STATE OF TRADE. Lloyd's Coffee-house, May 20th, 1808. In our last report we stated the export of wine, from Oporto in the year 1800, to be 54,210 pipes, and that of 1806, 39,046 pipes, leaving a decrease 15,164 pipes! in order to shew the ill effect of the additional duties laid at different periods General Junot has now permitted wines to be exported (by neutral ships) from that port, as well as from Lisbon, at the trifling outward export duty, of only 36s British per pipe. If these additional duties were reconsidered by the British legis lature, the importation might again increase, and not only give an opportunity to our wellintentioned allies the Portuguese, to continue ́their usual trade with us, but to liquidate the debts they owe this country; and at the same time benefit the revenue. Several vessels have arrived in London, as well as in the out-ports laden with wine, and more are hourly expected. A large fleet from the Mediterranean is very recently arrived: by it, we expect to receive a large supply of silks, so much wanted at present by the manufacturers. In the silk branch of business, many poor silk weavers in this city, are at this moment in want of employment. Rags for making paper, are also an article of which we understand there are large quantities on board this fleet, we therefore hope the price of paper will fall to its usual standard; at present that article has got to so high a price, that booksellers and publishers must either stop their business or be under the necessity of advancing the price of books &c. contrary to their own interest, and that of the public. is now the Magazine for all Italian goods, which before the war came to us from Leghorn. In the articles of hemp we hinted, in our last report, that government intended to grant a bounty on the culture of that article, to the growers of it in Ireland. We are happy to find that hint is realized, as appears from a letter to the Right Hon. Jno. Foster, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, which has been published for general informa Malta tion, in that country. The Prince Regent's order for the regulation of the Brazilian trade, dated at Bahia 28 Jan. last, has completely opened a market for all our manufactures (already described), by which means the vast quantity of goods, long since made up for the north of Europe, will not only find a ready sale in the Brazils, but the very best returns as cash, or the valuable articles of that rich country, will be the payment made there for our manufactures, without risk of debts or a day's credit. The sugar market continues dull. Cottons have been much demanded, both at London and Liverpool, yet the prices pay little more than a bare commission of 24 per cent. The quantity of cotton wool imported into London in ten days from Berbice, Boston, Maranha, Trinidad, Charlestown, Surinam, New York, &c. exceeds 170,756 lbs. weight!! Coffee is rather better in the market, and Jamaica and Leeward island rum keeps steady (for the prices of these articles see prices current annexed).It is with pleasure we can state that very considerable orders are now executing at Manchester, Leeds, Halifax, and other manufacturing towns in the North of England, for coarse woollens, baizes, &c. for South America; also Birmingham Sheffield and Wolverhampton, &c. have their share in the hard-ware, toys, &c. &c. This unexpected trade to Brazil, &c. will no doubt, every day increase, to such a degree at length, that we shall find no loss of our former poor limited export to Portugal; which comparatively was a nothing. The want of American flax seed, this year in Ireland, will, we doubt not, cause a considerable rise in the price of Irish linen cloth, but we have every hope that all differences between this country and America, are at this moment in a fair train of adjustment. Several vessels have lately arrived from France, with brandies, in our ports, notwithstanding a duty of 14s. Id per gallon laid on them, which amounts almost to a prohibition, and several vessels have also arrived from Holland, with all kinds of produce of that unfortunate country: NOTWITESTANDING ALL BONAPARTES'S DECREES, WE FIND BRITISH MONEY PREDOMINANT. Account of the Quantities of foreign Spirits imported into Great Britain, for the Years 1805, 1806, and 1807: distinguishing the Quanties re-exported, and those for Consumption in each Year. RUM. BRAND Y. GENEVA Years. Import Export Differ ence Gallons Gallons Gallons Import Export Difference 8,321,686 1,777,004 6,544,682 2,217,771 254,904 1,962,867||11,698,499 2 575,254 9,123,045 The Average Prices of Navigable Canal, Dock Stock, Fire Office Shares, &c. in May 1808, at the Office of Mr. Scott, 28, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars, London. Leeds and Liverpool, £172, ex. divid.-Grand Junction, shares £94 to 100.-ditto Mortgage Bonds, £90 to £100-Kennet and Avon original shares, £21 to £22-New do. £4 to £5 premium-Croydon, £54.-Ellesmere, £54 to 55. -Grand Surrey, £60.-West India Dock stock, £148 to 153 per cent.-London Dock, £112 to £116.-Globe insurance, £111 to £112.-Imperial insurance, 11 per cent, premium. .... 12 gs. 2gs. Bcl-21gs. 5 gs. Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Newry, Bel- ... 2 gs. 2 gs. 6 gs. ret. 31. 10 gs. ........ Newfoundland, Coast of Labradore...10 gs. ret. 57. Cape G. H. or St. Helena (Comp. ships).. Liverpool, Bristol, &c. to Dublin, Waterford, or Cork.... Lisbon or Oporto Gibraltar...... Madeira.. Jamaica or Leeward Islands. 5 gs. } 1185. 8 gs. ret. 41. 6 gs. ret. 31. 6 gs. ret. 31. 6gs. Dublin, Cork, Waterford, &c. To London. Lisbon and Oporto.. United States of America (Brit. ships) Ditto...... (American ships)... West Indies.. Liverpool or Chester .... .4gs. ret. 21. 8gs.ret.41. 6gs.ret. 31. The Baltic, to Yarmouth, Hull, &c. &c. Newfoundland to Jamaica, and Leeward ..... To Lisbon or Oporto.. 6 gs. ret. £3 15 gs To any one port in the Unit. Kingdom 10gs. ret. 51. May 20, 1808. Mahogany ft.£0 1 2 Oak plank, Dantz. —last 11 Ditto American Oil, Lucca,-25 gal. jar 30 Ditto spermaceti -ton 89 Ditto Florence, chest Pitch, Stockholm, -cwt. Quicksilver 90 0 0 4 10 0 £0 2 3 0 0 12 0 0 none 1 1 0 0 32 10 0 0 0 5 0 Ditto whale Daily Prices of STOCKS, from 20th APRIL, to 20th MAY, 1808. In Ordinary.. In Commission Building... Irish 5 p. Cen Omnium. Consols for Acct. Irish 943 Of the line. 50 guns. Frigates. Sloops. Gun-brigs. Total. 214 226 798 964 $96 68 681 904 904 954 THE LITERARY PANORAMA. FOR JULY, 1808. EAST INDIA COMPANY'S AFFAIRS. FIRST REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMIT- [Ordered to be printed 25th May, 1808.] The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the present state of the affairs of the East India Company, and to report the same, as it shall appear to them, to the house, with their observations thereupon, and also to report their proceedings from time to time to the house; and to whom several accounts and other papers presented to the house, respecting the revenues and charges, and the commercial concerns of the East India Company, and also the petition of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, were severally referred :-Have, pursuant to the orders of the house examined the matters to them referred, and have agreed upon the following report. The utmost diligence which your committee have been enabled to bestow upon a subject of such extensive detail, as an inquiry into the present state of the affairs of the East India Company," would not have been sufficient for its full investigation within the period which has elapsed since their appointment, even if many of the most necessary documents, as to the state of the Company's affairs in India, had not been received so recent The affairs of the East India Company, like every thing else connected with India, partake of a kind of infinity, which renders a just and accurate view of their rela. tions and bearings extremely difficult. To examine them partially, is likely to be little satisfactory, to comprehend them. completely, is hardly possible. They are in their nature extremely complex and intricate, combining political considerations with commercial arrangement: and what may be thought injurious (or beneficial) under one department, may be the very opposite under the other. We shall not, therefore, at present, attempt to offer any reasonings, or to draw any in-ly as to preclude the possibility of their being ferences from so much of the Company's affairs as is disclosed in the present report. We look forward to the period when this may be done with more ease, as well as with more certainty than at this time. We must make due allowances for the incon examined with that degree of accuracy, care, and attention, which the complicated nature, not less than the importance of the subject, indispensably requires: your committee are still engaged in the consideration of the various matters comprehended in the general ob veniencies arising from a state of warfare,ject of their inquiry, and will from time to f like the present, for those connected with the immense distance of India from Europe, and those, which are not a few, occasioned by the extent of the countries now subject to British government. In spite of every attention in officers to whom the charge of managing these vast sove reignties is committed, the necessary documents for guiding opinion and judgment will be subject to delays in some or other of them.. VOL. IV. [Lit. Pan. July, 1808.] time submit their observations thereupon to the house. Independently of the claim which the Com pany have preferred against the public, for expenses incurred in carrying into execution the orders which at different times have been transmitted to India, for expeditions against the settlements of such European powers as have been engaged in war with this country, the above-mentioned petition, various circumand also to Egypt, the committee observe, in stances (all of which are connected with the state of war in Europe and in India) are reᏃ |