COMMERCE. 



353 



tlit demands of the free Greeks must soon much in- 

 crease. They offer cotton for linen, silk for cloths, 

 gold for iron. Nature and habit recommend to them 

 intercourse with Austria. On the other hand, the 

 commerce with European Russia, by way of Con- 

 stantinople to Odessa, was very much restricted by 

 the Porte, subsequently to 1823, by the necessity of 

 relading, to which it subjected the European vessels 

 destined for Odessa, and by other burdensome regu- 

 lations. This, however, has been clianged by the 

 peace concluded with Russia in 1829. Every vessel 

 can, at present, pass the Dardanelles unmolested. 

 This must soon have a great influence upon the Turk- 

 ish trade also. In the Arcliipelago, the Greek strug- 

 gle for freedom has given rise to many dangers to the 

 commerce of neutrals. The chief commercial place 

 is Constantinople, particularly hi regard to the trade 

 with Russia. Till within a snort period, it distribut- 

 ed the Russian products through the ports of the 

 Mediterranean. The exports of this city, which, 

 under a wise and active government, might become 

 the true mart of the world, are of such little import- 

 ance, that the great quantities of goods, imported for 

 the use of Turkey, have to be paid for, almost wholly 

 with gold and diamonds. In this port, the English, 

 French, Italians, and Dutch obtain the produce of 

 Poland ; the salt, the honey, the wax, the tobacco, 

 and the butter of the Ukraine ; the hides, the tallow, 

 the hemp, the canvass, the peltry, and the metals of 

 Russia and Siberia, and, in exchange, give the pro- 

 ductions of their own countries. This business is 

 transacted without the Turks having the slightest 

 part in it. 



Hungary. Hungary is considered by Austria as 

 a foreign country, and is circled in by a line of cus- 

 tom olticers. The trade of Hungary, therefore, is 

 under different regulations from that of the rest of 

 the empire, and is any thing but favoured by the go- 

 vernment. Its foreign commerce is, nevertheless, 

 by no means insignificant. The exports are wine, 

 tobacco, gall-nuts, antimony, alum, potash, horned 

 cattle, wool, iron, copper, wheat, rye, and barley. 

 The exports by far exceed the imports. Goods can 

 only be introduced through Austria and Turkey, 

 the government having prohibited every other way 

 that might be selected for the purpose. 



II. ASIA. The commerce of Asia is mostly in- 

 land, carried on chiefly, in Western and Middle Asia, 

 by means of those caravans (called, by a poet, the 

 fleets of the desert), in which, sometimes, more than 

 50,000 merchants and travellers are collected, while 

 the number of camels is far greater. The central 

 point of this trade by caravans is Mecca, which, 

 during the presence of the caravans, offers to the eye 

 of the traveller a more active trade and a greater 

 accumulation of merchandise than any other city in 

 the world. The muslins . and other goods of the 

 East Indies, the productions of China, all the spices 

 of the East, die shawls of Cashmere, &c., are trans- 

 ported on the backs of camels to Mecca, from 

 whence they are scattered over, not only the Asiatic, 

 but also the African continent. 



The Arabs, who were, before the discovery of the 

 passage to the East Indies around the cape of Good 

 Hope, the first commercial people of the world, have 

 now no commerce of consequence. Coffee, aloes, 

 almonds, the balsam of Mecca, spices, and drugs, and 

 their Afric. n imports of myrrh, frankincense, and 

 gum-arabic, are their chief articles of export. Ye- 

 men, rich in the costly productions of nature, resorts 

 for a market to Mecca. The Arabian gulf and the 

 Red sea connect the commerce of Arabia with that 

 of -Africa, especially with that of Egypt and Abys- 

 sinia. 



From Masuah, the capital of Abyssinia, are ex- i 



ported gold, civet, ivory, rhinoceros' horns, rice, 

 honey, wax, and slaves ; and for these the Africans 

 obtain, in Mocha, or Mecca, and Jedda, cotton, 

 cloves, cinnamon, pepper, musk, ginger, cardamom, 

 camphor, copper, lead, iron, tin, steel, turmeric, ver- 

 milion, tobacco, gunpowder, sandal-wood, rice, 

 hardware, anus, and a number of other kinds of 

 European manufactures. The exports from Aden, 

 an Arab city, on the straits of Babelmandeb, where 

 many Jews reside for the purpose of trade, are cof- 

 fee, elephants' tusks, gold, and various kinds of 

 gums; for which it imports chiefly East India and 

 Chinese productions. Muscat, a port in the Ara- 

 bian province Oman, the key of Arabia and Persia, 

 carries on considerable trade with British India, 

 Sumatra, the Malay islands, the Red sea, and the 

 eastern coast of Africa. 



Well adapted as the geographical situation of 

 Persia is for commerce, it is pursued, nevertheless, 

 with very little energy, and little enterprise. Its 

 exports consist mostly of horses, silk, pearls, bro- 

 cades, carpets, cotton goods, shawls, rose-water, 

 wine of Schiras, dates, wool of Caramania, gums, 

 drugs of various kinds, &c. The chief places for 

 Persian trade are the Turkish cities of Bagdad and 

 Bassora. The harbour of Abuschar, or Buschir, on 

 the Persian gulf, is also a mart for Persian and In- 

 dian goods. Bagdad, once the centre of a brilliant 

 and extensive commerce, may still be considered as 

 the great mart of the East, though it is by no means 

 what it has been. From Bassora, the productions of 

 Arabia, India, Persia, and the Asiatic islands are 

 sent to Bagdad, where they find a very good market, 

 and from whence they are scattered through the 

 other cities of the Turkish empire. By means of 

 the Arab caravans, Europe supplies Persia with goods 

 of all kinds, and even with the productions of Ame- 

 rica. On the other hand, it has nothing to give but 

 dates, tobacco, and a very moderate quantity of 

 woollen stuffs, its whole trade consisting in the dis- 

 tribution and sale of the products of other countries. 

 Bassora is, by its situation, the mart of the active East 

 Indian, Persian, and Arabic trade, carried on in the 

 Persian gulf. Its trade with the East Indies is very 

 considerable, it being the channel through which the 

 Ottoman empire is supplied with the groceries of the 

 East, and with the manufactures of the British pos- 

 sessions in the East Indies. 



Asiatic Turkey. The principal port of the Le- 

 vant is Smyrna, a very important depot of the mer- 

 chandise of the East and West. The articles ex- 

 ported from the Levant are coffee, cotton, wool, silk, 

 madder, camels' and goats' hair, hides, raisins, figs, 

 pearls, rotten-stone, whet-stones, nut-galls, opium, 

 rhubarb, and other drugs. Angora sends to Smyrna, 

 by caravans, considerable quantities of Angora goats' 

 hair, and stuffs made of the same material ; for the 

 Angora goats' hair is manufactured into camlet, 

 in the Levant itself, and in Europe, especially in 

 Britain, France, and Holland, some of whose cam- 

 let manufacturers keep agents in Angora, through 

 whom they make their purchases. Damascus is the 

 centre of trade in Syria, and does a good deal of bu- 

 siness through the caravans, which go from the 

 north of Asia to Mecca, and from Bagdad to Cairo. 

 Aleppo has much commercial intercourse with Con- 

 stantinoole, Bassora, Bagdad Damascus, and Scan- 

 deroon, or Alexandretta, to which places caravans go 

 every year, through Aleppo. Its exports are its 

 own silk and cotton goods, the shawls and muslins 

 of the East Indies, the gall-nuts of Curdistan, copper, 

 pistachio-nuts, and drugs. Alexandretta has some 

 trade of importance. Erzerum is the mart of silk 

 and cotton goods, printed linens, groceries, rhubarb, 

 madder, ana East Indian zcdoary. 



