The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-26 00:00:00

at home : and as the prices of produce were remunerative to
the Chinese, they were able to afford an advance on the
goods they purchased. This gleam of prosperity was fol.
lowed by a great scarcity of money—a pressure which seems
to have been almost universally felt, the railway mania in
England having drawn the capital hitherto invested in busi-
ness into other channels ; for a short time prices were lower
here than was ever before known. Since that period a gra•
dual but slow improvement in imports has taken place;
and the stocks being light, as also expected arrivals, there
is every prospect of its continuance. That by a modilia-
tion of the oppressive tea duties in England, the trade with
this country would be considerably increased, there cannot
be a doubt—it is at present hampered and confined only by
inability to talce the produce offered in exchange; we calcu-
late that its value would be nearly doubled by a reduction of
this duty to one-half the present amount.
The consular returns for the past year are not yet re-
lished, and as no other statistical accounts of imports are
kept, excepting the stocks of cotton and yarn, we are unable
to enter so fully into the state of our trade as is usual at
this season, the lists of sales furnished us by the Chinese
being too imperfect to serve as a guide. With respect to
cotton, the deliveries of this year have again fallen off ;
there is an increase in the quantity of Bombay staple, but
this may be accounted for by the short supplies of other de-
scriptions. Prices have been most ruinous—lower than was
ever before known. The following table of the deliririm this year, compared with the three previous years, speaks
volumes :

Bombay. Bengal. Madras. American. Total.
1846 ... 205,25.5 18,371 32,1(18 2,898 258,683
1845 ... 183,719 31,102 60,151 8,015 278,587
1844 ... 229,123 46,126 66,564 6,192 348,005
1843 ... 231,540
231,54 Q
The decline in our cotton trade deserves particular atten-
tion : the consumption of the raw material is no doubt
seriously interfered with by the increasing imports of manu-
factured goods;. but there is a much greater drawback in the
excessive land-tax imposed on the producer by the East
India Company. • The shipments of this article are now
yearly decreasing ; the losses of the past year will still
further curtail them ; and it is evident that the cultivator of
India, burdened so heavily, canna tcompete with the native
of this country. The ab.olishment of most monopolies in
England has taught us that increased consumption is the
result only of a decrease in cost price—and in this age
of retrenchment and commercial reform, the Government
of India will do well to make some alteration in their
policy before it is too late ; it is unnecessary to predict
the consequences should they not remain satisfied with
the " golden egg." But besides the prostration of the
cotton trade, the working of the salt and opium monopolies
also deserve the particular attention of the lords of Leaden-.
hall-street.

The re-establishment f a Chamber of Commerce in age.
city has created considerable interea during the Minh;
At the time the Chinese impt.soned the foreign resi-
dents in the factories, April, ;839, it was dissolved, and
we have since experienced many difficulties from the
absence of that union which constitutes strength. As a
body we shall now be able to protect ourselves against
the illegal encroachments of the consul and super-
intendent (?) of trade. The events that have lately
occurred it is hardly within the province of a trade cir-
cular to recount, but they must be fresh in the recol-
lection of all. The collection of information respecting
our trade, however, is the principal object for the re-organk.
zation of the Chamber ; the only regular accounts,• as we
ooserved before, being kept in the Consular-office; these are
published but once a year, and, from the omission of opium
as an illegal article, present a very incorrect view of the
business carried on, Ihe value of the drug alone being equal
to that of all other imports aggregately. There is also a
prospect that several abuses of the old Hong monoply eye -
tem still remaining will be swept away.