From these facts and figures, derived from official documents, of the existence of which it is probable Señor Marliani was not aware, it will be observed at once how extremely light and fallacious are the grounds on which he jumps to conclusions. What more preposterous than the vague assumption founded on data little better then guess-work, that one-fourth of the whole exports of British cottons to Italy and the Italian islands, say L.500,000 out of L.2,000,000, go to Spain, when, in point of fact, not one-tenth of the amount does, or can find its way there—or could, under any conceivable circumstances short of an absolute famine crop of fabrics in France and England. Neither prices nor commercial profits could support the extra charges of a longer voyage out, landing charges, transhipment and return voyage to the coasts of Spain. It has been shown that in the year 1840, not the shipment of a single yard of cottons took place from Genoa, the only port admitting of the probability of such an operation.
Not less preposterous is the allegation, that three-fourths of the whole exports of British cottons to Portugal are destined for, and introduced into Spain by contraband. Assuming that Spain, with thirteen and a half millions of people, consumes, in the whole, cotton goods to the value of
| L.2,200,000 | |
| Why should not Portugal, with more than three and a half millions of inhabitants, that is more than one-fourth the population of Spain, consume also more than one-fourth the value of cotton goods, or say only | 550,000? |
| Brazil, a ci-devant colony of Portugal, and with a Portuguese population, as may be said, of 5,400,000, consumed British cotton fabrics to the value, in 1840, of | 1,525,000 |
| So, also, why should not Italy and the Italian islands, with twenty-two millions of people, be able to consume as much cotton values as Spain with 13½ millions; or say only the whole amount really exported there from this country of | 2,005,000? |
It is necessary for the interests of truth, for the interests also of both countries, that the popular mind, the mind of the public men of Spain also, should be disabused in respect of two important errors. The first is, that an enormous balance of trade against Spain, that is, of British exports, licit and illicit too, compared with imports from Spain—results annually in favour of this country, from the present state of our commercial exchanges with her. The second is, the greatly exaggerated notion of the transcendant amount of the illicit trade carried on with Spain in British commodities, cottons more especially. In correction of the latter misconception, we have shown that the amount of British cotton introduced by contraband cannot exceed, nor equal,
| L.780,640 | |
| Instead, as asserted by Señor Marliani, of | 1,683,268 |
| And, in correction of the first error relative to the balance of trade, we have established the feet by calculations of approximate fidelity—for exactitude is out of the question and unattainable with the materials to be worked up—that an excess of values, that is, of exports, results to Spain upon such balance as against imports, licit and illicit, to the extent per annum of | 550,000 |
It is therefore Great Britain, and not Spain, which is entitled to demand that this adverse balance be redressed, and which would stand justified in retaliating the restrictions and prohibitions on Spanish products, with which, so unjustly, Spain now visits those of Great Britain. Far from us be the advocacy of a policy so harsh—we will add, so unwise; but at least let our disinterested friendship and moderation be appreciated, and provoke, in reason meet, their appropriate consideration.
The more formidable, because far more extensive and facile abuses, arising out of the unparalleled contraband traffic of which Spain is, and long has been, the theatre, and the attempted repression of which requires the constant employment of entire armies of regular troops, are elsewhere to be found in action and guarded against; they concern a neighbour nearer than Great Britain. According to an official report made to his Government by Don Mateo Durou, the active and intelligent consul for Spain at Bordeaux, and the materials for which were extracted from the customhouse returns of France, the trade betwixt France and Spain is thus stated, but necessarily abridged:—
| Francs. | |
| 1840.—Total exports from France into Spain, | 104,679,141 |
| 1840.—Total imports into France from Spain, | 42,684,761 |
| ————— | |
| Deficit against Spain, | 61,994,380 |
France, therefore, exported nearly two and a half times as much as she imported from Spain; a result greatly the reverse of that established in the trade of Spain with Great Britain. In these exports from France, cotton manufactures figure for a total of
| 34,251,068 | fr. | |
| Or, in sterling, | L.1,427,000 | |
| Of which smuggled in by the land or Pyrennean frontier, | 32,537,992 | fr. |
| By sea, only | 1,713,076 | ... |
| Linen yarns, entered for | 15,534,391 | ... |
| Silks, for | 8,953,423 | ... |
| Woollens, for | 8,919,760 | ... |