426 A. D. 1765. 



The Britifli trade in Portugal was moreover greatly injured by means 

 of the exclufive companies of Maranham and Pernambucco, who op- 

 prefTed the colonifts in Brafil, and ruined tlie trade by their monopo- 

 lizing avarice ; alio by the arbitrary ufitge of the board of trade f Junta 

 de cotnmercid' ) in giving protedtion to fraudulent bankrupts, contrary (as 

 is believed) to the 13th article of the treaty of 1654, which provides 

 againft any protections from the claims of lawful creditors ; alfo by the 

 uncertainty of property, proceeding from the arbitrary conduct of the 

 inquifition and the tribunal of inconfidentia, who frequently, on fufpi- 

 cion, feize the perfons and properties of Portugueze merchants, and de- 

 prive their creditors of the I'ums juflly due to them by the merchants fo 

 imprifoned. Befides all thefe lofles, the Britifli merchants were fre- 

 quently plundered by the king's ofBcers, who ufed to take up corn and 

 other goods without the confent of the owners, and keep them many 

 years out of their money, or never pay them at all. In l]iort, the in- 

 fringement ofprivileges due by treaty, the increafe of duties, the de- 

 creafe of the confumption of Britifli goods by means of furnptuary laws, 

 and the uncertainty (or rather partiality) and delay, which all muft en- 

 counter, who attempt to recover their property by law in Portugal, alto- 

 gether conftituted fuch an accumulation of hardlhips, as rendered 

 it impoflible for the Britifli merchants to continue their trade in Por- 

 tugal, unlefs they could obtain redrefs of their grievances. 



More agreeable intelligence was tranfmitted by the conful at St. Lu- 

 car in Spain, who reported, that the importation of Britifli goods had 

 increafed confiderably fmce the year 1750 at St. Lucar and Seville. 



Mr. Buckland, the conful at Nice (or Nizza) in Piedmont, at firfl: re- 

 ported, that there was almoft no Englilh trade there, but obferved, that, 

 if the filks of Piedmont were to be fliipped at Nice, which is a free port, 

 it would make a faving on that article only, which is efliimated at 5,000 

 bales annually, of 40/or 42/'abale, amounting to 10,000 pounds, or gui- 

 neas, a-year. And by fubfequent letters from the fame gentleman, it ap- 

 pears, that fome fliips had adually this year followed the plan propofed 

 by him with confiderable advantage. 



According to the report from Leghorn, the Danes and the French 

 v.-ere hurting us in the fifli trade ; the French were getting the better of 

 us in the woollen manufaftures ; and the Spaniards, who had lately 

 opened fome lead mines, were leffening the confumption of Englifli 

 lead. The other fl;ates of Italy were drawing the trade from Leghorn, 

 v.'hich, however, was no difadvantage in a general view of the Britifli 

 conjmerce. 



By the report from Mefllna in Sicily, the Britifli trade in that ifland 

 was about one third lefs than formerly, owing chiefly to the general 

 poverty of the people, occafioned by the opprelhon. of the barons, and 

 the defective adminiftration of juflice ; the object of the government 



