lbs., computing the picul at 136 lbs. avoirdupois. We give below the exports from Java, from 1836 to 1845 in piculs and pounds : .... 757,476. .103,016,736 1844. .1,239,935. ...... 153,968,864 1845. .1,005,750. ...... 130,759,376 137,884,144 138,461,872 168,631,160 136,782,000 1839 1840........ 132,124. Previous to the negro insurrection in St. Domingo, the exports amounted to near 35,000 tons, and were yearly increasing. It has been supposed that but for the devastation which was created by that melancholy occurrence, they would have reached to 42,000 tons in that year. In 1843, as will be shown hereafter, the whole production of the island barely exceeded 19,000 tons. It will scarcely be affirmed that this devoted country is in as prosperous or healthy condition as she certainly was prior to the event we have noticed, nor will we attempt to define the causes which have contributed so powerfully to reduce her from a state of affluence to one of commercial poverty and degradation. The exports of coffee from Hayti were: ..68,151,180 pounds. .35,117,834 In 1791.... Decrease .... .33,033,346 The decrease in the exports of sugar, for the same time, are almost beyond conception. In 1791, she exported Decrease... 163,405,220 pounds. 653,541 (6 ....162,751,679 "C Such, then, as we clearly see, is the impoverishment to which this country is reduced, and to account for it we must look a little beyond the measures of her lawgivers, though to President Boyer is imputed many of the calamities with which the island has been visited. The labor required for the cultivation of coffee is exceedingly light; the same rule does not apply to sugar; hence the marked and important results to which we are brought by the estimates we have given of the production of these two articles in this island. The legitimate deductions from the acknowledged fact that the inhabitants will not labor beyond that point which their necessities and the absolute calls of nature require, are as clearly exhibited in these figures as though we had the evidence of our visual organs in their confirmation. It has been said that what is called a coffee plantation in Hayti, is nothing more than a large tract of land, throughout which the coffee-tree grows spontaneously. Indeed, the miserable specimens sent to our own markets afford a striking illustration of the truth of this remark. The laws which regulate the industry of the country are urged as another cause of its impoverishment, but to this point we have given but little of our attention, satisfied with the results to which our investigations thus far have led. Her rural code is said to be a modification only of the French CODE NOIR. In Jamaica, results little less satisfactory are forced upon us by a review of her commerce in the article to which our attention has been directed. In 1772, the product was 841,558 lbs.; in 1797, it had increased to 7,931,621 lbs., and in 1802, a still farther increase was manifest to an extent, making the production of that year amount to 17,961,923 lbs. The largest crop was in 1814, which amounted to 34,045,585 lbs. In 1824, it will be remembered Mr. Canning introduced into the British House of Commons his celebrated resolutions for the Emancipation of the slaves in the British West Indies. The effect of that measure upon the agricultural productions and growing commerce of the islands, is a matter, though properly within the sphere of this article, upon which we are not inclined to animadvert. Confining ourselves, then, to plain statements, we find that in 1832, Jamaica exported to England 19,811,000 lbs. of coffee, and proceeding still farther, discover the production of 1836 to amount to only 13,446,053 lbs. In 1843, the whole production of the British West India islands amounted to no more than 10,000,000 lbs. The decrease in the production and exports of Trinidad, are in much the same ratio with those of Jamaica. The coffee-tree in Cuba, if left to nature, attains a very great height in the nurseries, and gives off horizontal branches knotted at every joint, which, like the trunk, are covered with a grey bark. The blossom looks like the white jasmine, and forms thick circular clusters around the branches. The berries at first are green, as they ripen they become white, then yellow, and finally red, resembling the cherry in size and appearance. Ninety cherries have been counted on a single tree two feet long, each containing two berries, applied with their flat sides together, having a soft, sweet, mucilaginous pulp between them and the pellicle. From August to December the cherries ripen and are gathered singly by the hand, and as three or four different crops are ripening at the same time on each tree, as many separate pickings are required. The very quality, says Dr. WURDEMAN, rejected by us, and called triage, consists chiefly of the round, small grains produced by old trees, and possesses the finest flavor. It is kept from year to year, and when old, is pronounced equal to the best Mocha coffee. By the end of January, the whole crop is generally sent to market. The coffee-tree has enemies to contend against in the worm and moths, but the most destructive of all is a small fly that deposits its eggs on the leaf, the caterpillar produced from which destroys all but the vines, leaving a lace-work foliage. We subjoin a statement of the exports of coffee from Havana, from 1833 to 1845: We will not attempt to analyze this table, as we will probably have occasion to draw some deductions from the exports of Cuba, in coming to speak of the trade of our city. A glance will suffice to show the material reduction in the exports of 1844 compared with those of 1833, and to exhibit this fact is sufficient for our purpose here. The exports of 1845, it is assumed, have amounted to 13,983,050 lbs., an amount less by 498,150 pounds than the previous year. In 1831, Mexico prohibited the importation of coffee, and we are not advised that she has ever removed the restriction. Indeed, the Mexican tariff of 1845, published in the Diario, places this article in the prohibited list. General Waddy Thompson affirms that she cultivates the article in sufficient quantities to serve the purposes of a very large consumption. Of the imports into Amsterdam, we were struck with the fact which was presented to us, that about one-third only were from the West Indies. Considerable reductions are made from the weight equivalent to about five pounds per bag, independently of an allow ance which is sanctioned by custom. While heavy importations are made into Holland, she exports to other countries a quantity of old Java, commonly called "government coffee." The extent of the consumption of coffee in Smyrna may be estimated by the fact of 400,000 cups being daily drunk, worth 20,000 piastres, or in our currency, about $1481.48. The imports are from Mocha, St. Domingo, Havana, and Brazil. The annual consumption is estimated at 3,000,000 okes, or 8,496,094 lbs. Coffee is imported into Constantinople from Brazil and the West Indies, most of it in American bottoms; the principal importations are from Alexandria, however, as might be very naturally supposed. The imports of coffee into Trieste have been very large, and this is accounted for on the ground that large quantities are subsequently transhipped by coasting vessels to other places. The duty per hundred pounds is 21 florins, equal to about 49 cents. The imports from the United States in 1830 were 5,159,700 pounds, but subsequent years show a marked decrease down to the present, when we find her imports from this country amounting to no more than 2,019,540 pounds, valued at about $131,000. The imports into Venice are principally from Trieste, which indeed furnishes nearly the whole of her entire consumption. We might pause here, to pay a passing tribute to a city rendered classic, if from no other cause, from the muse of Shakspeare, of Milton, and of Byron. The recollections of her former opulence and splendor, but too painfully contrast themselves in our mind with her present degradation. Where are now the merchant princes who swayed the sceptre of commerce over half the civilized world, and like the good Antonio, though his means were "in supposition," "hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies, a third at Mexico, and a fourth for England?" Where is the Jew, with balances nicely adjusted, to claim with scrupulous exactness the clear fulfilment of the very letter of his bond? Where the Rialto upon which the living mass congregated for purposes of barter and trade? A spirit of desolation seems to have swept away, as with whirlwind force, every vestige of her former greatness; and the modern traveler, his bosom swelling with emotions, which the crowd of long-cherished associa tions connected with her past history excites within him, stands, like Byron, on the bridge of sighs, to mourn, perchance, over her "dead doges," her crumbling ruins, and deserted commerce. What a contrast with that state, when - her daughters had their dowers From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East Monarchs partook, and deem'd their dignity increased." From the October number of Hunt's Merchants' Magazine we extract the following: "It was recently stated in the French Chamber of Deputies, that the Belgians, a population of four and a half millions, consume twenty-six million pounds of coffee; while the thirty-five millions of French do not consume more than thirty millions of pounds. The French duty on one hundred pounds is more than the common original cost-the Belgian, not a tenth part. Were the French consumption proportional to the population, the gain would be material for the venders of French sugar, colonial and indigenous." The very heavy duty on coffee in Naples,* and on other articles in proportion, is ostensibly for the purpose of encouraging domestic manufactures and for revenue, though all writers agree that it has failed in its object. Our only surprise is, that there should be any legitimate traffic among this misguided people. With a coast stretching some thousand miles in extent, the facilities thus afforded to the smuggler are of a character to enable him to defy the strictest vigilance of the government. The imports into Barcelona are very inconsiderable. The duty operates powerfully in checking the consumption of coffee, and though this article seems to be so far favored as not to be placed among those prohibited, the import duty is eight reals per quintal, or at a rough calculation, about 24 cents a pound if imported in Spanish bottoms, or nearly three times that duty if under a foreign flag. In 1831 the imports did not reach 400 bags. Who can doubt that Spain, without the pressure of duties under which she has so long groaned, would have had a commerce perhaps the most extensive of any European power? Her wheat, brandies, wines and fruits, her wool and iron of the best quality, her lead and quicksilver mines, could scarcely have failed to raise her to a proud position among the commercial nations of the world. But where imports are prohibited, how can you export? All trade is based upon a principle of reciprocity. What does our trade with Cadiz amount to the principal commercial seaport of Spain? To nothing, absolutely nothing. Wines and salt make up the sum of our principal commodities. Three-fourths of her foreign trade may be said to be carried on in defiance of law. But let us leave a country which can scarcely be said to have emerged from the superstition and ignorance of the dark ages, so far as the laws which regulate and control the commerce of nations are concerned, and devote our attention for a few moments to England. The new tariff of the Papal States, authorized by his holiness the Pope, on the 2d July, 1846, reduces the present duty on coffee about 13 per cent., the modification to take effect from the 7th of the same month. We doubt whether this reduction is of a character to improve materially the condition of the country; it is important, however, as an evidence of the remarkable commercial change through which, it is evident, all the States of Europe are passing. England, the proud mistress of the seas, the nursery of art, the patron of genius, and, what should be her proudest boast, mother of this infant Hercules, whom she scarcely thought was destined within a brief space to rival her in commerce, arts, and manufactures. The causes which would induce us to extenuate the miserable policy of Spain and of Italy in bringing destruction upon their commerce and poverty to the homes of their people, she would regard as offensive to her pride and insulting to her dignity. But let us see how stands the case, and wherein consists the difference between them. We subjoin a statement showing the quantity of coffee consumed in Great Britain in each of the years of the census, comparing the consumption with the growth of the population, and exhibiting the influence of high and low duties: Years. Number of pounds Rate of duty per Population of Great Average Con- Sum contributed consumed. Britain. per head to the revenue. pound en British sumption. Thus it appears, that with a duty of 1s. 6d., the use of coffee was confined to the rich exclusively, and the amount consumed in the kingdom scarcely exceeded an ounce for each inhabitant. Prior to this, there was a duty of 2s. During the next ten years a material reduction was made in the duty, and the consumption rose nearly 750 per cent. It is curious to trace out the results of this table, for in going on to the ten years succeeding 1821, we find an addition to the duty of 5d, having the effect materially to check the progressive increase of consumption, and if we take the increased population into account, showing no increase at all. A duty of but 6d. was placed upon the article in 1825, and what was the result? An increase in the consumption of nearly 200 per cent., and the revenue considerably augmented. Up to this time there was a discriminating duty in favor of the West against the produce of the East India possessions of 3d., but the consumption having gained so far upon the imports, it was found advisable for the dealer to pay the additional duty upon the East India coffee. So clearly evident was it from this and other facts that the supply from the Western colonies was inadequate to the demand, a modification of the tariff took place, by which the production of the East was admitted at the same rate of duty. Hence we observe a still farther increase in the consumption, and if it does not continue, we can only attribute it to the want of an adequate supply.* In an article of such primary commercial importance as this has been clearly evidenced to be, it is somewhat surprising, to say the least, that a duty of nearly double the original cost should be placed upon the article. The British Tariff of 1842, imposes a duty of 6d. per lb. upon foreign coffees, and 4d. upon colonial productions-to which is to be added 5 per cent. upon the net amount of the duty levied. |