1805. ] 
te the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
THE trade between this country and 
Spain neceflarily experiencing a ilag- 
nation while we are at war with eacn 
ether, has induced many perfons to turn 
their thoughts towards an export-trade to 
the Spanifh poffeflions in America. The 
manufacturers of woolens, of hardware, 
of cutlery, and ‘porcelain, produced in 
Hull, Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield, Stat- 
fordthire and the weitern counties, are at 
prelent, z. é. in time of peace, chiefly con- 
fied in their export to Cadiz and the other 
ports of Spain, whence a certain portion 
of them aflorted and calculated for. the 
South Scas and the colonies cf South 
America, are again re-exported to thele 
places, at the proper feafon of the year. 
‘The returns for thefe gocds, confilting in 
the valuable productions of Scuth Ame- 
rica, are made of courfe to Spain, whence 
we again receive them—ihe merchants of 
Old Spain becoming, as it were, in. this 
method of trade, the brokers between 
Great Britain and New Spain, attaching 
a handfome per centage on their bufinels, 
which we, or the other buyers of them, 
muit of neceflity bear ; and all this is 
doub:lefs right. But in the event of the 
Court of Madrid being reiolved en a 
war with that of St. James’s, ‘and the'e 
. Operations with the Spaniards being fut- 
pended, let usdce te what a low ebb the 
expoits of Great Britain are reduced, 
while the Cadiz merchant is deprived of 
the capability of drawing from us the 
means of his exchange with South Ame- 
rica. But the faé is, that a Cadiz mer- 
chant is not evenfo greata fufferer by war 
as the Englithh one is. The Englifh one 
parts witn his property at a term of credit 
required by the former, calculated on the 
regularity with which he expects his trea- 
fure from America ; and if a war break 
out, the Englifh merchant is deprived of 
his property, while the Spanifh one holds 
it, and is not able to make remiltances. 
With us there is a certain lofs, with the 
Spaniard only a partial one. The de- 
cree of the Court of Madrid, requiring all 
thofe who are indebted to this country at 
the time of the breaking out of a war, to 
make a declaration of fuch their debt, and 
‘pay if into the royal treafury, does vot 
occafion to them a lois, bur, in ajl proba- 
bility, it does to the Englifh merchant, at 
leaft, thofe debts fo declared previous to 
the lete peace, in 1801, are ftill held by 
the Court of Madrid, and the proipeét 
of their ever being refunded is very du- 
\bious, fince every fort of repeated appli- 
» MONTHLY Mac, No. 123. 
Thoughts‘on the Trade dire to Spanifh America. 48} 
cation has been made to that effect by our 
Court, and by the direct reprefeutatives of 
Our merchants, in Spain, without producing 
{carcely the fhadow of a hope for it. Now 
it is a great queltion, to be confidered by 
the mercantile body of this country’ trad- 
‘ing to Spain, how far it is praGticable to 
have a dive¢tt communication with New 
Spain. At firft the Cadiz merchant will 
and muft feel averfe to our interference in 
their colonies ; and to aitempt it, without 
a fort of acquielcence by the Court. of 
Madrid, would, probably, be fruitlefs. 
Indeed it may appear impoffible for a 
body of merchants to attempt it in any 
other manner ; and to have recourfe toa 
clandeftine communication cannot anfwer 
the purpofes of the commercial part of 
England. A few indivisuals might make 
it worth their while now and then to fend 
a Cargo calculated fer that mark«t, and re- 
ceive its amount in dollars, &c. &c. re. 
turning immediately with it to England, 
as I believe an enterprifing gentleman in 
the neighbourhood of Portfmouth has 
lately done—thereby fhewing, in a certain 
degree, the feafibility of trading dire& 
with the people of New Spain. I am 
aware that it muft be utterly impoflible 
to deprive the Cadiz merchant of the 
communication which he now has with 
Mexico, Vera Cruz, é&c. nor do I entertain 
a notion like it. But all that I with to 
intimate is, the idea of partaking in fome 
degiee, more or lefs,of the trade with thefe 
places direét, inftead of letting the Cadiz 
merchant interpofe, as he now does, efpe- 
cially in the time of war, when the inhabi- 
tants of their colonies are requiring the 
manufactures of Britain, and are obliged 
to fubmit to a deprivation of them merely 
becaufe the Englifh merchant will not 
venture his articles there for fale*. Dur- 
ing the latter part of the laft war a con. 
traoand trade, it is well known, was kept 
up between Trinidad and the Continent, 
which proves how eafily, in addition to 
what I have faid above, fomething 
may be done with the inhabitants direct ; 
and already does the Svanifh merchant 
feel the lofs arifing from this mode of 
trafic. If at were poffible to enter into a 
* And if in time of war we can trade there 
and find it turn out to advantage, how much 
more fo mutt jt be in time of peace ? To fe- 
cure this in our treaty with the Court of Ma- 
drid, ftipulations may, perhaps, be made, 
that we fhall have free entrance to certain 
parts of their colonies, thereby fecuring at 
once the right of fupplying them ourfelves 
without-an intercourfe with Cadiz. ‘ 
3R rad 
