I do not mean now to lay down a plan for the colonisation of Africa, or for opening an extensive commerce with that vast continent, but I would suggest the propriety of the method by which the East India Company govern their immense territories. I would wish to see an African Company formed on an extensive scale, with a large capital. I am convinced that such a company would be of more service to the commerce of this country than the present India trade, where the natives, without being in want of our manufactures, surpass us in ingenuity. But the Africans, on the contrary, are in want of our manufactured goods, and give immense sums for them. According to a late author, who has given us the fullest description [174] of Timbuctoo [175] and its vicinity, a Plattilia is there worth fifty Mexico dollars, or twenty meezens of gold, each meezen being worth two and a half Mexico dollars; a piece of Irish linen of ordinary quality, and measuring twenty-five yards, is worth seventy-five Mexico dollars; and a quintal of loaf sugar is worth one hundred Mexico dollars. Now if we investigate the parsimonious mode of traversing the Desert, we shall find that a journey of 1500 English miles is performed from Fas to Timbuctoo at the rate of forty shillings sterling per quintal, so that loaf sugar (a weighty and bulky article) can be rendered from London at Timbuctoo through Tetuan and Fas, including the expense of a land-carriage of 1500 miles at about 6£. per quintal, thus:
Refined sugar on board in London for s. d.per cwt. 70 0
Duty on importation in any part of
Marocco, ten per cent. 7 0
Freight, &c. five per cent. 3 6
Land carriage across the Desert on camels
to Timbuctoo 40 0
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s. 120 6
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Footnote 174:[ (return) ] See new Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, article Africa, page 98.
Footnote 175:[ (return) ] See the account of Timbuctoo appended to Jackson's account of Marocco, published by Cadell and Davies, London, Chap, 18.
So that if 100 lb. of loaf sugar rendered, at Timbuctoo cost 120s. 6d and sells there for 100 Mexico dollars at 4s. 6d. each, or for 22£. 5s. there will result a profit of 270 per cent.
The profit in fine goods, such as the linens before mentioned, is still more considerable, not being subject to so heavy a charge for carriage. The immense quantity of [176] gold dust and gold bars that would be brought from Timbuctoo, Wangara, Gana, and other countries, in exchange for this merchandise, would be incalculable, and has, perhaps, never yet been contemplated by Europeans!!--In the same work, above quoted, 3d edition, page 289, will be found a list of the various merchandise exportable from Great Britain, which suit the market of the interior of Africa or Sudan: and also a list of the articles which we should receive in return for those goods.
Footnote 176:[ (return) ] The Kings, David and Solomon, extracted from Africa to enrich the temple of Jerusalem upwards of 800,000,000£. sterling, a sum sufficient to discharge the national debt; see Commercial Magazine for May 1819, page 6.; which is eight times as much gold as the mines of Brazil have produced since their discovery in 1756. See Commercial Magazine for the same month, page 44.
Plans to penetrate to the mart of Timbuctoo (which would supply Housa, Wangara, Gana, and other districts of Sudan with European merchandize) have been formed; but if a treaty of commerce were made with any of the Negro kings, these plans would be subject to various impediments.