The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-07-25 00:00:00

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF OUR COMMERCE

WITH BRITISH INDIA.

The Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review„ in an
article " on the commerce sad prospects of the British
Empire in India," furnishes us with some statistical and
practical details which, at the present crisis of our com-
mercial affairs, are of infinite importance. We have,
again and again, in the columns of the LIVERPOOL
STANDARD, pointed attention to the efforts making by
the advocates of ultra free trade, to cut asunder the ties
—protecting and discriminating duties—which bind our
noble colonial possessions to the mother country ;—to
exchange the secure and remunerating markets which
they afford to our manufacturers and merchants for a
scrambling competition with the foreigner in the markets
of the world. Our opinion has ever been that a far wiser
policy would be that which should direct and devote the
energies of Great Britain to the task of developing the
resources of those colonial possessions. We have main-
tained that in these possessions, exhaustless alike in their
productive powers and in their ability to consume the
productions of Great Britain ; highly capable of civiliza-
tion, and certain, as their civilization progresses, to in-
crease largely the adoption by their vast population of the
habits, and the use of the products, of civilized nations ;
we possess a field for the operation of British industry,
ingenuity, and capital, which ought to render us indepen-
dent of the commerce of the world besides, and to place
far removed from us the necessity, said to exist, of pur-
chasing that commerce by concessions, whose declare-
effects are the discouragement of the agriculture of our
country, and the reduction of the position of the indus-
trial portion of its population, to, at least an approach
to, the miserable position occupied by the labourers of
most other nations. These have ever been our distinctly
avowed opinions ; and in the article referred to we have
ttatistical data which place their truth and justice beyond
he possibility of dispute.
Turning to the East alone we find that—
" In 1832, the extent of territory in India under the
British Government was 553,000 square miles, the popu-
lation of which was 83,000,000.
" At the same period the extent of territory in India
under the British Governmena, and including the allies
and tributaries to Great Britain, was 1,280,000 square
miles, the population of which was 134,000,000.
" At the same period, India beyond the Ganges ex-
tended to 77,000 square miles, the population of which
was 301,000.

" The total imports from India to Great Britain, east-
ward of the Cape and excluding China, in 1832, were
£6,337,098.

" The total exports from Great Britain to India at the
same date, were £3,750,286.
" Both the population and the trade of India have very
considerably increased during the last ten years. And to
territory we have now to add the extensive region of
Scinde.
" Taking into account its situation, and the great
variety and value of its productions and manufactures,
there is perhaps no part of the world better adapted for
engaging in extensive and profitable trade than British
India. It comprises 250,000 square miles, of the richest
and most fertile portions of the globe, with at least an
equal extent of productive soil in the tropical and tem-
perate zones. The sea coast extends 1,500 miles, and
possesses various excellent harbours, while the country is
intersected with the magnificent rivers, Ganges, Burram-
pooter, and Indus. This vast empire is surrounded by
the extensive and fertile countries of China, Birmah,
Siam, Persia, Arabia, and the Eastern Archipelago.
" The amount of maratime trade connected with British
India has baen recently estimated as follows :--
Total exports of merchandize and treasures
from Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, to
Great Britain, Continential Europe, North
and South America, annually..
Total imports to ditto from ditto, annual
average.
Maratime trade of India with China, Bir-
mah, Siam, Eastern Islands, Persia,
Arabia, Australasia, &c., annual average 4,000,000
Ditto of Singapore and China 6,000,000

8,000,000

Total annual trade
" Large as this total value of the annual trade of Bri-
tish India, appears to be, the trade with England is com-
paratively still in its infancy. The consumption of the
manufactures of England does not amount to sixpence per
head of the population, while in the West India colonies
the consumption of onr manufactures among the negroes
amounts to five pounds sterling per head ; and among the
colonists of Australia, to £l5 sterling per head. The
whole amount of our manufactures exported to India
does not at present exceed £5,000,000, while it has been
calculated, that, if each inhabitant of British India used
annually a single turban or gown of Manchester manu-
facture, there would be an annual export of cotton goods
rlone, exceeding £50,000,000 sterling. In our Asiatic
dominions, a large amount of woollens, silks, pottery,
glass, plated wares, cutlery, iron, brass, and copper im-
plements, and a variety of articles for domestic use, would
find a profitable and ready market, and could be easily
paid for in the different articles of production formerly
enumerated, and which are so largeli- consumed in Bri-
tain. In the article of sugar, it is calculated that the
valley of the Ganges alone would produce a sufficient
supply for the whole world. One half of the quantity
now consumed in the United Kingdom is obtained from
British India.

" From the great extent and fertility of British India it
must be clear, that a much more extensive and valuable
trade could be conducted between England and the East,
than now exists, or than is, perhaps, imagined by a large
class of our inhabitants. At present we import from
British India annually 6,000,000 lbs. of Indigo, valued at
£2,000,000.
" Cotton wool, annually increasing in quantity.
" Sheep's wool, about 3,000,000 lbs. weight.
Pepper, 5,000,000 lbs.
" Rice, exported from Calcutta alone, 20,000 tons.
" Wheat, a rapidly increasing trade ; the cargoes that
have arrived have been valued at 60s. to 645. per quarter.
" Untanned hides, upwards of 50,000 cwt.
" Linseed, 200,000 bushels.
" Castor oil, upwards of 1,000,000:b!. weight.
Other articles, such as coffee, rum, saltpetre, silk,
tea, dyes, drugs, timber, &c., it is unnecessary to specify.
" Sugar, one half of the present consumption of the
United Kingdom.
"In all these articles a greatly increased consumption
could be effected in Great Britain, and a corresponding
increase made in the exports of our various manufactures.
We now pay Russia annually upwards of 5.000,000 ster-
ling, chiefly in the precious metals, for the following ar-
ticles, which can be supplied from British India :
Tallow, 51,938 tons, at £4O £2,077,520
Flax, 54,478 .. 40
Hemp, 29,059 .. 35

£5,273,705

" The whole amount of British manufactures, exported
from the United Kingdom to all parts of the world, is
about £50,000,000 sterling, anndally. If the population
of our territories in the East were enabled to consume
only one tenth of the quantity consumed by our negro
subjects in the West Indies. there would, it is presumed,
be an annual export trade of £72,000,000 sterling, added
to the present total exports of £50,000,000.
According to the calculation made in 1839, the follow-
ing would be the amount of our exports to one hundred
nsillion British subjects in India, if they consumed in pro-
portion to the undermentioned countries :

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