SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 385 



means " rich/' is well bestowed. A few years ago 

 it employed about 250 ships in the Red Sea. The two 

 main branches of its commerce are coffee and Indian 

 produce. In May the annual fleets, from Calcutta., 

 Surat, and Bombay, make their appearance, bring- 

 ing different kinds of goods, Cashmere shawls, 

 cocoa-nuts, rice, sugar, drugs of all sorts, china and 

 hard ware, pipes, glass beads, rosaries, mirrors, and 

 cards. These commodities are mostly sold for cash 

 to India merchants, some of whom possess capital to 

 the amount of 150,000 or 200,000 sterling; while 

 several inferior houses have capitals of 40,000 or 

 50,000. Sales of entire cargoes are often made in 

 the course of half an hour, and the money paid down 

 next day. Trade is there carried on chiefly by 

 barter, or by cash-transactions. Credit is with dif- 

 ficulty obtained ; hence no Arabian merchant can 

 contract debts which he is unable to pay, and con- 

 sequently there are no mercantile failures in spe- 

 culations such as daily occur in Europe. From 

 Jidda the India goods are sent to Suez and Cairo, 

 whence they are dispersed over Egypt and the ports 

 of the Mediterranean. The returns from these 

 countries are made either in dollars or sequins, or in 

 produce, such as wheat and barley, for which Ara- 

 bia depends on Egypt ; an inferior sort of tobacco, 

 which is called tambak; Bedouin cloaks, coarse 

 Turkish carpets, cotton quilts, linen for shirts, red 

 and yellow slippers, and other articles of dress ; be- 

 sides a variety of commodities which are not manu- 

 factured in Arabia. Ships laden with coffee are 

 constantly arriving from Mocha, and their cargoes 

 are generally converted into dollars. This branch 

 of trade suffered, when the Mocha coffee was sup- 

 planted, in the markets of European Turkey, Asia 



