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"1830 to 1832, . 102,527 "1833 to 1835, . 101,315 The year 1836,. 102,092 5,322 58,957

The trade conducted in French vessels amounts to

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3,646

50,049

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4,558

62,039

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Other Countries.

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68,000,000

170,000,000

69,000,000

166,000,000

69,000,000

214,000,000

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70,000,000

238,000,000

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Thus, as we have said, we do not consider the trade of the country under the same point of view that has been adopted in the classifications of the customhouse. We do not think that the official classifications are always calculated to fulfil the purpose intended, and we find it difficult to understand how a list of materials of the first necessity to industry can include race-horses and hunting-dogs, and not sheep; drugs and wool used without preparation in beds, and not raw sugar which is used in so many ways, and the products of which exported are classified as manufactures; and we cannot regard brandy, or tanned and dressed skins as natural products. The misfortune of such classifications is, that they serve as the ground for false reasonings in relation to the relative importance of some branches of our foreign commerce. In the present case we shall confine ourselves to an enumeration of some of the principal articles, and their official value.

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Ores and Coal, .

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The principal articles exported during the same period are as follows:

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Fabrics of Silk, .

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66 Cotton,

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Embroidery and other products of

Parisian industry,

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Refined Sugar,.

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Silk,.

380,000,000

Cotton,

102,000,000

The nations with whom the commercial relations of France are the most important, are the United States, The Low Countries, Sardinia, England, Austria, The German States, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, and our own colonies.

SECTION IV.-COMMERCE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

We have mentioned the origin of the standard applied to the valuation of the commerce of Great Britain. When first used it accorded nearly with the truth, but time has effected a great difference, and in 1798 Parliament required that the actual and real value should be noted in relation to products of the soil or of British industry.

The shipping of the United Kingdom is found thus

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But if, retaining the official estimate for foreign products exported, we consider the real and declared value of British products, we shall find the exports to be as follows:

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The commerce of England extends to every country in the world. Her colonies in North America and the East Indies, South America, the Mediterranean, and the nations of Europe, offer vast markets for her products, but none of equal importance to that which she finds in the United States. Of forty-seven millions sterling, the declared value of British exports in 1835, the United States alone took ten millions and a half, and of fifty-three millions in 1836, they took twelve millions and a half.

SECTION V.-COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.

We have stated upon what principles are based the commercial estimates presented to Congress. With them the financial year commences the first of October, and finishes the last of September of the following year. We have, in consequence, commenced our comparative periods with October, 1826, and will end with September, 1836. We have already given a general table of facts for the whole period, and we will now add the more important details and divisions.

The United States shipping has thus been classed and reported—

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As we have said, the United States documents comprise in their tables the precious metals and coins; and we find that for the decennial period there was

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A certain portion of American commerce does not make in the official estimates the appearance that it really deserves. In every sea this kind of commerce is carried on by American vessels directly from the place of production to the place of consumption, without touching at any American port, and in consequence it is not included in the estimates submitted to Congress. This important part of American trade cannot be ascertained, and then very imperfectly, but by a long and laborious investigation, for which purpose it would be necessary to examine the estimates of imports and exports from India, China, Brazil, Cuba, the ports of the Mediterranean, the Hanse Towns, and the north seas of Europe, between which the communications are frequently effected by American vessels. It must be understood that the tables furnished by the government of the Union express but a part of the elements of the prosperity of this new country. The United States have found in their fertile soil, their vigilant industry,

and in the happy effects of their constitution, the means of furnishing, for foreign consumption, an enormous mass of natural products. During the decennial period materials were produced to the amount of

3,200,000,000 lbs. of cotton

91,000,000" tobacco

Corn, rice, flour, wheat, biscuit, etc.

2,032,000,000

335,000,000
626,000,000

making a total of nearly 3,000,000,000 of francs, gathered directly from the soil.

The importance of these products, the fisheries, timber, &c., render less notable the tardiness in the development of manufactures. The employment, however, of machinery, and the advantage of having the materials directly at hand, have already increased the exportation of cotton goods to an amount, during the decennial period, exceeding 88,000,000 of francs, of which near twelve millons were for the year 1835-36.

SECTION VI.-GENERAL VIEW OF THE COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS OF FRANCE.

Statistics are not a dead-letter from which no instruction is to be drawn. We must, however, guard against too absolute conclusions in view of the difficulty we have in comparing and authenticating our facts. It is also necessary to take the precaution of examining the circumstances accompanying or following the periods we have under consideration. Thus, the movement of commercial affairs in 1836 has given rise to the greatest errors. It has been taken as an exemplification of the principle of permanent increase, whereas it ought to be looked upon as a year of extraordinary excitement and immoderate overtrading throughout the globe. General commerce ought to augment with the civilized populations, and the increase of their means and appliances of industry, but it would be very erroneous to estimate any such progress by a comparison of 1826 and 1836. We have seen how much the affairs of this year have been modified by a combination in the years 1837 and '38. Not that we attach any such great importance to the grouping of years in periods which we have adopted, we simply follow this method because we think it serves very well to express the influence of historical events upon the progress of commerce, and to reduce, by an average of several years, the liability to mistakes if we examine the facts of only one.

The backward movement that took place during the years 1837 and '38 has already ceased, and will probably be followed by a new era of progression. Is France ready to join in and to profit by this change? To resolve this question it is necessary to return to a consideration of some of the details of the statistics we have already presented. The laudations that a nation may bestow upon itself frequently have but a slight foundation, and are useful only to cover and conceal the complaints of that portion of society who have a just perception of the evils that exist, and that ought to be remedied. Let us then, without any self-glorifying assertions, examine into the true indications of the progess of our commerce and our prospects of future prosperity. Let us see what we have to expect; and in doing so, let it be borne in mind that the comparisons we have to institute are between France, with a population of thirty-three millions, and Great Britain with twenty-four millions, and the United States with thirteen millions.

Imports, despite the false theories of political economy, are the sign of

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