1807] 
as a specimen of the fertility of some of 
the districts, the greater part of Fries- 
land, for instance, produces from fifteen 
to twenty for one ot wheat; from twenty 
to twenty-four for one of rye; from twen- 
ty to thirty for one of barley; thirty for 
one of oats; and one hundred and sixty 
for one of rape-seed. 
The decay of breweries in Holland is 
particularly striking; in the 15th century 
the town of Gouda had three hundred 
and fifty breweries; in 1518 it bad one 
hundred and fifty-nine; in 1522 one 
hundred and fifty-three; in 1588 one 
hundred and twenty-six; and in 1803 
only two! 
The woolien manufactures at the be- 
ginning of the last century amounted to 
about 200,000 pieces of broad cloth, 
serge 
they did not exceed 20,000 pieces, and 
at present the whole manutacture does 
not amount to 400,000 ells of cloth. On 
the lowest estimate of this manufacture 
the country has sustained by its decline 
the annual loss of four millions of florins, 
The effects of this loss are evinced at 
Leyden, which formerly contaimed a- 
bove eighty thousand inhabitants, but 
which are now reduced to thirty thou- 
sand, 
The distillation of ardent spirits is the 
sole manufacture which has increased in 
Holland; in 1775 there were at Schie- 
dam one hundred and twenty distilleries ; 
in 1792 two hundred and twenty; in 
1798 there were two hundred and sixty ; 
and in the province of Holland four hun- 
dred; each of these distilleries yielded 
annually 4,992 ankers of gin. The 
whole distilleries of the seven provinces 
would produce annually 2,152,672 an- 
kers; but the want of grain renders it 
necessary to reduce this quantity one- 
third, which leaves 1,400,000 ankers, of 
which 456,000 are consumed in the coun- 
try, and the remainder left for exportation. 
The expences of the state, whether in 
wr or peace, have always exceeded the 
revenue from eight to forty, fifty, and 
even sixty thousand florins in a ie 
How this rumous system is continued, 
accounted for by stating, that whilst fia 
interest of the national ‘debt was nearly 
the same in 1799 as it was in 1789, viz. 
fifteen millions of florins, enormous con- 
tributions were levied in lieu of regular 
taxes, and the general trade of the coun- 
try ruined. In 1800, when the contri- 
butions, from their enormous amount, 
had exhausted the means of the people, 
Monruty Mac., No. 163. 
Statistecul Notices relating to LLolland. 
s, bays, stufis, &e. whereas in 1802. 
351 
the interest of the debt amounted to 
twenty-five millions, and in 1804 to 
thirty-five millions of florins. On an 
average of the taxes from 1788 to 1805, 
the people of Holland have paid 584 per 
cent. on their property, and 38% on their 
lucome, making 772 per cent. i 
€ 
‘The revenue ok the different states of — 
Europe, compared with itself at the be- 
giuning of the eighteenth and the nine- 
teenth centuries, affords a melancholy 
proof of the ruin of Holland; the reve- 
nue of Russia in 1700 is to that of 1800 
as one to eight; in England as one to 
seven; in France as one to three; and in 
Holland only asone totwo! The debt 
of England is to the revenue as twenty- 
one to one; that of Holland as thirty- 
three to one. 
The decrease of the taxes on articles 
of consumption is an unequivecal proof 
of the rapid depopulation, and the gra- - 
dual starvation of the ill-fated inhabitants 
of this ruinous country. In the province 
of Groningen the duty on tea and coffee, 
in 1797, amounted to seventy-one thou- 
sand two hundred and seventy-nine fio- 
rins; but in 1801 only to thirty-four 
thousand five hundred and_ sixty-four. 
The tax on the manufacture of flour in 
the same province, in 1797, amounted to 
one hundred and fourteen thousand four 
hundred and seventy-four; but in 1801, 
only to ninety-four thousand two fine 
dred and fifteen florins. ; 
The Dutch have always been consi- 
dered as a strong, vigorous, robust- peo- 
ple, and capable ‘of much hard’ labour. 
This is not generally the case at present, 
and their prostration of strength must be 
attributed to the bad and debilitating 
nourishment with which they are now 
obliged to be contented. The greater 
part of the men in Holland live princi- 
pally on potatoes, which are frequently of 
a bad quality. They drmk enormous 
quantities of tea and coffee, or, mere 
properly speaking, of lukewarm water, 
scarcely coloured. Several months pass 
and not a morsel of meat appears on their 
tables; and the high price of wheat is 
the cause that a vreat number do not 
even eat bread, or any farinaceous food. 
But to give a little tone to their bodies, 
enfeebled by this bad regimen, they 
drink a great quantity of spirituous li- 
quors, which, instead of strengthening 
them, increases their del uility. Four 
hundred and fifty-six thousand ankers 
of Geneva are annua lly consumed in 
Holland, 
xOx To 
