728 'A. D. 1703. 



blifhed manufadories of woollen, linen, 8cc. and every ufeful art for the 

 improvement of the trade and navigation, as well as the general know- 

 leo^e, of his people, obliging them alfo to fend their children thither 

 for that end. And, in confequence of thefe vaft fchemes, and of his pof- 

 fefTmg the fine port of Revel in Livonia, we have, fmce the building of 

 Peterfburgh, feen the new fpedacle of a Rulhan fleet triumphant in the 

 Baltic fea, obUging the fleets of their opponents there, to fhelter them- 

 felves under the cannon of their fortrefles. By the eretStion of this new 

 city the port of Archangel in the White fea, to which formerly there 

 ufually reforted yearly 100 or more fliips, Englifti, Dutch, French, Ham- 

 burghers, &c. is confiderably declined in its commerce, its former cuf- 

 toms having by fome been reckoned to amount to Li 00,000 fterling, 

 annually : Riga alfo, and Narva, will probably be more and more im- 

 paired in their commerce, if Peterfburgh continues to flourifli, as the 

 later is fo commodioufly (ituated for the tranfportation of Ruflian mer- 

 chandize, by the river Neva, and the great lakes Ladoga and Onega, as 

 well as by land carriage, to and from the interior parts of the Ruflian 

 empire ; from whence, and from Livonia, &c. that city is well fupplied 

 with whatever it has need of. The watery fituation of Peterfliurgh, and 

 the overflowings of the Neva, are the principal inconveniencies attend- 

 ing it. 



Peter alfo ordered a canal to be made between the river Woronitz 

 and another fmall one falling into the great river Volga, whereby a com- 

 munication was to be opened between the later and the river Don, the 

 one falling into the Cafpian, and the other into the Black fea, under the 

 direction of Captain John Perry, an Englifliman, who likewife, by that 

 great prince's order, had partly executed a much greater work, being a 

 grand canal between the Volga and the Don, nearer the mouths of thofe 

 two huge rivers ; but the taking of Afoph from him by the Turks put 

 a flop to -that vaft defign. 



The almoft unparalleled tempefl:, which happened in November 1703, 

 more efpecially round the fouthern coafls of Great Britain, was un- 

 doubtedly a great calamity, by the lofs of many fine Englifti fliips of war, 

 and a great number of merchant ftiips with their valuable cargoes, as 

 well as of many lives ; and was doubtlefs fome obftrudion to the in- 

 creafe of the natign's wealth : neverthelefs it appears by D'Avenant's * 

 report to the commiflioners of accounts in the year 171 2, that the ex- 

 ports of England in this fame year, to all parts of the world, amounted 

 to L6 ,644, 1 03 of which there was exported to Holland alone L2,4i 7,890, 

 being above one third of the whole f . 



* D'Avenant was then iiifpeftor-general of the h'on exported, ought not to be Included in the ex- 



cuftoms. A. ports, to fwell the total of a favourable balance by 



+ SirCharlesWhitworth, from the infpeiTlor-ge- a fallacious flatenient, whereas it is in faft quite 



nerals accounts. Hates the exports to Holland in the contrary, the payment of an unfavourable ba- 



1703 at L2,405,599 : and wc mull remember that lance. M. 

 the fum of £473,750, the amount of coin and bul- 



% 



