, that the following will be considered interesting to all engaged in that branch of the business. Where the names of the buyer and seller are not published, I understand the editor is prepared to furnish them-but many parties object to having their names mentioned in print. The fact, however, of names and places being stated in print, is full evidence of the accuracy and reality of these transactions, as every reader has it in his power, by inquiry of the proper parties, to ascertain the real facts of the case. "The following authentic sales have been reported since our last:-Mr. W m. A. Delano, of Columbia, Pa., sold on the 16th ult. a small lot of trees at 50 cents each, taking them as they grow. In Buckingham county, Va., 2700 dollars worth of buds were recently sold by Captain Branch and the Rev. J. S. Armistead, at two cents per bud. Last week Mr. L. J. Cox, of Baltimore, sold 25,000 trees, averaging 34 feet, (the root thrown in without charge,) at 40 cents; payment in full was made on signing the contract. About 30 miles from Richmond, Va., last week, Mr. Carter Harrison sold to Mr. Randolph Harrison about 500 trees, grown from cuttings planted this spring, at 1 dollar 16 cents Left for Home each-cash on the spot. At Unionville, Chester county, Consumption. Pa., Dr. A. Weeks last week sold 2500 trees, averaging lbs. 11,886,063 four feet, at 40 cents. Other sales have subsequently been 18,515,271 made in that neighbourhood at 47 and 50 cents-cash on 16,437,045 delivery. At Burlington, N. J., since our last, a sale of At Chestertown, 19,797,024 23,000 trees, as they grow, at 25 cents. 20,678,062 Md., a sale of 900 roots for 900 dollars. At Bordentown, |