General Observations on the Trade from England to Brazil.
HAVING, in a preceding part of this work, stated the importance of Rio de Janeiro as a port which, from its locality, appears destined by nature to become the metropolis of a vast empire, and the centre of an extensive commerce, it may not be improper in this place to treat more at large on this interesting subject.
The ships best calculated for trade from England are those which carry about four hundred tons, and sail well: it is particularly necessary that they should have the latter quality; for, if they have not, the voyage from thence to England is frequently rendered very tedious by their being driven too far to the westward by the north-east trade-wind. Owing to this circumstance, it is not uncommon for a packet, or fast-sailing ship, to make a passage from the coast of Brazil to England in five or six weeks, when a heavy-sailing vessel is double that time in arriving at her destination. The best season for sailing from England, and that which affords the greatest probability of making a short passage, is the month of February or March, because then the north-east winds prevail. I should advise crossing the line in not less than 22°, nor more than 25° west longitude, if the destination be the Plata or Rio de Janeiro, as I have twice experienced very long calms in crossing the line between 19° and 20°. Ships bound to Bahia, Pernambuco, and ports more northerly, will of course cross the line more to the westward, as they will have nothing to fear: but the south-west trade-wind would generally cause ships going farther south to fall in with the land too soon. Should that be the case, I would advise them, if they make the land to the north of the Abrolhos[79], to keep in-shore, as the land-breeze is frequently from the northward until mid-day. The ports on this coast are in general good and secure, nevertheless it is highly desirable to be provided with good anchors and cables, particularly in the Rio de la Plata. In the Portuguese territories the port-charges are not so expensive as formerly; a dollar per day is exacted for anchorage, which forms the principal charge. I particularly recommend that all homeward-bound ships should lay in a sufficiency of necessary stores, especially of water, so as to make the passage without being obliged to go into the Western Isles, as there the port-charges and attendant expenses are very exorbitant, though the only articles wanted may be a few casks of water, and a hundred weight or two of bread.
Ships are loaded in Rio de Janeiro, and other ports of Brazil, as well as in the Plata, by lighters, which are very expensive, and difficult to be procured when many ships are receiving their cargoes; good boats are extremely useful and necessary.
When a vessel enters any of the ports, the health-boat and custom-boat make a visit before she anchors, and their report is immediately made; after which, proper officers, called guardas, are sent on board. These men in general are not very liberally provided for; they are extremely civil and accommodating, and ought to be treated with respect. Since the establishment of the treaty of commerce between this government and that of Brazil the contraband trade has been almost done away; for the duties are now much reduced, and the accommodation which the judge and subordinate officers of the custom-house are disposed to allow, is such, as to render that nefarious practice unnecessary.
It may not be improper in this place to describe the consequences produced in Rio de Janeiro by the excessive commercial speculations into which our merchants entered, immediately after the emigration of the Court of Portugal, and which could only be equalled by those which followed our expeditions to the Rio de la Plata.
Owing to the incredible competition or struggle among our merchants, who should send most ships and cargoes to a country, whose civilized population, exclusive of slaves, did not exceed eight hundred thousand souls, (one-third, at least, of whom may be said to make use only of what their land produces), it is natural to suppose that the market would be almost instantly overstocked. So great and so unexpected was the influx of English manufactures into Rio de Janeiro, within a few days after the arrival of the Prince, that the rent of houses to put them into became enormously dear. The bay was covered with ships, and the custom-house soon overflowed with goods: even salt, casks of ironmongery, and nails, salt-fish, hogsheads of cheese, hats, together with an immense quantity of crates and hogsheads of earthen and glass ware, cordage, bottled and barrelled porter, paints, gums, resin, tar, &c. were exposed, not only to the sun and rain, but general depredation. The inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, and more particularly some of the Creolians and strangers from the interior, thought that these goods were placed there for their benefit, and extolled the goodness and generosity of the English, who strewed the beach to a great extent with articles for which their own countrymen had heretofore charged them such high prices! It is true that the gentlemen entrusted with these valuable consignments did apply for sentinels to be placed to guard the articles thus exposed, and their request was immediately complied with. The result was such as might easily have been anticipated from such watchmen, many of whom did not fail to profit largely by the appointment. In the course of some weeks the beach began to assume a less crowded appearance; some few of the goods were taken to the residences of their owners, others were removed; but to what place, or by whom, there was no way of ascertaining; and a very great proportion was sold at the custom-house for the benefit of the underwriters. This stratagem, then so frequently practised, (and certainly deserving of the severest reprehension), afterwards operated as a very serious injury to the regular sale of articles; for, as the market was so overstocked, scarcely any one would offer money for goods, except at the custom-house sales. As the depreciation continued, numberless packages were there exposed for sale, in part damaged, or apparently so. Indeed, little more than the mark of a cord on the outside of a single article, or a corner discolored, in a package however large, was a sufficient pretext for presuming and pronouncing the whole to be damaged. Great quantities of goods were brought to the hammer in the custom-house warehouses, under every disadvantage; thus the owners recovered the amount insured for, and the insurers lost the difference between that sum and the price they were sold at, also the attendant expenses. Many of the underwriters will, it is to be feared, retain a lasting remembrance of the sales which took place at Rio de Janeiro, and other parts of South America, for their benefit.
To the serious losses thus occasioned by an overstocked market, and by the sacrifice of goods at whatever price could be obtained, may be added another, which originated in the ignorance of many persons who sent out articles to a considerable amount not at all suited to the country; one speculator, of wonderful foresight, sent large invoices of various sorts of stays for ladies who never heard of such armour; another sent skates, for the use of a people who are totally uninformed that water can become ice; a third sent out a considerable assortment of the most elegant coffin-furniture, not knowing that coffins are never used by the Brazilians, or in the Plata. To these absurd speculations may be added iron-stoves and fire-irons, candles, and numerous others, particularly in articles of taste: elegant services of cut glass were little appreciated by men accustomed to drink out of a horn or a cocoa-nut-shell; and brilliant chandeliers were still less valued in a country where only lamps that afforded a gloomy light, were used. Superfine woollen cloths were equally ill-suited to the market; no one thought them sufficiently strong. An immense quantity of high-priced saddles, and thousands of whips[80], were sent out to a people as incapable of adopting them as they were of knowing their convenience. They were astonished to see Englishmen ride on such saddles; nor could they imagine any thing more insecure. Of the bridles scarcely any use could be made, as the bit was not calculated to keep the horse or mule in subordination: these articles were of course sacrificed. Great quantities of the nails and ironmongery were useless, as they were not calculated for the general purposes of the people. Large cargoes of Manchester goods were sent; and, in a few months, more arrived than had been consumed in the course of twenty years preceding. No discrimination was used in the assortment of these articles, with respect either to quantity or fineness, so that common prints were disposed of at less than a shilling a yard, and frequently in barter. Fish from Newfoundland met with a similar fate; also porter, large quantities of which, in barrels, arrived among a people, of whom a few only had tasted that article as a luxury. How the shippers in London, and other British ports, could imagine that porter, would at once become a general beverage, it is difficult to conceive, especially when sent in barrels. These cargoes, being unsaleable, were of course warehoused, and of course spoiled. Newfoundland fish, that was generally sold at from twelve to twenty dollars per quintal, was now unsaleable at four, and in many instances did not pay warehouse-room. Earthenware was perhaps rather more favorably received than many of the former articles, for plates, &c. soon came into general use. Having enumerated various commodities which suffered a general depreciation, it may be sufficient to add that many invoices of fancy goods, and such as do not constitute a staple trade, were sold at from sixty to seventy per cent. under costs and charges, and others were totally lost. To enter more into detail would be unnecessary: it is hoped that the trade will in time find its regular course, and that the adventurers will derive from it some compensation for their former losses, though no possible change can repair the total ruin which numbers have incurred. Experience will now have fully shown the fallacy of those golden hopes which some persons conceived from the reputed wealth of South America, and we shall no longer hear of those absurdities which characterised the first commercial speculations to the river Plata. What must have been the delusions of those traders who sent out tools, formed with a hatchet on one side and a hammer on the other, for the conveniency of breaking the rocks, and cutting the precious metals from them, as if they imagined that a man had only to go into the mountains, and cut out as much gold as would pay for the articles he wanted!
Other evils resulted from these ill-judged and excessive speculations to South America, which might naturally have been anticipated. The first was, that the produce was bought up with such avidity that many articles were soon double their ordinary value, and continued to rise as our manufactures lowered. But this was not all: the purchasers suffered equally from their ignorance of the quality of the articles, as from their eagerness in purchasing them. For instance; any kind of sebaceous matter was greedily bought for tallow; and numberless hides, spoiled in the drying and eaten by the grub, met with ready sale. Little attention was paid to the state they were in; and thus it frequently happened that lots and cargoes of those articles, instead of reimbursing the adventurer to whom they were consigned, scarcely paid freight and charge. This was also the case with coffee and other staple articles. Many gentlemen, more knowing than others, sent home lots of curious wood, and even entered into the illicit trade of shipping the dye-wood, which generally proved very disadvantageous, as the wood of that species grown in the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro is very inferior in quality to that of Pernambuco, from whence that trade is carried on for account of the Crown. The folly of speculation did not stop here: precious stones appeared to offer the most abundant source of riches; the general calculation was made upon the price at which they sold in London: but every trader bought them, more or less, at the price at which they were offered; invoices of goods were bartered for some, which in London would sell for, comparatively, a trifle, as they were taken without discrimination as to quality or perfection; green tourmalines were sold for emeralds, crystals for topazes, and both common stones and glass have been bought as diamonds to a considerable amount. Gold and diamonds were well known to be produced in Brazil; and their being by law contraband, was a sufficient temptation to eager speculators who had never before seen either in their native state. False diamonds were weighed with scrupulousness, and bought with avidity, to sell by the rules stated by Jefferies. Gold-dust, as it is commonly called, appeared in no inconsiderable quantity, and, after being weighed with equal exactness, was bought or bartered for. But previous to this many samples underwent the following easy and ingenious process:—The brass pans purchased at the stores were filed, and mixed with the gold in the proportion of from ten to twenty per cent. according to the opinion which the seller formed of the sagacity of the person with whom he had to deal: and thus, by a simple contrivance, some of our countrymen re-purchased at three or four guineas per ounce the very article which they had before sold at 2s. 6d. per pound!!!
In enumerating the losses occasioned by the depreciation of goods, I have omitted to notice the heavy expenses upon them after the purchase, as packing, shipping, convoy-duty, freight, insurance, commission, and other incidental charges. Then suppose any staple article to be bought; there are the expenses of commission for buying of warehouse-room, shipping and the attendant fees, freight, and insurance; and, on the arrival of the merchandize in England, there are duties, dockage, warehouse-room, and many other items which leave no small interest in the hands of those who do the business.