The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. A Digest of
the Productive Resources, Commercial Legislation,
Customs Tariffs, Navigation, Port, and Quarantine
Laws, and Charges, Shipping, Imports and Ex-
ports, and the Moneys, Weights, and Measures of
all Nations ; including all British Commercial
Treaties with Foreign States. Collected from
Authentic Records, and Consolidated with Especial
Reference to British and Foreign Products, Trade,
and Navigation. By John Macgregcr, MP.,
Late Secretary of the Board of Trade ; Author of
" The Progress of America, from the Discovery by
Columbus to the Year 1847." Vol. IV.
[THIRD NOTICE.]

The history of the rise and extension of the
British power in India is given at considerable length,
and Mr. Macgregor concludes his chapter on the
history of British India with the following list of the
territories comprised within the sovereignty of the
East India Company, with the dates of their acqui-
sition :-
" 1688. Bombay.
1757. Tho twenty-four Pergunnabs.
1759. Masulpatain, &c.
1760. Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chittagong.
1765. Bengal, Behar, and Orissa.
1765. Jaghire, near Madras.
1766. Northern Circars.
1775. Zamindary of Benares.
1776. Island of Salsette.
1778. Negore.
1786. Pulo-Penang.
1788. Guntor Circar.
1792. Malabar, Dindigul, Salem, &c.
1799. Coimbatore, Canara, Wynsad, and Tanjore.
1800. Nizam's acquisitions from Tippoo Sultan.
1801. Carn atic,G oruck pore, Lower Doosb,Bareilly,&c.
1802. Districts in Bundolcund.
1803. Kuttaek, Balasore, Upper Dooab, Delhi, &c.
1805. Districts in Guzerat.
1815. Kumaon, and part of Nepattl.
1817. Saugur, Muttah, Darwar, &c.
1818. Candeish, Ajmere, districts on the Nerbudda,
Sumbhulpore, Patna, Poona!), Konkun, South-
ern Mahratta Country.
1820. Lands in Southern Konkun.
1822. Districts in Bejapore, and Ahmednuggur.
1824. Island of Singapore.
1825. Malacca.
1826. Assam, Arracan, Tavoy, Ye, Tennasserim, &c.
1832. Cachar.
1834. Coorg, Loodhiana, and adjoining district.
1835. Jynteeah.
1839. Aden.
1840. Kurnoul.

1841. Jalown.
1843. Sinde.
Add to these the territories acquired by the victories in
the Punjaub, with the dependent and occupied states, and
the British empire in India may be said almost to include
the vast regions from the Himalaya Mountains south to
Cape Comorin."

The total area of British India is 512,923 square
miles, and the total population is estimated at
89,470,152. The quantity and value of the products
of such a territory are enormous, but
" Both quantity and value are lamentably deficient,
when compared with the number of the population and
the extent of cultivated and cultivable soil. If, for ex-
ample, we take merely a cursory view of the produce of
agricultural labour iii the United States of America, with
18,000,000 inhabitants, of whom so very great a number
follow countless other occupations than that of culti-
vating the soil ; and then turn to the more than

100,000,000 inhabitants of India, who are chiefly
engaged in agriculture, the quantity and value of the
products yielded by the cultivated soils of the latter will
then appear deplorably beneath those produced by the
energy, and industry of the cultivators of the
North American soils. To what causes are we to at-
tribute this disproportionate difference with regard to,
chiefly the exportable products of India, where the
wages of hibour are, almost infinitely, lower than even
slave labour in the United States? We may presume
to attribute the reality of the deficient exportable pro-
ducts of India, not to the soil or climate, nor to the
want of abundant and cheap labour, but to various
other causes.

"First—To, in a great degree, the natural dispositions,
hereditary customs, training, castes, laws, and local cir-
cumstances of the Indian races.

" Secondly—To the stationary condition of the in-
habitants for many centuries in the arts and sciences,
and of the mechanical appliances in aid of labour,
whether in agriculture or in manufactures.
" Thirdly—To the generally frugal and temperate
habits of the Hindoos, whose actual necessities are
limited to the simplest and cheapest food.
" Fourthly—ln a considerable degree, but not by any
means to the great extent generally believed, to the
ancient and .prevailing system of taxation in India.
" There are many other local and minor causes; but
the foregoing are quite sufficient to account for the rude-
ness of all agricultural implements—the general want of
roads, the deficient products of the soil, and the imper-
fect preparations of those products for the markets of the
world, and particularly for the markets of Europe, espe-
cially of those products, such as cotton wool, with, which
the crops of America compete so triumphantly as raw
materials for manufacture. A full examination of the
principal causes which impede the development of the
almost inexhaustible resources of India, is far beyond
the scope of this work,—and we need only remark, that
the. British Parliament will, most assuredly, when -the
East India Company's charter must, in a short period,
be fully reconsidered, insist, before that charter is re-
newed, upon the following points in the future policy of
India being thoroughly carried into effect.
" First—Adopting, with the most practically effective
means and without delay, measures for opening commu-
nications, especially by railways, over the interior of
India, in order to carry the products of the soil cheaply
to markets, and the manufactured articles imported to
the places of use, or consumption, within the different
presidencies, including the dependent states.
" Second—A general revision of the whole system of
taxation, including the abolition of monopolies and all
differential customs' duties, and of duties between one
presidency or state and another presidency or state in

" Third—Adopting means for introducing and using
tho hest agricultural implements over all parts of India;
and

"Fourth—Abolishing as speedily as can be effected
without bloodshed and violence, and with reasonably
equitable compensation, the impotent, but still oppres-
sive remnants of native governments, in order to estab-
lish one general mild and just, yet firm and efficient
government over all India.

" Having very great confidence in the practical views
of the East India directors, we believe that they will
apply their energetic attention to those great objects
which are required by the whole condition of the Indian
empire; and that they will all be fully in progress before
the expiration of a charter, the non renewal of which
we should deplore. The first three are at the present
time considered part of the Indian system embraced in
the administration of the directors ; and events will
render the fourth an imperative course of policy."

It is not until these remedial measures shall have
been adopted, and until the cotton districts more
especially shall be so intersected by railroads as to
afford to every cotton cultivator a cheap, a rapid, and
a safe means of transit, that we can hope to derive
anything like a supply of the finer sorts of raw cotton
from India. If the present methods of transit, by
which the cotton is damaged materially en route to
the port of embarkation, were superseded by railroads,
there then would be a stimulus given to the cultivator
to be more careful in his harvesting and preparing
the cotton for the market ; but until such shall be the
case we fear that we shall not derive any very large
portion of our supply of the most valuable sorts of
cotton from India.

From the low prices of wheat in India it has been
imagined that we might expect a large annual supply
of corn from that country, and when we consider that
in Bengal in 1846 the price of wheat was 16s. Bd. per
quarter, in the Deccan 14s. 11d., at Sanger from
ss. Gd. to 7s. 6id., at Nagpore, 10s. 10d., and in the
Goojrat, in a year of scarcity, 17s. 11d., the idea of
our
deriving a large supply of wheat becomes very
feasible ; but it appears from the statistics collected by
Mr. Macgregor that it is only in years of scarcity
in England that it will answer the purposes of the
speculator to import wheats from India :
" If the lowest price stated of Odessa wheat be taken,
255. per quarter, and the lowest rate of freight, 6s. 6d.
per quarter, then a ton of wheat would be introduced
into England at a cost of 116 s. Bd. for the cost price of
the wheat, and 30s. 3d. for freight, making a total cost
per ton of 1465. 11d. Freights from India vary ex-
cessively ; but assuming a very high freight of 51. or
1005. per ton, and taking the average of all the averages
of the price of wheat—namely, 13s. ld. per quarter or
61s. per ton, then the cost of a ton of Indian wheat
landed in England would be 1615., and in ordinary
seasons it would not be worth a speculator's while to im-
port it from India. But with respect to other grains,
some of which are three or four times cheaper than
wheat, the same objection would not exist, and they
might be imported to a great profit, even in ordinary
seasons, could a taste for them be induced. But in
seasons of scarcity like that of the past year, when the
price of wheat has varied in the London market from
575. per quarter (2665. per ton, in November, 1846), to
102 s. per quarter (4765. per ton, on January Ist, 1847),
then India may be looked to with confidence for a supply,
rendering large profits to the importer ; India having
the advantage also of ripening its grain crops in January
and February, five months before those of Europe are
available. It may be objected that a larger demand
upon India would greatly raise prices, and probably per..
manently so; but my reply to this objection is, that
about two-fifths of the whole fertile soil of India are at
present untilled, and would necessarily be brought into
cultivation to meet an increased demand for cereal
supplies."

The resources of India are very great, and they
have never yet been properly developed. On this
point Mr. Macgregor says—

" The projected railways which in time must be
executed—the canals which have hem to some extent
executed—and the late successful attempts to navigate
the ►ivers of India, ere the great means by the aid of
which the great sources of India are to be developed.
And we trust that during the period which remains un-
expired of the East India Company's charter, the di-
rectors and the Board of Control, will decide upon
measures, which will fully justify the Parliament in re-
newing that charter,"

We trust that the admonitions of Mr. Macgregor
will not be thrown away, and that the East India

Company will at once proceed to perfect the means of
transit in India, as the only method by which the
resources of that mighty country can be properly and
efficiently developed.
This volume contains not only the commercial
statistics of British India properly so called, but
also those of Ceylon, Singapore, Penang, Malacca,
and our possessions in the Indian seas. The story
of the marvellous progress of Singapore is now
familiar to all; we shall therefore not dwell upon it.
But the history of Malacca is not so well known, and
its story should operate as: a warning to those who
would fain give up a possession because temporarily
it may be unprofitable to maintain it.
The city of Malacca was one of the oldest of the
European settlements in India. It belonged suc-
cesively to the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the Eng-
lish East India Company, but
" The establishment of Pulo Penang, having super-
seded the necessity of maintaining it, the Company
came to the resolution, in 1805, of withdrawing the
garrison and stores from Malacca and its dependencies;
and, previous to the abandonment of the place, the for-
tikeations and public works of all descriptions were com-
pletely demolished, so as to render it of the least pos-
sible value to the enemy, in case it should ever again
come into his possession. Many of the inhabitants, with
their families and effects, repaired to Prince of ales'
Island, and established themselves under the Company's
protection."
The place thus abandoned by the English was on
the point of falling into the possession of another
country, but fortunately the discoverers of the tin
mines, with which Malacca abounds, were Chinese
and Malays instead of Americans, and we were con-
sequently enabled to re-occupy Malacca and to secure
the mineral riches of the country for ourselves. Mr.
Macgregor is fully aware of the immense importance
of securing the trade with the Eastern Archipelago.
It will open to us the largest
market for the sale of
British manufactures in the world.
" Malacca is undoubtedly, in its natural resources, a
very rich country, abounding in useful woods, minerals,
and fertile soils, with many good harbours ; and, this
Italian-like in form peninsula, with the numerous and
almost uncultivated islands, in the straits and of the
coasts of Malacca—and with Sumatra, as a gigantic
Scilly of the Indian Sea, and Java, as it were an Oriental
Crete, with Borneo and the other great and small and
fertile islands of the Eastern Archipelago, have already
opened the most ample fields for trade and navigation,
which must rapidly be developed by the genius, skill,
and intelligence of commercial enterprise, and by the
speedy communications which have been extended by
steam to those seas and islands.

" In the Eastern Archipelago the inhabitants are re-
markably varied both in character and employments.
They consist of diversities both of agricultural and com-
mercial classes; from the wildest tribes, who seek a pre-
carious subsistence in their woods and forests, to the
Javanese, who cultivates the fertile soil of that island;
from the petty trader, who collects the scattered produce
of the interior, to the Chinese capitalist, who receives it
from him, and disperses it again to more distant regions,
situated between the continent of China on the one
hand, and of India on the other; and furnishing to
Europe the means of an extensive commerce.
" By means of the variety of its tribes, their inter-
mixture and connexion with each other, and the accessible
nature of the coasts, washed by. the smoothest seas in
the world; while large and navigable rivers open com-
munication with the interior, the stimulus of this com-
merce is propagated in saccessives waves through the
whole, may be, to an extent that could not otherwise
have been obtained. Thus the savage and intractable
Batta collects and furnishes the camphor and benjamin,
the spontaneous produce of his woods ; the equally bar-
barous Dyak and wild Harrafura ransack the bowels of
the earth for its gold and its diamonds; the inhabitant
of the Seel°, seeks for the pearl beneath the waters that
surround him, and others traverse the shores for the
tripang or sea slug, or descend into its rocky caverns for
the Chinese luxury of birds' nests. Ascending from
these, we find the more civilized Sumatran, whose agri
culture is yet rude, employed in the raising of pepper;
the native of Moluccas in the culture of the. nutmeg and
the clove; the still higher Javan and Siamese, besides
their abundant harvests of rice, supplying Europe with
their coffeee and sugar ; and all impelled and. set in
motion by the spirit of commerce. Not less varied are
the people who collect this produce from all these different
quarters, till it is finally shipped for Europe, India, and
China ; from the petty bartering trader, who brings it
from the interior to the ports and mouths of the river;
the Malay, who conveys it from port to port; the more
adventurous Bugguese, who sweeps the remote shores to
concentrate their produce at the emporia, to the Chinese
merchant, who sends his junks laden with this s.ccnmu-
lated produce, to be dispersed through the empire of
China, and furnishes Europeans with the cargoes of their
ships. Through the same diverging channels are again
circulated the manufactures of India and Europe; and
thus a constant intercourse and circulation is maintained
through the whole. How much this intercourse is faci
litated by the nature of the countries, broken into in-
numerable islands, may be readily conceived, and the
vastness of the field may be inferred, from the extent
to which its commerce has actually been carried under
every. disadvantage of monopolizing policy, and of in-
security of person and property, by which the condition
of the people has been depressed, and their increase
prevented. When we consider that they are placed at
the very threshold of China, a country overflowing with
an enterprising and industrious population, anxious and
eager to settle wherever security and protection are
afforded, that it is this people who have chiefly con-
tributed to maintain and support the energies of the
native population, and have diffused, the stimulus of
their own activity wherever they have settled; and that
protection against despots and pirates only is wanted to
accumulate them in any numbers, to create, it may be
said, a second China, the resources and means of this
extraordinary archipelago, will appear without limits.
" Borneo and the Eastern Islands may become to
China what America is already to the nations of Europe.
The superabundant and overflowing population of China
affords an almost inexhaustible source of colonization;
while the new and fertile soil of these islands offers the
means of immediate and plentiful subsistence to any
numbers who may settle in them. How rapidly, under
such circumstances, these colonies may increase in po-
pulation, where the climate is at least as congenial to
the Chinese as that of America to Europeans, may be
readily conceived from the experience which the latter
has afforded. The wealth of their mines, and the extent
of their own native population, added to the greater
proximity of China, are advantages which were not en-
joyed by America, and must contribute to accelerate
the progress of colonization.'—Front a number of the
Calcutta Journal.

twith
extract, written some years ago at Cal-
cullaapplies equal force to the present condition
of the straits' settlements, and islands, and of the
e w
Eastern Archipelago. The future of those regions
must be great."
t T
above

We would commend this passage to the attentive
consideration of those who object to our having
colonized Labuan, and who would fain leave to the
Dutch the monopoly of the trade with the Eastern
Archipelago.

The present volume completes this very valuable
work, and we congratulate Mr. Macgregor on having
presented to the world the most complete, the most
valuable, and the most accurate work on commercial
statistics that has ever appeared in any language.