In a third table he gives the annual consumption of the following India goods, and the lowest prices at which they used to be sold, when procured from Turkey or Lisbon, before England traded directly to India. There was consumed of pepper, 400,000 lbs., which used to be sold at three shillings and sixpence per lb.; of cloves, 40,000, at eight shillings; of mace, 20,000, at nine shillings; of nutmegs, 160,000, at four shillings and sixpence; and of indigo, 150,000, at seven shillings. The result is, that when England paid the lowest ancient prices, it cost her 183,500 l. for these commodities; whereas, at the common modern prices, it costs her only 108,333 l. The actual saving therefore to the people of England, was not near so great as might have been expected, or as it ought to have been, from a comparison of the prices at Aleppo and in India.
There are some other particulars in Mr. Munn's Treatise relating to the European Trade to the East at this period, which we shall select. Speaking of the exportation of bullion to India, he says that the Turks sent annually 500,000 l. merely for Persian raw silk; and 600,000 l. more for calicoes, drugs, sugar, rice, &c.: their maritime commerce was carried on from Mocha; their inland trade from Aleppo and Constantinople. They exported very little merchandize to Persia or India. Marseilles supplied Turkey with a considerable part of the bullion and money which the latter used in her trade with the East,--sending annually to Aleppo and Alexandria, at least 500,000 l. and little or no merchandize. Venice sent about 400,000 l. and a great value in wares besides. Messina about 25,000 l., and the low countries about 50,000 l., besides great quantities of gold and dollars from Germany, Poland, Hungary, &c. With these sums were purchased either native Turkish produce and manufactures, or such goods as Turkey obtained from Persia and other parts of the East: the principal were camblets, grograms, raw silk, cotton wool and yarn, galls, flax, hemp, rice, hides, sheeps' wool, wax, corn, &c. England, according to Mr. Munn, did not employ much bullion, either in her Turkey or her India trade; in the former she exported vast quantities of broad cloth, tin, &c. enough to purchase nearly all the wares she wanted in Turkey, besides three hundred great bales of Persian raw silk annually. In the course of nineteen years, viz. from their establishment in 1601 to 1620, the East India Company had exported, in woollen cloths, tin, lead, and other English and foreign wares, at an average of 15,383 l. per annum, and in the whole, 292,286 l. During the same period they had exported 548,090 l. in Spanish silver. The East India Company employed in 1621, according to this author, 10,000 tons of shipping, 2500 mariners, 500 ship carpenters, and 120 factors. The principal places to which, at this period, we re-exported Indian goods, were Turkey, Genoa, Marseilles, the Netherlands, &c.; the re-exportations were calculated to employ 2000 more tons of shipping, and 500 more mariners.
From a proclamation issued in 1631, against clandestine trade to and from India, we learn the different articles which might be legally exported and imported: the first were the following: perpalicanos and drapery, pewter, saffron, woollen stockings, silk stockings and garters, ribband, roses edged with silver lace, beaver hats with gold and silver bands, felt hats, strong waters, knives, Spanish leather shoes, iron, and looking glasses. There might be imported, long pepper, white pepper, white powder sugar, preserved nutmegs and ginger preserved, merabolans, bezoar stones, drugs of all sorts, agate heads, blood stones, musk, aloes socratrina, ambergris, rich carpets of Persia and of Cambaya, quilts of satin taffety, painted calicoes, Benjamin, damasks, satins and taffeties of China, quilts of China embroidered with silk, galls, sugar candy, China dishes, and porcelain of all sorts.
Though several articles of Chinese manufacture are specified in the proclamation, yet we have no notice of any direct trade to China till nearly fifty years after this time, viz. in the year 1680. In this year the East India Company sent out eleven ships, including two to China and the Moluccas; their general burden was between 500 and 600 tons: in these ships there was a stock of nearly 500,000 l. Besides the articles imported from India enumerated in the proclamation of 1631, there now appear cowries, saltpetre, muslins, diamonds, &c.
In 1689 the East India Company published a state of their trade, from which it appeared that in the last seven years they had built sixteen ships from 900 to 1300 tons each,--that they had coming from India eleven ships and four permission ships, the value of their cargoes being above 360,000 l.: that they had on their outward voyage to Coast and Bay, seven ships and six permission ships, their cargoes valued at 570,000 l.: that they had seven ships for China and the South Seas, whose cargoes amounted to 100,000 l. That they had goods in India unsold, to the amount of 700,000 l. About this period, Sir John Child, being what would now be called governor general of India, and his brother, Sir Jonah, leading member of the Court of Committees, the policy was introduced through their means, on which the sovereign power, as well as the immense empire of the East India Company was founded; this policy consisted of the enlargement of the authority of the Company over British subjects in India, and in attaining political strength and dominion, by retaliating by force of arms, on those Indian princes who oppressed their settlements.
In the year 1698, in consequence of complaints against the East India Company, and their inability to make any dividend, they thought it necessary to give in a statement of their property in India. In this they asserted that they had acquired, solely at their own expence, revenues at Fort St. George, Fort St. David, and Bombay, as well as in Persia, and elsewhere, to the amount of 44,000 l. per annum, arising from customs and licenses, besides a large extent of land in these places; they had also erected forts and settlements in Sumatra, and on the coast of Malabar, which were absolutely necessary to carry on the pepper trade; they had a strongfort in Bengal, and many factories, settlements, &c. in other places. The result of the complaints against the Company was, that a new company was established this year; the two companies, however, united in the beginning of the eighteenth century.
We shall conclude our account of the state of English commerce during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with some more general and miscellaneous topics.
I. Exports. In the year 1534, the total value of our exports did not exceed 900,000 l. of the present value of our money: the balance of trade was estimated at 700,000 l.: this arose principally from the very great exportation of woollen goods, tin, leather, &c., on which an export duty was laid, bringing in 246,000 l.; whereas, the duty on imports did not produce more than 1700 l. In the year 1612, according to Missenden, in his Circle of Commerce, the exports to all the world amounted to 2,090,640 l., and the imports to 2,141,151 l.; on the latter, however, the custom duties are charged; the custom duties on the exports were 86,794 l.; the impost paid outwards on woollen goods, tin, lead, pewter, &c. 10,000 l.; and the merchants' gains, freight, and other charges, to 300,000 l.:--if these be added to the value of the exports, the total amount will be 2,487,435 l,-- from which the imports, including custom duty on them, being deducted, leaves 346,283 l.,--which Missenden regards as the balance gained that year by the nation. The principal articles of export have been enumerated: the principal articles of import were silks, Venice gold and silver stuffs, Spanish wines, linen, &c. At this time, London paid nearly three times as much for custom duties as all the rest of England together. In the year 1662, according to D'Avenant, the inspector general of the customs, our imports amounted to 4,016,019 l., and our exports only to 2,022,812 l.; the balance against the nation being nearly two millions. In the last year of the seventeenth century, according to the same official authority, there was exported to England from all parts, 6,788,166 l.: of this sum, our woollen manufactures were to the value of 2,932,292 l.; so that there was an increase of our exports since 1662, of 4,765,534 l. The yearly average of all the merchandize imported from, and exported to the north of Europe, from Michaelmas, 1697, to Christmas, 1701, is exhibited in the following table:
Annual Countries. Imported from. Exported to. Loss
Denmark and Sweden 76,215 l 39,543 l. 36,672 l.
East Country 181,296 149,893 31,403
Russia 112,252 58,884 53,568
Sweden 212,094 57,555 154,539
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Total annual average loss 275,982 l.
II. Ships. In the year 1530, the ship which first sailed on a trading voyage to Guinea, and thence to the Brazils, was regarded as remarkably large; her burden amounted to 250 tons. And in Wheeler's Treatise of Commerce, published in 1601, we are informed, that about 60 years before he wrote (which would be about 1541), there were not above four ships (besides those of the royal navy) that were above 120 tons each, in the river Thames; and we learn from Monson, in his Naval Tracts, that about 20 years later, most of our ships of burden were purchased from the east countrymen, or inhabitants of the south shores of the Baltic, who likewise carried on the greatest trade of our merchants in their own vessels. He adds, to bid adieu to that trade and those ships, the Jesus of Lubec. a vessel then esteemed of great burden and strength, was the last ship bought by the queen. In 1582, there were 135 merchant vessels in England, many of them of 500 tons each: and in the beginning of King James's reign, there were 400, but these were not so large, not above four of these being of 400 tons. In 1615, it appears, that the East India Company, from the beginning of their charter, had employed only 24 ships, four of which had been lost. The largest was 1293 tons; one 1100, one 1060, one 900, one 800, and the remainder from 600 to 150. In the same year, 20 ships sailed to Naples, Genoa, Leghorn, and other parts of the Mediterranean, chiefly laden with herrings; and 30 from Ireland, to the same ports, laden with pipe staves: to Portugal and Amsterdam, 20 ships for wines, sugar, fruit, and West India drugs: to Bourdeaux, 60 ships for wines: to Hamburgh and Middleburgh, 35 ships: to Dantzic, Koningsberg, 30 ships: to Norway 5;--while the Dutch sent above 40 large ships. The Newcastle coal trade employed 400 sail;--200 for London, and 200 for the rest of England. It appears, that at this time many foreign ships resorted to Newcastle for coals: whole fleets of 50 sail together from France, besides many from Bremen, Holland, &c. The Greenland fishery employed 14 ships.