42 Voyage of the Novara. 



The principal items of commerce in Gibraltar are English 

 cotton goods, which are exported to Barbary in considerable 

 quantities. To compete successfully with the English in 

 this branch of trade would be very difficult for any other 

 nation ; but there are a great number of other articles which 

 might find a ready sale on the African coast, and which 

 are produced cheaper in several States of the European conti- 

 nent than in England ; a consideration of so much the more 

 importance in trading with the Moors, that these people regard 

 lowness of price rather than the quality of the goods. 



For this very reason, small but industrious Belgium has 

 become a powerful competitor of mighty England. Thus, 

 for instance, that country exports to Morocco, by way of 

 Gibraltar, sugar, both in loaves and crushed,* hardware and 

 cutlery, nails and screws, zinc, as well as all sorts of earthen- 

 ware and glass. A portion of these articles goes into the 

 neighbouring Spanish provinces. 



It is rather singular that the Belgian glass goods are 

 in Gibraltar represented as of German manufacture, and 

 thereby obtain a readier sale. This seems to be a proof 

 that German {i. e. Bohemian) glass • articles have been pa- 

 tronized before the Belgian, and lost the market only through 

 the importation of the latter. 



* The superior quality and cheapness of Belgian sugars have of late in a 

 great measure driven all others out of the market. It ia also wortliy of remark, 

 that though Gibraltar is a British colony, all the accounts are kept in Spanish 

 currency, and that there are more Spanish and French coins in circulation 

 tlian Enghsh, which, when changed, even sustain a small loss. The Spanish 

 measures and weights also are more in use than the English. 



