COMMERCE. 



351 



and has a geographical situation uncommonly favour- 

 able for commerce, its trade, both domestic and for- 

 eign, is very limited. . The cause is to be sought in 

 the impolitic restrictions, heavy taxes and imposts, to 

 which the commercial cities are subjected in this 

 most fruitful, but, for the most part, badly governed 

 country. The chief articles of export from Italy are 

 corn, olive-oil, wine, brandy, silk, cotton, wool, hemp, 

 flax, velvet, damask, barilla (soda), sulphur, sumach, 

 gall-nuts, madder, velani or valonia, and other dye- 

 stuffs, senna leaves, liquorice juice and root, juniper 

 berries and other drugs, anchovies, almonds, figs, 

 nuts, olives, currants, raisins and other fruits, rags, 

 chip and straw hats, the skins of sheep and kids, and 

 marble. The principal commercial cities are Flor- 

 ence, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Venice, and Ancona. 

 Leghorn is the main channel of the trade of Italy 

 witli the Levant and the Barbary states, and the cen- 

 tral point of the commerce of England in the Medi- 

 terranean. A great part of its trade is in the hands 

 of the Jews. Silks, taffeta, satins,' brocades, light 

 woollen goods, velvets, &c., are the main articles of 

 export from Florence. These pass through Leghorn, 

 and sell readily in the Levant. Milan and Turin 

 carry on a very extensive trade in their silk, which 

 is celebrated throughout Europe for its admirable 

 fineness and lightness. Ancona has intercourse with 

 the first commercial cities of Europe. Its business 

 is chiefly agency and commission business. Some 

 silk is exported from Nice. The exports of Lucca 

 are olive-oil, silk, damasks, fruit, &c. Much olive- 

 oil is exported from Gallipoli. The trade of Genoa 

 continues considerable. Its exports are velvet, da- 

 mask (which, next to the Venetian, is the most 

 esteemed in Europe), raw silk, fruit, olive-oil, alum, 

 marble, corals, coarse paper, &c. Venice, once the 

 greatest mart of the world, notwithstanding the dis- 

 appearance of its ancient splendour, is still an impor- 

 tant place for commerce, a great part of the trade of 

 Europe with the Levant being yet in its hands. The 

 Venetian velvets, damasks, mirrors, and manufactur- 

 ed silks, in great quantities, form the most considera- 

 ble constituents of the foreign trade of Venice. The 

 exports of Naples are olive-oil, wool, silk, tartar, 

 wines, raw and manufactured silk, fruit, sulphur, and 

 staves. 



The Islands of the Mediterranean Sea. The ex- 

 ports of Sicily, a country on which nature, witli pro- 

 fuse generosity, has lavished in abundance all her 

 gifts (the benefit of which, however, is almost destroy- 

 ed by the weakness of the government), consist of 

 silk, grain, barilla, sulphur, olive-oil, wine, canthari- 

 des, sumach, manna, coral, rags, almonds, figs, rais- 

 ins, nuts, anchovies, amber, goat, buck and sheep- 

 skins, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, &c., and pine- 

 apples of remarkable size and exquisite flavour. The 

 cfiief port is Messina ; next to this comes Palermo. 



The exports of Sardinia are, chiefly, grain of un- 

 common excellence, tunny-fish, hides, barilla, salt. 

 Cagliari is the most considerable commercial city. 



Corsica exports silk, olive-oil, and black, white 

 and red corals. The silk goes mostly to Genoa and 

 Lyons, and the corals are sold at Marseilles, where 

 they are manufactured and polished, to be sent to 

 Africa, to be sold to the Moors and Negroes. The 

 Corsican ports are Ajaccio, Bastia, and Porto Vec- 

 chio. 



Malta, which is, like Gibraltar, a depot for British 

 and colonial goods that are to be disposed of in the 

 Mediterranean, exports cotton, oranges, and other 

 fruits. 



_The Ionian islands (Cephalonia, Zante, Corfu, San- 

 la Maura, &c. ) export wine, brandy, olive-oil, raisins, 

 currants, citrons, melons, pomegranates, honey, cot- 

 ton, and salt. The raisins and currants are superior 



to those of the Morea in quality. The wine is Mus- 

 cadel. 



The commerce of the island of Cyprus is inconsid- 

 erable. It exports cotton, wool, silk, wine, salt, 

 turpentine, Turkish leather, &c. Its largest com- 

 mercial cities are Larnica and Rhodes. 



The exports of the island of Candiaj which, by its 

 situation, is designed for the mart of the European, 

 Asiatic, and African trade, consist of oil, soap, wax, 

 wine, linseed, raisins, almonds, laudanum, St John's 

 bread (the fruit of the ceratonia siliqua), &c. 



Belgium and Holland. The chief commercial 

 cities of Belgium are Antwerp, Ghent, and Ostend. 

 Antwerp is the mart of the commerce of the North 

 of Europe. Since the opening of the Scheldt, it has 

 been gradually recovering its mercantile prosperity, 

 The exports of Antwerp consist, principally, of wheat, 

 beans, clover-seed, linen, laces, carpets, tapestry, 

 and all the manufactures of Brussels, Mechlin, Ghent, 

 and Bruges. The articles of export from Ghent are 

 wheat, fine linen, flax, hemp, beans, &c. ; those 

 from Ostend are wheat, clover-seed, flax, tallow, 

 hides, and the linen of Ghent and Bruges. The 

 chief exports of Holland, the commerce ot which has 

 revived since 1814, and employs, every year, 4000 

 vessels of various descriptions, are butter, cheese, 

 linen, cloth, drugs, and paints, fish, wheat, linseed, 

 clover-seed, geneva (gin), dye-stuffs, paper, &c. The 

 principal commercial cities in Holland are Amster- 

 dam, Rotterdam, and Groningen ; then follow Liege, 

 Middelburg, and the ports of Briel, Delftshaven, 

 Dort, Enckhuyson, Medenblick, &c. Before the 

 decline of Dutch commerce, Amsterdam was one of 

 the greatest commercial cities of the world, the mart 

 of goods from the East and the West, and from the 

 principal states of Europe. At the time when the 

 Dutch were in exclusive possession of the spiceries 

 of the East, of the silks of the East Indies and China, 

 and of the fine East India cotton goods, they dressed 

 in coarse cloth, and were satisfied with a very frugal 

 mode of living. The fine cloths which they themselves 

 manulactured, they destined wholly for foreign coun- 

 tries, and, for their own use, purchased coarse cloth in 

 England, At that time, they likewise sold the su- 

 perior butter and cheese which they made, and, for 

 their own use, bought the cheaper sorts from Eng- 

 land and Ireland. To the exchange and banking 

 business, of which the channel was Amsterdam, the 

 Dutch were also, in part, indebted for their great 

 prosperity. With Hamburg, Amsterdam is yet the 

 centre of the exchange business between the north 

 and the south of Europe, although, from the time 

 that the credit of the bank of Amsterdam diminished, 

 this branch of business has declined, a great portion 

 of it being transferred to Hamburg and London. 

 The imports are grain, wood, coal, tallow, wax, rags, 

 &c. For the colonial trade of Holland, the posses- 

 sion of Batavia, Amboyna, Banda, Ternate, and Ma- 

 cassar, in the East Indies, is of importance, as are 

 also the commercial settlements on the Coromandel 

 and Malabar coasts, and those at Bantam, Padang, 

 Japan, &c. In Africa, Holland has some forts in 

 Guinea; in America, she possesses Surinam, and the 

 West India islands of Curacoa, St Eustatia and St 

 Martin. 



Poland. The exports of Poland consist of corn- 

 hemp, flax, lumber, linseed, tallow, and salt. Its 

 commerce is inconsiderable, and is almost wholly in 

 the hands of the Jews. Warsaw and Cracow are 

 the two largest commercial cities. The former has 

 two fairs every year. Cracow has a situation very 

 favourable to commerce, but the principal article of 

 its trade is furnished by the celebrated salt mines of 

 Wieliczka. situated in the neighbourhood. At the 

 fairs of Leipsic and Frankfort on the Oder, Poland is 



