251 



On Tabular Returns of the N. W. Frontier Trade with Afghanistan. 



[Profiting by the scope and character of this Journal, and following 

 the system of the Society after which it is named, the Editor has 

 not hesitated in publishing the following Tables, and the remarks upon 

 them, as containing most valuable notice of a subject interesting to all 

 in India. The information compendiously given in the above, was the 

 result of private perquisitions, made at the instance of the writer of 

 this note : it may be relied on as strictly accurate. The allusion to 

 disadvantages opposed to traders from Cabool is only made, in order 

 to show how great must the contrary advantage be, and how strong 

 the impulse to trade, when, (as the writer believes to be the case,) 

 they have now been removed by recent arrangements.] 



ft 



Exports. 

 British Manufactures and Island Produce. 



The statement (No. 1,) embracing the trade of the year 1840, 

 (from January to December,) in British manufactures and Island 

 produce cannot, it is to be regretted, be pronounced thoroughly 

 accurate, inasmuch as it is derived from data which is presumed 

 to be imperfect. However, the quantity of each staple therein 

 exhibited as having been exported to Cabool across our North-west 

 Frontier, during the period under review, is, there is every reason 

 to believe, by no means exaggerated ; on the contrary, it may be 

 said to fall far short of what actually found its way to the Northern 

 marts, via Delhi, which is the great entrepot of the extensive com- 

 merce of our North-western Provinces and Central Asia. 



The correctness of the staples of trade given in the statement 

 can be vouched for, and it will be observed, that cloths form the 

 chief. Of the several descriptions of linen the most prized and 

 sought after, is long-cloth, (Luttah,) the unbleached being preferred 

 to the bleached; the Cabool merchants having discovered that our 

 method of bleaching rots the thread, and abstracts a year's wear 

 at least from the cloth ; besides it enables them the more readily 

 to dye it blue, their favourite colour. 



Of all the export staples, British linen is said to give the greatest 

 return, yielding a nett profit of nearly 100 per cent, on the outlay, 



