The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-04-11 00:00:00

EXTENSION OF COMMERCE.

WHILE independence of foreignaid in the supply
of raw material for our manufactures formsan im-
portant featurein the extension of our commerce,the
British possessions at the Cape of Good Hope ofrer
facilities of which no sufficient advantage has yet
:been taken. It was asserted some time since that
the settlement at Port Natal was a favourable
locality for the cultivation of cotton, but, some
attempts having been unsuccessful, it was for .a
time abandoned. Since then, however, it has been
stated that other attempts to grow cotton have
turned out more favourable, and there seems no
reasonable doubt that, if the requisite skill were
exercise& it might prove valuable auxiliary to
our other sources of supply for this important
article. -Indeed, now that the war with the Kafirs
may be considered at an end, and the colony placed
on a footing of security for the exercise of the arts
of peace, its advantages Of soil and climate might
be made available for very large additions to com-
mercial operations, There are hundreds who leave
our shores to settle in other countries, tempted by
descriptions of the benefits to be enjoyed, to whom
the advantages to be gained by a settlement in
Southern Africa have never yet been unfolded;
and it is a matter of some consequence, when so
many forsake the protection of the British Govern-
ment for the Republican institutions of the United
States, that emigration may be encouraged where
we shall at least secure customers for our future
exports. Commerce is necessarily based on each
party having desirable surplus products which they
may exchange, and this advantage may be amply
secured in the several settlements at the Cape, the
resources of which have never been sufficiently
developed. Wine has been produced, but with so
little regard for quality, that it has become a bye-
word for inferiority ; but those well acquainted
with the colony have declared that with proper
care it may be grown of first-rate excellence, and,
as it lies on the high way to our East India and
Australian possessions, its geographical position is
peculiarly favourable for carrying on a very exten-
sive trade. Some progress has been made in the
establishment of steam communication, but much
more remains. The public, and particularly that
class which form the bulk of our emigrants, should
be made acquainted with the peculiar advantages

possessed by the Cape settlements, in climate, fer-
tility, salubrity, and situation, and the vast amount
of capital which here is almost unproductive might
there be beneficially employed in plantations and
other establishments, by which employment would
be secured to the poorer class of settlers and com-
mercial intercourse promoted. As a station for
raising provisions for ships' use, it can hardly be
equalled; and, if its resources are still further
developed by raising supplies of wine, cotton, and
other products, under efficient management, Cape
Colony, including Algoa Bay and Natal, will be by
no means among the least important of the British
possessions.

We alluded, last 'week, to the attempts which
had been made to obtain a supply of cotton from
India, and the difficulties with which the question
was surrounded, owing to the baleful system of
management pursued by the East India Company.
Another great want is a more ample supply of Tea,
which experience has proved may be cultivated
with great success in the district of Assam. Use
has rendered this article almost a common neces-
sary of life, and we are under no such particular
obligations to the Chinese people as to confine our
immense demand to them, if we can obtain it from
our own possessions. If tea were cultivated to a
large extent in India, it would necessarily give
profitable employment to considerable capital, and
greatly increase the consumptive demand for our
exports, which is now chiefly confined to the ser-
vants of the East India Company. What is re-
quired is the breaking up of that exclusive system,
by which all independent exertions have been fet-
tered, and the opening up of the vast resources of
this magnificent Empire to the capital, the enter-
prise, the skill, and the industry, by which English-
men have become virtually the masters of the globe,
and the pioneers of civilization, extending the arts
of commerce and the blessings of Christianity
amidst Pagans and barbarians.

Our exertions for the increase of British Com-
merce need not be confined to the dependencies of
the Crown, but may be extended in other directions,
with manifest advantages to both parties. How
little has been done to avail ourselves of the vast
facilities for successful trading afforded by the
numerous islands in the Indian Archipelago and
the fierce Malay races, although the individual
enterprise of Sir JAMES BRooKE, the Rajah of
Sarawak, would show how much may be done by
judgment and enterprise. Almost alone, he boldly
ventured among a race which had been noted for
their ferocious violence, and devoted himself so
earnestly to the work, that he became the indepen-
dent sovereign of a petty state •; and we have now
the advantage in the supply of a substance called
gutta percha, which, for its applicability to almost
every purpose, is perhaps surpassed by none. The
same locality presents an almost exhaustless field
for enterprise of a similar nature, and from which
we have hitherto been deterred through fear of the
savage Violence which had long made those seas a
terror'to peaceful traders. The example of Rajah
BROOKE should not be without its uses, and, now
that 'his gallantry, aided by the British navy, has
struck a blow at the piracy which formerly raged
there to such a fearful extent, some progress may
be made in availing ourselves of the opening, and
the wholesome dread of -the British arms, to show
these people the advantages of mutual interchanges
of products. There are few insensible to the desire
of gain, when restrained from acts of violence ;
and, though it would not be exactly a realisation
of the old formula of conversion—the Bible in one
hand, and a sword' in the other—it might at least
be 'a proffer of friendly negotiations under the pro-
tection of sufficient fine to repel violence or
treachery. America has already commenced oper-
ations to extend her trade in this neighbourhood
by the expedition which is to-compel the EMPEROR
of JAPAN to open his ports to their merchant ves-
sels ; and it will be seen 'that not many Tears will
elapse before she wilt prove a powerful rival to us
in those seas, which the eminent commercial spirit
of the Spanish and Portuguese found so profitable.
Great Britain must, therefore, not be behind, for,
though, in the first place, there will be many diffi-
culties to overcome, our means are ample, if we
have but the inclination to employ them.