"The tonnage of the vessels which transport these exchanges is taken at their entering port as well as their leaving it :

"Thus the navigation and commerce of Holland derive from the island of Java alone almost equal advantages with those obtained with the navigation and commerce of England from the vast Indian continent and its hundred million of inhabitants. The exchanges made between England and the Indies amount to 147,000,000 francs. Those of Holland with Java amount to 146,000,000 francs. The navigation between the Indies and England occupies 214,000 tons; that between Java and Holland occupied, in 1839, 195,000 tons, and in 1840 more than 220,000. These results have been brought about by the combination of two ideas. One of them is political-the substitution of labor for impost, and the position of protectors assumed by the Dutch over the relations of the natives with each other; the other is commercial, being the formation of the general society of commerce.

"The Dutch boast of having been at several epochs at the head of European progress, and of having given birth to the great improvements afterward adopted by other nations. It is they who gave the example of those companies, commercial and sovereign at once, imitated by other countries in the Indies. The first constitution of the Dutch East India Company was purely commercial. During the seventeenth century it continued the same, and accumulated wealth. In 1693, it had 102,000,000f. of profit. But this money was soon spent when the company had to provide for the expenses of the wars necessary to consolidate and extend its territorial empire. At the end of the eighteenth century it had a debt of 252,000,000 of francs, with 5,540,000 francs interest.

"The Dutch government then thought that the system of this company was superannuated, that its exclusive character and political power did not answer the state either of opinion or of things. It refused, in the year

"The importations of the American colonies of Holland in 1839 did not amount to more than from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 of francs, the greater part coming from the metropolis."

1795, to renew the privileges of the society, took the debt upon itself, and opened its possessions to the commerce of both the Dutch and the foreigner, yet reserving to the former divers advantages by its regulation of the customhouse. These advantages were found insufficient, and the preponderance which the English drew, from the superiority of their capital and of their navigation, had given them the supply of the Dutch colonies. "A law of the 29th of March, 1819, authorized the establishment of the General Society of Commerce of the Low Countries. According to its statutes, the association is to exist till the 31st of December, 1849. The proprietors of four shares, at least, (each share is worth 1,000 florins,) represent the whole society, and form its legal body. This body is divided into six electoral colleges, or is united into one general assembly, which, during the latter years, consisted of about three hundred voting members. The electoral college of Amsterdam, and that of Rotterdam, choose, among the possessors of at least seven shares, four commissioners; those of Dordrecht, of Leyden, of Midelburg, and the Hague, name each one; the king names a third, who presides over the assembly of commissioners. This commissioner is permanent; the others are renewed every year by one fourth. The commissioner, together with the three directors, form the council of the society. The first of the three directors is president of the direction of the council of the general assembly, and of the society. He is named by the king, without any candidateship; the other directors are also named for the first time by the king; but when one of their places becomes vacant, the council present to the king, in order to fill it up, a list of candidates chosen among the possessors of more than twenty-five shares. The direction forms the executive power of the society; makes contracts, buys, sells, receives, keeps, distributes the revenues, names and dismisses those employed. The council holds each year a session, which opens on the first Monday of May; it receives the accounts, and makes a statement of the affairs; it makes regulations, and gives instructions; these regulations and instructions are to be submitted to the approbation of the king. The general assembly has no periodical meeting; when the resolutions to be taken deviate from the articles first agreed upon, the council calls an assembly, after having obtained the king's consent. The directors are forbidden to accept any public office, or to take part in any commercial enterprise. Their shares, as well as those of the commissioners, deposited as surety, can be confiscated, in case of any infraction of the laws of the society. The directors receive a salary, and these salaries are very large for an economical nation. The president gets 25,000f., the directors 17,000f., and each of them has besides one half per cent from the general dividend, six francs per league for the expenses of travelling, and twenty-one francs a day for being present during the session. King William has kept the General Society of Commerce as a merely commercial company, without any right of government or exclusive privilege. The India company had ministers at Java, an army, and a fleet: the society has but a factory there, composed of a president and two members. cannot possess land, for it is obliged to overlook the culture of all the land. As it can only make use of the ships made by the Dutch, and belonging to them, it cannot possess any itself. In order that its large freights may be fairly distributed among the Dutch, the company has no vessels of its own, but employs the shipping of the Dutch ports in such proportions that Amsterdam has, Rotterdam 18, Dordrecht, and Midelburg, also,

It

Those employed by government deliver the produce at Java to the factory; the society is to transport it into Holland according to a fixed price; this price was, in 1839, twenty-eight centimes per kilogramme of coffee, and twenty-three centimes per kilogramme of sugar. The Dutch government would increase its revenue one third by selling the produce of Java in Java, but then the aim would not be attained. Dutch navigation must be kept up by the transport of the produce, and the produce must be brought to Holland, in order that Holland may remain the great market. The result of this arrangement has answered the largeness of those views which dic tated them. When the society was established, the Dutch flag only transported half the produce of their Indies, and now it transports all.

"In the year 1838 alone, the society freighted upwards of 140 vessels, of 100,000 tons burden, and shared amongst the proprietors a salary of 16,532,000f. In 1839, the tonnage of the vessels freighted was of 116,000 tons, and in 1840, of 138,000 tons. Such encouragement rendered the premium given by government for the building of vessels superfluous. It has been enabled to spare this expense; and, in spite of the suppression of the premium, the work upon the docks is more active than ever in all the Dutch ports. During the year 1839, 123 vessels, of 39,918 tons, have been built. Holland and Belgium united only possessed, in 1826, 1,176 vessels, of 148,000 tons burden; on the 1st of January, 1840, Holland alone possessed 1,528 vessels, of 270,000 tons burden, all built at Java, and belonging to the colony. The society has engaged, since 1839, to take and keep a naval apprentice for every 200 tons, yearly; so that each year from 600 to 700 young men are formed for navigation.

"Whilst the society thus increased the national marine, it also gave to Holland that manufacturing industry so long flourishing, and so lately ruined, by the weight of taxes, and the dearness consequent upon them.

"The re-establishing manufactures in Holland seemed an impossible undertaking; what manufacture could have risen above the expense of its first establishment, and support the expense of the apprenticeship of a population unaccustomed to the work? King William saw this obstacle; but he thought that once it was surmounted, the Dutch manufactures could occupy and give a livelihood to the mass of poor to whom the want of cultivable land leaves deprived of work, and at the charge of the treasury. The king then inserted in the charter of the society, the express stipulation that it should make use of Dutch produce for exportation, unless this could not be procured at a reasonable price; and interpreting this expression himself, he caused the society to make engagements with the manufactures which were to be established upon the faith of its orders; and supporting these operations by the customhouse tariff, by the power of the company, and by all the protection of the political authorities, and at the same time erecting manufactories on every point of the kingdom, he took away the supply of Java from England. In 1824, the Dutch manufacturers sent out to Java 430,000f. worth of cotton stuffs, and the English manufacturers 5,400,000f. worth. In 1839, the Dutch sent out to Java 15,484,000f. worth of cotton stuffs, and England 6,850,000f. worth.* By

"The importation of national cotton stuffs at Java in 1839, was of about 15,000,000 francs, and that of English cotton of 5,000,000. But the cotton thread, which is made use of in the manufactures of Holland, comes almost all from England. The annual value of English cotton thread thus employed being 5,000,000 francs, this sum is to be

bringing upon the market of Java an association provided with so great a superiority of means, and supported by all the power of government, the king was establishing a regular monopoly. He nevertheless took care to avoid this evil. Any operation of an exclusive character was forbidden to the society by its statutes. Foreigners continue to bring their merchandise to Java, and to buy the produce of the soil; only they find another competitor, and this competitor governs the market by the power of its capital. The Dutch, whether individual commercial houses or the society, are also favored by the dispositions of the tariff, which exempt from duty the produce exported by Dutch ships, and which reduces, for Dutch merchandise, the general duty of importation from 25 per cent to 12 per cent. Under this new condition about fifteen Dutch houses, and six or eight English, French, and American houses, still remain at Java. These houses kept, or sent to foreign countries in the year 1839, 5,000,000 florins' worth of coffee, 3,000,000 florins' worth of sugar, and 8,000,000 florins' worth of rice. They received from foreign countries, and distributed in the island, 20,000,000 of florins' worth of merchandise, one fourth of the importation of Java. The society, in its purchases, its sales, and in the mode of its transports, making its interest subordinate to the general interests of the country, has realized such considerable profits, that it has been under the necessity of reducing them, and has just consented to diminish the advantage of its contracts with the state. In 1838 and 1839, its dividend was 8 per cent, besides 41 in reserve, and 4 per cent interest, in all 174 per cent. The dividend of the bank of London has never

exceeded 10 per cent.

"The society, increasing its capital as it extended its operations, has raised the former to 97,250,000 florins. The possession of this capital ranks it among the number of the great commercial associations which exist in the world; the capital of the Bank of Amsterdam is 20,000,000 of florins; that of the Bank of France 90,000,000 millions; and that of the Bank of England 260,000,000. King William Frederic possesses himself 20,000,000 of the capital of the society.* After having regulated the statutes, he had guaranteed to his associates an interest of 4 per cent. During two consecutive years, 1827 and 1828, he realized his guarantee, and paid from four to five millions of francs interest. The abdication of King William Frederic has been for the society a crisis from which it is not yet extricated. It is not yet known what power this prince preserves as an individual in an association of which he remains the guarantee and the principal shareholder. The situation of the new king with regard to this association is not yet determined. Every one seems particularly stricken with the abuses which have resulted from the dependence of the society upon the crown, and look to the cessation of this dependence for more surety to the public finances, and more liberty to commerce; but perhaps it will not be long before the absence of this superior power will be felt, which caused to converge towards the same action the services of

deducted from the number of the importation of Dutch cotton stuffs, and to be added to that of the English importation. The share of English industry in the importation of cotton stuffs to Java, in 1839, was thus about 10,000,000 francs, and that of the Netherlands 10,000,000 francs also.

"This seems incorrect. By the 14th article of the royal decree of March 29, 1824, King William Frederic became security for himself and his family for a sum of 4,000,000 of florins in the capital of the company."

the state and the operations of commerce, which combined the establishment of a manufacture in Over Issel with the cultivation of a field at Java, and the levying of a tax with the success of a commercial speculation. What is truly great in this creation, made and conducted by King Wil liam, is, that by it the true policy came to dominate in both the fiscal spirit of the treasury, and the mercantile spirit of a company. It would be melancholy and pernicious to see a divorce between the government and the company, the one looking to economy, the other to profit. Both aims would be missed by the separation."

ART. VI.-TOWNSEND'S ICE-BREAKER.

To the Editor of the Merchants' Magazine:

PERMIT me, dear Sir, through your widely circulating journal, to lay before the public the plan of an invention which, if successfully applied, will prove one of the most valuable discoveries of modern times. It is comprised in a machine, constituted of a cylinder armed with teeth, and revolved by means of a steam-engine, which is designed to advance upon our rivers and bays, and to break a channel through the ice during the winter, thus affording a free track for steam navigation in that season. The inventor is Mr. Jacob Townsend, a respectable and practical mechanic of the city of New York, who has devoted much time and expense to the instrument, and already taken out a patent. The advantages resulting from the success of his invention would be scarcely second to those of the application of steam to the propulsion of vessels by Mr. Fulton, for it would nearly double the benefits that are now derived from this agent, by extending its operation to the whole year, it being now obstructed by the ice through a considerable part.

It seems extraordinary that in our own age, when the agent of steam enables us to create and apply almost an indefinite amount of power to so many various objects, the simple operation of breaking so soft a material as that of ice has never been successfully effected, and the benefits that would flow from its accomplishment should scarcely cause us to regret any ordinary sacrifices that we might make for the attainment of the desired end. The plan of the ice-breaker of Mr. Townsend has been carefully examined by scientific and practical men, who have expressed their decided conviction that it promises to be effective in attaining the anticipated object. The instrument thus invented by Mr. Townsend, is earnestly commended to the attention of the patriotic and liberal-minded men of our large cities, as well as those of the country. While I am well aware that our patent office in Washington exhibits, in its numerous unsuccessful models which are there deposited, the offspring of many a furrowed brow and sleepless night, melancholy evidences of disappointed, nay, blasted hopes; does that fact present any good reason why an invention of so much importance, that promises reasonable success, should not be aided by the public support, in order that the experiment may be fairly tested? For my own part, I conceive that the establishment of a joint-stock company for that direct purpose, would be the most favorable mode of advancing the success of this invention-an invention whose value will scarcely be deemed visionary when backed by the names of the well-known gentlemen who have