{ 498 J , (Decet, 
MONTHLY COMMERCIAL REPORT. ‘ 
HE capture of the Dutch fettlernents of Demerara and Efiequibo, has brought feafonable 
relief to a part of our Wett-India merchants. Thefe had, during the laf war, and in 
the fhort interval of peace, hazarded property to a great amount, in purchafes, in loans, and 
in (ales of goods on credit, on the plantations of thofe fettlements, and on the hopes of the 
produce. By the renewal of the war, all returns were hindered. Since the fettlements are 
again under Britifh dominion, debts to Britifh merchants, are to be recovered from them, 
as eafily as from Jamaica, or any of our other Weft-India ifles. An order of the Privy Council 
has, as is ufual on fuch occafions, renewed our freedom of commercial intercourfe with thefe 
conquefts on the fame conditions on which it fubfifts with our other coionies. The trade in 
Weft-India produce is thus thrown ftill more, as almoft a monopoly, into the hands of the 
merchants of this country : and the Weft-India market, for the exportation of Britiih manu- 
fa&ures, is, at the fare time, enlarged. Our {muggling trade of Britifh manufactures to 
the Spanifh main is, at this tine, great. It goes partly trom Jamaica, and in part from 
Trinidad, and the other ifles. The Spanifh {mugglers come with hard cafh in their hands, 
and make their purchafes from the merchants expecting them, in the Britifly colonies. 
Large quantities of goods are manufactured and packed up at Glafgow, for the Spaniih market 
exprefsly. 
The traders of Glafgow, among the moft enterprizing in the world, have already opened 
a commercial iatercourfe with the dominions of Ruffia on the Black Sea. Captain Douglas, 
in the Mentor, of Greenock, is now at Ocefla, taking in a cargo of wheat. But he com- 
plains that the war proves unfortunate to his adventure, and to the trade of the Black Sea in 
general. Yet, though for the time injured by the war, the trade to the Black Sea ought 
aot to be neglected by the merchants of this country, he regions bordering on it, offer a 
vaft field for the wuollen goods, the iron and copper utenfils, the earthen-ware, and in truth, 
for all the ftaple manufactures of thefe iflands. The Crimea, Mingrelia, Georgia, and all the 
northern provinces of Perfia, are fo fituate in climate, and other circumftances, that a vaft 
demand for Britith goods, even for Britifh Wett-India produce, may be excited inthem. They 
Jargely fupply articles of the raw, unwrought produce of nature, which are in great demand 
here, as materials for Britifh art. Several markets to which our goods have been hitherto 
fent by the way of Syria, from St. Peteriburgh, and from the Archangel, may now be — 
reached more conveniently from the ports of the Black Sea. : : 
The adventurous fpirit of the merchants of Liverpool, is fach as to deferve every fuccefs 
and every praife. They have fitted out a number of privateers fince the commencement of 
the prefent war. Their privateers have been, in general, very fortunate in captures. The 
total value of the prizes takea from the enemy fince the war broke out, is eftimated at twelve 
millions. Of this, two millions and four hundred thoufand pounds arife from prizes brought 
into the port of Liverpool. The Liverpool traders continue to fend out to Smyrna, and other 
ports of the Levant, confiderable cargces of Weft-India coffve, which ave partly fold there at 
prices lower than Mocha coffee can poflibly be had at, in part re-imported to this country, 
under the falfe denomination of Mocha coffee. There is reafon to fuppofe, that when the 
interior and higher-lying parts of our principal Weft-India ifles fhall be more entirely cleared 
for cofiee-plantations, we may have coffee from them which fhall equal that of Mochia, ia 
its beft qualities. The coffee of Mocha is produced on arid heights, where the mould is 
artificial, and water is collected with great difiiculty, and diftributed with extreme parfimony. 
Our trade with Africa continues, in the whole, to increafe. {he fettiement at Sierra 
Leone, attempted, at the firft, under provificns for the government of the colony, which 
were too feebly popular, has rever yet prevailed altogether over that primary difadvantage, 
But, fince it is not to be entirely abandoned, it cannot ultimately fail of becoming highly 
ufeful to this country. The French factories of Senegal, have been formerly very profiia- 
ble; their intercourfe with the mether-country may be now interrupted by the fuperiority of 
the Britith naval force on thofe coaf's. If the air, the temperature, and the periodical heat 
of Africa were leis pernicious to health, there is no part of the world where factories might 
be more ufefully multiplied by the merchants of this united; for many of the moft valuable 
yaw materials for our arts may be had, in the greateit abundance, from Africa. 
War with Spain threatens to raife the price of Spanifh wool very confiderably. The 
Spanifh is the fineft wool that we obtain, in large quantity, from abroad. The wools of 
Htaly are not equal in finenefs to tkofe of our own fheep. The cieth made from Italian 
' wools, in the Neapolitan dominions, is very coarfe. At Arpino, the birth-place of Cicero, 
is now one of the beft manufactures of woollen cloth in all Italy. Yet the cloth of Arpino 
is very coarfe, and does not bring in fale more than 41s. 6d. anell. It is in great requeft 
among the poorer pecple; but the rich wear chiefly Englifh cloth. Bilboa, the principal: 
mart for the exportation of Spanifh wosl, fupplies about 60,000 bags annually to the mer- 
chants of Great Britain, France, and Holland. The exportation of Spanifh wool was ine 
creafed laft war; and the fame effect may probably enfue in the prefent. 
The manufacture of fewing-thread, and of a fpecies of mixed filk handkerchiefs from the 
aloe-thread, or the-fibres in the leaves cf the aloes-tree, has been, of late, confiderable in 
Sicily. Horfe-barnefs, nets, neck-handkerchiefs, ruffles, cauls of caps, &c. are made in 
Jarge quantities, of the fame material, in both Sicily and Spain. At Taranto there exifts 
i jut 
