Napoleon, enamoured of his theory, that France was nothing unless with the Rhine for her eastern boundary, and the Scheldt for the northern station of her navy, conceived numerous projects for its realization. At one time planning to build a city at Terneuse, at another, fixing on the vast alluvial plain that surrounds the Tête de Flandres, but finally determining to make Antwerp, herself, the object of his ambitious care, and render her, in his own words, “a pistol, perpetually at the throat of England.” With this view, its military defences were all restored—huge basins constructed at the east of the city, capable of floating, one twelve, and the other forty vessels of the line, and store-houses, rope-walks, and sail manufactories; everything, in short, for the equipment of an arsenal, were prepared upon a gigantic scale.

In acknowledgment of these magnificent favours conferred upon their city, the merchants of Antwerp presented Napoleon with a frigate, fully equipped and stored. In 1807, ten vessels of the line had been built at Antwerp; in 1813, thirty ships of war had been launched, and fourteen others were still upon the stocks. The fall of the Emperor, however, preceded that of his intended victim, and by the treaty of Paris in 1814, his vast constructions at Antwerp were ordered to be demolished—his buildings and magazines were all destroyed—the vessels of war found within the basins, were portioned out between Louis XVIII and the Prince of Orange, and the docks, alone, were spared from destruction, partly from the difficulty of accomplishing it, and partly at the entreaty of the merchants of Antwerp, as a harbour of refuge for their ships, which were liable to serious injury from the ice, which, in winter, is borne down the swollen current of the Scheldt.

The period of its union with Holland, however, from 1815 to 1830, may be said to have been the golden age of Antwerp. Its situation for trade is by far more favourable than either Rotterdam or Amsterdam, and being admitted, along with them, to an equal participation in all the resources of the kingdom, it rapidly outstripped them in every department of trade, so much so, that, at the period of the revolution, “Antwerp did more business, in every article of colonial produce, with the exception of tobacco, than Amsterdam and Rotterdam united.”[4] The events of the revolution put an instantaneous check to this career of affluent prosperity; Antwerp, compelled to form a portion of the independent kingdom without colonies, or commerce, or foreign relations, found her shipping laid up idle in her docks, and her merchants, conscious of the ruin which had overwhelmed their prospects at home, transferred their capital, and their exertions to Holland, and united their fate to that of their now triumphant rivals. In 1838, all the ports of Belgium possessed but one hundred and eighty-four sail of merchant vessels, of whom one hundred and fifty-two were employed merely in the coasting and channel trade, and thirty-two in foreign voyages, whilst, in the same year, Holland had no less than 1400 sail.

From the events of 1830, and their results, Antwerp never has, and never can, thoroughly recover. For some years after the Repeal of the Union, her quays and harbour were literally motionless and empty; and, at the present moment, even with occasional revivals, her trade appears to have only the fate of Venice or of Genoa in prospect. Her chief employment is in carrying the raw material which is to supply her own manufactures, and which she must do at a disadvantage in freights, as her shipments in return fall far short of her importations. Of 2662 Belgian vessels, which cleared out from her various ports between 1831 and 1836, no less than 739 went out in ballast!

In the years immediately succeeding the revolution, the shipping trade of Antwerp seemed to undergo an absolute paralysis. In 1829, the year preceding the Repeal of the Union, 1028 vessels entered the port, amounting to a tonnage of 160,658 tons. In 1831, the year after the Repeal, only 398 vessels entered the Scheldt with a tonnage of 53,303 tons! Since that period, a superficial glance at the returns, would lead to a belief that the trade had more than recovered itself.

In18321,254 vessels entered with a tonnage of150,294
18331,104129,607
18341,064141,465
18351,089153,243
18361,245176,079
18371,426225,030
18381,538257,048
1829 955136,456
18301,028160,658

But on coming to scrutinize this table by the test of the relative quantities in cargo and in ballast, the air of prosperity grows fainter, and the real nature of the trade more distinct. It appears by the following table, that of 5694 which arrived in all the ports of Belgium in the years 1835, 1836 and 1837, the entire were freighted with cargoes, except 141. Whilst of 5707 which cleared outwards in the same time, no less than 1833 left Belgium in ballast, in other words arrived with the produce of other countries, but departed without carrying away any Belgian manufacture in return.

Statement of number and tonnage of vessels, distinguishing Belgian from Foreign, and vessels with cargoes and those in ballast, which arrived and departed at ports in Belgium, during each year, from 1835 to 1837.

Years.BELGIAN.
With Cargoes. In Ballast. Total.
Inwards. No. Tons. No. Tons. No. Tons.
1835 472 47,409 6 408 478 47,817
1836 493 67,808 5 295 498 68,102
1837 540 71,282 24 2,004 564 73,346
Outwards.
1835 402 41,522 72 6,529 474 48,051
1836 422 56,665 99 13,436 521 70,101
1837 438 57,355 116 16,303 554 73,658