360 



COMMERCE. 



gums, dried beef, and India-rubber shoes. The 

 greater part of the Brazilian trade is in the hands of 

 tlie British. The imports are iron, steel, copper 

 utensils, salt, woollen cloths, linen, calicoes, hats, 

 shoes of all kinds, china, glass-ware, trinkets, books, 

 paper, watches, clocks, and particularly East India 

 goods, such as are not raised in Brazil. Portugal 

 sends to Brazil, wine, oil, spirits, hats; the United 

 States, flour, turpentine, and furniture. Naval muni- 

 tions, sailors' clothes, and arms are likewise imported. 



Colombia, consisting of Venezuela and New Gre- 

 naila, says Alexander Humboldt, has received from 

 nature a greater and richer variety of vegetable 

 products, suited for commerce, than any other 

 country of Spanish America ; yet its commerce has 

 been declining every year since its separation from 

 Spain. In Colombia, Peruvian bark is found of 

 the best quality and in the greatest quantity. Cof- 

 fee, indigo, sugar, cotton, cacao, ipecac uanlia, the 

 tobacco of Varinas, hides, and dried meat, pearls, 

 "old, and platina, &c., are obtained in this highly 

 favoured country. Its imports embrace all kinds 

 of manufactured goods, oil, soap, ropes, paper, 

 in tact almost every tiling which is wanted by 

 the indolent inhabitants, and made by the hands of 

 men ; for the jieople themselves manufacture hardly 

 anything. Humboldt has estimated the exports of 

 Colombia at 9,000,000 dollars, and its imports at 

 11,200,000 dollars. M. Mollien estimates the for- 

 mer at 8,000,000 dollars, and the latter at 10,000,000 

 dollars. The state of this country, at the present 

 moment, prevents the possibility of obtaining ac- 

 curate information on this subject. The ports of La 

 Guayra (harbour of Caracas), Rio del Hacha, St 

 Martha, Carthagena, Cliagres, Porto Cabello, Pana- 

 ma, and Guayaquil are the most frequented by 

 strangers. The British, from Jamaica, the Americans 

 and French, are the nations who trade principally with 

 the Colombians in the Atlantic ports ; the Peruvian 

 vessels carry on the coasting trade on the Pacific. 



Buenos Ayrcs, like all the other South American 

 states, is in an unsettled condition. The chief ex- 

 ports of this country are horse and ox hides ; in fact, 

 Buenos Ayres may be called, by way of eminence, 

 the country of cattle. Its imports include all the 

 manufactured articles which the inhabitants make use 

 of. Britain sends thither woollen and cotton cloth, 

 cutlery, hardware, furniture, saddlery, hats, porter, 

 and cheese ; the United States, lumber, cod-fish, 

 mackerel, and herring, leather, gunpowder, provi- 

 sions ; from Brazil are sent sugar, coffee, cotton, 

 rum ; steel and iron from the north of Europe ; and 

 France sends her manufactures. The exports and 

 imports are estimated at 9,000,000 dollars. 



The commerce of Chile is, at present, in a low 

 condition. Its rich mines are poorly managed, and 

 the political state of the country prevents its com- 

 merce from acquiring that activity which it might 

 easily attain by the export of the precious metals of 

 the country to the East Indies, to give in return for 

 sugar and cotton. It could also provide Peru with 

 salt meat, and take hi return coffee, sugar, &c. 

 Caldcleugh estimates the British importations into 

 Valparaiso, in 1822, at 4,071,250 francs, and Lowe 

 at 47,248,625 francs, for the same year. The Unit- 

 ed States send thither flour. 



Peru trades with the United States, with Europe, 

 the Philippine islands, G uatimala, and Chile, and, by 

 land, with Buenos Ayres. Its exports are chiefly 

 geld and silver, wine, brandy, sugar, pimento, Peru- 

 vian bark, salt, vicuna wool, and coarse woollens. It 

 receives, in return, from the United States, bread- 

 stuffs, and manufactures of various sorts ; from 

 Europe, manufactured goods, particularly silks, fine 

 cloth, lace, fine linen and other articles of luxury 



and show; from the Philippine islands, muslins, 

 tea, and other East India goods ; from Guatimala, 

 indigo; from Chile, wheat and copper; and from 

 Buenos Ayres, mules and Paraguay tea. Callao is 

 the port of Lima. 



The commerce of Central America, or Guatimala, 

 is increasing in activity. Colonial commodities 

 chiefly sugar, coffee, cacao, cotton, indigo, cochineal, 

 ebony, and logwood (from the bay of Honduras), are 

 the principal exports sent to Kurope and some of 

 the United States. The imports are linen, from 

 Germany and France; woollen cloths, silks, and 

 wines, from France ; British and French calicoes ; 

 flour, anil some manufactured goods, from the United 

 States. This country is well adapted for commerce 

 on account of its fine harbours and several navigable 

 rivers. A canal across the isthmus would be of vast 

 benefit to this country ; in fact, the execution of such 

 a canal would bear a similarity to some of those 

 great inventions, which have clianged the face of the 

 world. 



The British, Dutch, and French possessions in 

 South America are Demerara, berbice,Esseyuido, Suri- 

 nam, and Cayenne. From Cayenne are exported 

 cloves, Cayenne pepper, annotta, sugar, cotton, cof- 

 fee, and cacao ; from Berbice, rum, sugar, cotton, 

 cacao, &c. ; from Demerara, Surinam, and Essequi- 

 bo, sugar, rum, cotton, coffee, and molasses. 



WEST INDIES. The chief islands which constitute 

 the West Indies are Cuba, St Domingo, or Hayti, 

 Jamaica, Barbadoes, Dominica, St Christopher, or 

 St Kitt's, Curasao, and Guadaloupe. They liave all 

 very nearly the same productions, viz. sugar, coffee, 

 wax, ginger, and other spices, mastich, aloes, va- 

 nilla, quassia, manioc, maize, cacao, tobacco, indigo, 

 cotton, molasses, mahogany, long peppers, lignum- 

 vitae, Campeachy wood, yellow wood, gums, tortoise- 

 shell, rum, pimento, &c. Before St Domingo or 

 Hayti became an independent government of blacks, 

 it was the depot of the goods brought from Havanna, 

 Vera Cruz, Guatimala, Carthagena, and Venezuela; 

 but, since that event, Jamaica has been the magazine 

 of all goods from the gulf of Mexico. Trinidad is 

 the great seat of the contraband trade with Cumana, 

 Barcelona, Margarita, and Guiana. The imports arc- 

 manufactures of all kinds, wine, flour, and, formerly, 

 slaves, who are still smuggled into many of the 

 islands. The West Indies form one great source of 

 the commerce of the world ; and we must refer Die 

 reader, for more particular information, to the arti- 

 cles on the different islands. 



A new path has been laid open to the commerce 

 of the world by the British, ta the Southern ocean, 

 where, of late, the Sandwich, the Friendly, and the 

 Society islands have been taken within the circle of 

 European and American intercourse ; and in Austra- 

 lia and Van Diemen's land, a great market has been 

 established for the exchange of British manufactures 

 for the productions of nature; while the North 

 Americans have attempted to found commercial set- 

 tlements on the Washington (Nukahiva) and other 

 islands of the Pacific. (See Moreau de Jonnes Du 

 Commerce exterrieur du XlXme Siecle, 2 vols. Paris, 

 1826.) In 1828, the imports from New Holland 

 and the South sea islands, into Great Britain, amount- 

 ed to 83,552, and the exports to 267,529. 



COMMERCIAL COURTS are tribunals distinct from 

 the ordinary civil courts, and are established in 

 commercial towns, or within certain districts, to set- 

 tle disputes with regard to rights and obligations 

 between persons engaged in trade, with the assistance 

 of experienced merchants, by a brief process, accord- 

 ing to equitable principles. It is doubtful whether 

 the commercial nations of antiquity Iiad any commer- 

 cial tribunals of this sort. The general introduction 



