The Isthmus of Suez Question

by Ferdinand de Lesseps

	Imports.	Exports.
	Tons.	Tons.
Cape of Good Hope	4950	16,408
Eastern Coasts	152	240
Ports of the Red Sea	——	409
Islands of Cape Verd	1118	2883
St. Helena and Ascension	330	3977
Mauritius	28,650	16,397
Singapore and Ceylon	191,378	202,101
Java	2346	8672
Philippine Islands	3411	301
Other islands of India	1141	686
China	32,818	28,297
Australia	22,865	51,234
New Zealand	1341	9651
Islands of the South Sea	388	1018
Tons	290,888	342,274
		290,888
Grand total	Tons	633,162

Mr. Anderson, of the East India Company, estimates the tonnage of English ships in relation with the places dependent on the East India Company, for the year 1841 at

	Tons	727,587
Deducting the commerce with the Cape and the other places in the vicinity, estimated at		30,309
There remain, Tons		697,278
To which he adds the tonnage of the ships trading to Batavia and the other Dutch and German possessions		200,000
Grand total	Tons	897,278

Thus Mr. Anderson gives, probably for the same year, a tonnage greater by a third than Mr. Mac Culloch.

We will now compare some of these figures with those that have been officially collected by M. Arnaud Tison, delegate from the Chamber of Commerce of Rouen, in his travels in China during the years 1850-54.

In 1851, 976 ships entered the ports of Australia, measuring	Tons	234,215
In the same year 1014 ships cleared the ports, measuring	Tons	263,894
Total, tons		498,109

This figure is seven times greater than that given by Mr. Mac Culloch, and as the discovery of gold was not yet made at that time, it may be said that at present the figure given by M. Arnaud Tison ought to be doubled to be correct. The total value of imports and exports was 110,000,000.

For China, the single port of Shang-Hai exported in 1851, 35,000 tons of tea, which is more than the figure given by Mr. Mac Culloch for all the produce imported from China.