14 ADVANCES OF MONEY FOR RUSSIAN PRODUCE. 
But under the operation of this practice have arisen, the great 
commercial products of India, such as indigo, silk, opium, &c. 
The practice, so far from being exclusively Indian, may be 
considered rather as Asiatic, and, indeed, much more general 
even than that. For, if we inquire into the history of some 
extensive articles of import, we shall find English agents esta- 
blished near the places of production, and English capital 
continually sent out to vivify the exertions of colonists or of 
the natives of the country. Indeed, it can hardly be other- 
wise, if we compare the wants of many countries with the 
enormous quantities of produce required to satisfy the demands 
of even a single Jarge manufacturer: this being often equal to 
that of some kingdoms. The Russian trade in hemp and flax 
itself seems dependent for its great extension upon English 
capital, for I am informed that money is annually sent to 
different ports of Russia, agents are thence dispatched into 
the country districts; these buy up the quantities which each 
cultivator has been able to grow but cannot prepare before 
winter; so that the article is not delivered for six months after- 
wards. The Earl of Clarendon, in his speech on the Russian war, 
in the House of Lords, on the 10th of August, said: “ We must 
consider, too, that the trade with Russia is usually conducted with 
English capital; that English capital has been indispensable 
for their production and for bringing them to market, and 
that that has entirely ceased; and that all the industry of the 
country has, to a great extent, been paralysed, while the want 
of markets has deprived the Russian proprietor of all that he 
had to depend on to meet the expenses to which he is subject.” 
Indeed, I am happy to say that some of the capital, which 
used to be sent to Russia for the purchase of hemp and flax, 
has this year been sent to India for the purchase of its peculiar 
fibres, and among them, probably, of Indian-grown hemp. 
Though the fate of the generality of experimentalists is to 
have their efforts unnoticed, and thus to be deterred from 
further attempts, there are, I am also glad to state, some, and 
among them not the least intelligent and successful of manu- 
facturers, who do themselves inquire after new products likely 
to be useful in their special businesses, and who, having 
obtained, first make a scientific investigation of the properties 
of the new substance, and then having subjected it to the 
