were 385 bales; in 1842, they were 484; in 1843, 520; in 1844, 548; in 1845, 5146; and in 1846, 8938 bales." Merchants are often obliged to send goods from Europe, for which there is immediate need in England, half round the world. Mr. Swaine, the witness from whom we quote says: The four voyages of some Alpaca. Peru to Ham burgh. Hamburgh to "I think it was towards the end of the year 1844, that a large parcel of Alpaca wool, which had arrived direct from Peru, was exposed for sale in Hamburgh. I purchased it; and being at that time unacquainted with the entire operation of the Navigation Laws, I shipped it in a British ship to Hull, but it was seized on its arrival there as being in contravention of the Navigation Laws. I happened to be in London immediately afterwards, and I memorialized the England. Lords of the Treasury upon the subject, and the Lords of the Treasury ordered the wool to be delivered over to me for re-exportation; but I could not obtain their Lordships' permission to send that wool for home use into Yorkshire. That parcel of wool was subsequently shipped from Hull to New York, landed there, and re-exported from New York to Liverpool, and it was eventually transmitted from Liverpool into the manufacturing districts, where, however, it arrived at a season a good deal too late for the purposes for which it had been intended. Since that period no person has been disposed to compete for that description of wool at Hamburgh for the British market, and the German manufacturers therefore have a considerable advantage in consequence of the absence of English competition for it.—(3059 to 3061.) The cost of sending that parcel of wool to New York and back was from 14d. to 2d. per lb., being from 7 to 10 per cent. That freight was just so much thrown away. The wool was at Hamburgh—a brisk demand for it in England— a couple of days would have brought it over-the machinery in Bradford and Halifax was waiting for it; but none the less it must, because it had come to Hamburgh from South America, be sent to North America, and again recross the Atlantic, having in its voyages found no other market than England. It would have been a gain to the merchant had he been permitted to land the wool at once, and send the ship to New York and back again in ballast. Ex uno disce omnes : Our manufacturers are constant losers, as well as our shipowners, by the prohibition. Mr. Swaine says: "It would have been a very advantageous commercial operation England to New York. Back to Eng land. Late for market. Germany has wool cheaper than Yorkshire. Loss to British ships. Premium to foreign manufacturers Our manufacturers have to compete. from the best market. to have brought in wool to England if the Navigation Laws had not "The German manufacturer is purchasing that article now at a "Preventing such wool from being brought even in British ships, or in fact preventing it being brought altogether from Hamburgh to England, but permitting the manufactured article from such wool to be brought here, is giving a premium to foreign manufacturers." -(3191.) Our manufacturer has to sell his stuffs beside the German in the American market, and in his own market, and has therefore a right to require that there be no hindrance set up to his procuring the wool of which they are made on equal Goods sent away terms. Frequently the case is more absurd than we have yet described the goods are, in England, actually warehoused at London or Liverpool—a higher price to be had for them there than any where else, but they must not be sold in England; they came in a ship that could only bring them to be sent away again, and away they must go, no matter how urgent the need for them here, nor how much less they be worth elsewhere. In a preceding page we have given an instance of this in respect to cochineal; Mr. Goschen shows that it has happened with sugar, brought to England in American vessels from Porto Rico. Sugar dearer in England than elsewhere. Porto Rico "Can you state an instance which has already occurred within your knowledge on that point, in which sugar has arrived here for exportation, or for home consumption, where there has been a difference in the price ?-Decidedly; it has been the case in muscovadoes from Porto Rico. For home consumption, the last sale was made at 47s. 6d., (but that is very low); you now pay from 50s. to 55s.; that, at 21s. duty, leaves 29s. to 34s.; and the same quality of muscovadoes brought here for export, or when it must be refined in bond, fetches 24s. 6d. This is the quality where the difference is the largest; but upon yellow Havannah sugar the markets abroad have risen very much indeed latterly: still there is a difference, I should say about 1s. or 2s. a hundredweight.-(1719.) "It is simply on account of its having arrived in ships which are sugar in wrong prohibited by the Navigation Laws that that cheap sugar cannot be ships. sold for consumption in this country ?-Precisely."-(1720.) 1 Neither the prohibition to any other than British ships to import the sugars of Cuba for consumption into England, nor the interdict upon their transport by our own and all other vessels from Europe has given the direct carriage of them to us. "Taking the case of Cuba sugar, the trade has been generally carried on in this way: an American, Hanseatic, or English vessel has been chartered, and the sugars have been sent from Cuba to Cowes, and a market: that means, that the ship calls at Cowes, and at Cowes it learns where it is to go to. The merchant then calculates, looking to the price, whether it will answer better to send it to Antwerp or Holland, or to bring it here in an English vessel, and accordingly gives his orders. Now, this trade has been carried on infinitely more in American vessels than in English vessels; we have had few English vessels in this trade, whilst there have been a great many American vessels. very "If the Navigation Laws were removed, there would be infinitely Less laws more more sugar landed here. I have no doubt upon that, because we sugar. have here an enormous market, which will perhaps consume 300,000 tons of sugar, and I, as a merchant, have a greater opportunity of disposing of my sugar here; I can make a sale here when I can make none in other markets, and it is naturally to be supposed that I have a chance of an improved market. A merchant, of course, likes to sell his goods in that market where he has the best chance of selling them, and selling them at the highest price."-(1721—4.) freights. But this is not all: what goods our ships bring from Asia, Unreasonable Africa, or America, direct, have to pay unfairly high freights, which may perhaps compensate some shipowners for the loss of the carriage from Europe; but neither the manufacturer nor consumer have any such compensation. They have a double difficulty to contend against,-increased price, because certain goods must not be brought indirect from Europe, and a further increase, because our ships have the whole carriage of them direct from the places of production. Mr. Goschen, quoting the last freight from Havannah, says: "There is a difference of £1. a ton between English and other Difference £1. vessels. This very day I have received accounts of vessels taken up; a ton. and the English vessels are at £4. a ton, and the foreign vessels at £3. and £3. 2s. 6d. for all the general markets, except England. I have no doubt the difference of freight is wholly owing to the operation of the Navigation Law, at present; it cannot be owing to Navigation tax on cotton. any other circumstance. If the Navigation Laws are continued, that difference of freight will continue likewise. I have no doubt that the permanent difference would be twenty shillings a ton. I think it is more than likely, when I see how many persons whom we never heard of before, in all ports of England, even in the outports, are chartering vessels, not only from Liverpool, but from Sunderland and Belfast, and a small port like Plymouth; and sending them out, in order to bring the sugar home to their own doors."—(1756–61.) It is the same as to cotton: high as the price has been, and much as it has been needed here, it has had the Navigation tax to pay. "During the present season, when freights are very high between the United States and Great Britain, would greater facilities have been given to the importation of cotton to this country, if the restrictions imposed by the Navigation Law had not existed ?—I should say so, distinctly; we pay now 1d. a pound freight from New Orleans, and 14d. was even asked. If cotton could have come in foreign vessels, it would have created a little diversion, and it would not have enabled the American and British ships to ask the same high freights."—(1810.) American trade the East. ASIA, AFRICA, AMERICA, THE UNITED STATES, AND SO FORTH. Turn to whatever quarter of the world we may, we find the Navigation Laws at war with trade. From Europe certain goods may not be brought to us at all; from the native countries of those goods they are brought at exorbitant freights. From the United States, the produce of Asia, Africa, and South America, may, by the law, come to us only in British ships; and as a result of that very law, there are few or no British ships to bring them. Mr. Berger says: "There is a large trade carried on, principally from the northern with Africa and ports of the United States, viz., Boston and New York, in the produce of Africa, the East Indies, and other parts; there is a large market there for the produce of those countries, and very frequent opportunities occur, when the markets in this country are bare of those articles, and when it would be most important that they should be brought over here. I speak of such articles as whale oil, ivory, African hides, East India hides, Manilla hemp, East India We damage ourselves. gums, and African gums, and dye-woods of all kinds; a considerable quantity of East and West India drugs, coffee, tobacco, annatto, and other articles; all those articles are very valuable, though not much in bulk. In the conveyance of those articles from the United States, when they are wanted in England, there is a difficulty in meeting with British ships in the ports of the United States. If I had thought it necessary, I could have brought files of letters, not in reference to one particular month, or one particular period of the year, but running throughout the whole year, stating as a grievance that there were no vessels, or that there were not vessels qualified to trade to an English port, which could bring the goods which are restricted from being imported except in British vessels; those instances occur, I should say, every month: I have brought one or two instances as specimens; but those cases extend over the last twelve months.—(1541.) Account of trade prevented. "One of our friends writes us here in November last, from Salem, Palm oil. Massachusetts:- The favourable state of your market would induce me to send about 150 casks of palm oil lately received, was there any British vessel here at this time; and also another parcel of 150 hogsheads which I daily expect.' And afterwards he wrote us :'The 150 casks which are mentioned in my last I have sold, there not being a British vessel; so that not only a British ship lost the freight, but we lost the commission.'—(1520.) "There was another instance in October last. Our correspondent Manilla hemp. wrote to us in these terms:-'There are at present 1000 bales of Manilla hemp here, which would go forward were there any British ship.' We had to send out a ship from this country; she got into distress, and had put into Cork, and those 1000 bales not having come forward, being equal to 250 tons, have since been sold abroad. If they had come here, our house, or other houses, would have got the commission; and as it was wanted for exportation, the exporting merchant would have got his profit upon exporting it from here to the Continent. "I estimate the quantity of those goods which we may call privileged goods as far as the American is concerned, at 4000 or 5000 tons, which, could they be shipped at the time they are wanted here, would be most thankfully done. I can mention, in proof of the positive loss which accrues to us as commission merchants, another instance or two which has occurred within the last twelve months. A friend of ours had 500 tons of logwood which was wanted last Logwood. year at Liverpool; he would have sent it had there been an English vessel, but he could not send it, and it has never come forward; and there again, therefore, we lost the commission on £4000.; there was a clear loss to us upon that of £150.—(1522.) "With regard to ivory, it is of very frequent occurrence that they Ivory. are unable to send it; it is a most valuable article, and of course it is a question entirely out of time, particularly now, with the |