Briti/b Trade ivith Tiithy. aff$ 



With respect to the rivallhip of other nations, that caufe 

 will be confidered when I fpeak of the Levant Company. . 

 As to the impoverished state of Turkey, it muft affect the 

 trade of other European nations as well as our own ; it we 

 are not, therefore, to expect to fee it again in that flourifhing 

 state in which it was, when there were forty Englifh houfes 

 of trade at Aleppo, (at prefent there is but one.) we may at 

 leaft expect to have the fame proportion of it as we then had; 

 and if we acquire only this, our trade to the Levant will ftill 

 be a national object. Some branches of trade are got into 

 other channels; this regards principally certain imports from 

 Turkey, and particularly of silk from Aleppo, whence for- 

 merly larger quantities of Perfian filk came, which is not 

 now brought thither, but the Eaft India Company fupply our 

 market cheaper and more abundantly. Considerable quan- 

 tities of cotton and drugs come from Holland and from Italy, 

 which formerly came direct. This will alfo be accounted 

 for in the next consideration, the monopoly of the Levant 

 Company. 



It is often neceffarv, and where merchants undertake to 

 ©pen to the country a new branch of trade, and where the 

 expence and riik is great, it is just, to grant them exclusive 

 privileges, or monopolies, for a certain limited time, to pre- 

 vent others from reaping the harvest they had fown, and to 

 fecure their laudable induftrv as far as possible from riik; 

 but when that riik cxifts no more, and when they have 

 reaped their harvest over and over again, and have had a full 

 compenfation for their rifk, their industry, and their expence, 

 the country at large has a right to a participation of the trade. 

 There may, indeed, fometimes exist circumstances of a pecu 

 liar nature, which give them a claim to a longer indulgence 

 in their monopoly, particularly where that monopoly is no 

 injurious, but, on the contrary, beneficial to the country in 

 general, (and fuch is the cafe of the Eaft India Company ;) 

 but in a trade where the merchants have no common stock, 

 and can urge none of the above reafons in defence of their 

 S 4 monopoly; 



