government, in respect to the importation of this article, adopts an unusually liberal policy, exempting all ships with full cargoes of it from port-charges and from the greater part of the customary fees. The countries from which it has been usually brought, are Java and the Philippines, and in 1834-5 cargoes were sent from Singapore. Indeed, under favorable auspices, this promises to become a considerable branch of trade. In 1834, the quantity imported in British vessels was 15,406 tons, and in American 7,412, making a total of 22,818 tons, valued at 724,252 dollars, equal to £153,903 sterling, and is a branch likely to become of vast importance, for it is at present in its infancy. Although no less than eight of the provinces of China yield tin, yet the supply is inadequate to the demand, and it has for a long time formed a staple article of import. The countries which furnish this commodity, are the Island of Banca and various states of the Malayan peninsula, extending from the first to the tenth degree of north latitude. The metal from the former, being more carefully smelted, bears generally a somewhat higher price. The largest quantity imported in any one year in British vessels, was rather more than 1,000 tons, valued at about £70,000 sterling; but it fluctuates greatly, and we perceive that in 1833 it was not above one third the amount just stated. With the exception of gold supplied by Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra, and the Malayan peninsula, and copper from Japan, tin is the only metal which the Eastern Islands, or indeed any country of Asia, furnish to the Celestial Empire. Of the imports from Europe, the most important are iron, steel, lead, spelter or zinc, and quicksilver; woollens, cotton goods, and cotton twist; the minor articles being cud-bear smalts, flints, tin plates, clockwork, and machinery. The introduction of iron from Europe is comparatively recent, though the Chinese iron is greatly inferior to that of Europe. At one time they exported to the Eastern Islands, Siam, and other neighboring countries, a considerable number of cast-metal pots; but these have recently been superseded by a much cheaper article from Siam, where ore, and the wood to smelt it, are more abundant, and also by far better goods than either regularly sent from England. The quantity of bar and rod iron and steel imported by us and the British in 1834, was about 3,000 tons. The pig lead in the same year amounted to nearly the same quantity. Three of the provinces of China possess lead mines, and the supply appears to be considerable, although unequal to the demand, as much of it is used in the lining of the tea-chests, of which the consumption increases rapidly every year. Cornish tin used to be exported at one time by the East India Company, but at a heavy loss in consequence of competition by the cheaper and better product of the Malay countries. British copper also, at one period, was largely shipped; but this, with the exception of that for sheathing, has shared the same fate, having been driven from the market by a superior article from Japan, and a cheaper one from South America. Spelter, zinc, or tutenague, (the same metal under three different names,) formerly an article of export from China, is now imported, and we perceive that our countrymen alone, in 1834, conveyed to the amount of 200 tons. The total value of all the European metals landed in 1834, approached to the sum of £190,000 sterling,-a trifle in all probability to what it will become after a free intercourse has been fully established. Woollens have also been an article much in demand in China, and those used are chiefly broadcloths, camlets, and long-ells, which find their way throughout nearly the whole empire. The value imported by the British in 1813 was, in round numbers, £520,000 sterling. The cold winters, even of the most southern provinces, render such fabrics a comfortable wear, and considering the diminished supply and high price of furs, it is probable that a great demand will be created for them in the course of a few years. It is only since the opening of the trade in 1814 that British goods were received in China, and yarn was not imported till about the year 1827. The descriptions of calicoes most in request, are chintzes, long-cloths, muslins, cambrics, and bandanas, scarlet and blue. The twists in demand range from No. 16 to 36. The total value of British cotton-goods import ed into that country by the English and Americans in 1834, exceeded three hundred thousand pounds sterling, (£305,513,)—a large import, if we consider that it is the growth of no more than twenty years, that it has had to struggle all the while against the influence of the monopoly, and that the greater part of it has been imported, as it were, clandestinely, under the American flag. Watches Of the minor articles it is not necessary to speak at large. have long been taken, and generally by the ton or half ton. The fancy of the Chinese is to wear them in pairs, in accordance with a pretty general prejudice in the East against an odd number. Flints are also sent largely from England, to be used chiefly for lighting matches, and not, as some have supposed, as an ingredient in the manufacture of porcelain. Scarletcuttings, or the tailor's refuse of scarlet cloth, is also an article of some consequence, and it is so regular an object of trade, as always to be quoted in the printed prices current. In that of the 14th November, 1833, it was noted as varying from 90 to 100 dollars per pecul,-being equal to three shillings the pound. There is another commodity that used to be received to some extent, but which has of late wholly disappeared from the market. This is Prussian blue, or the prussiate of potass, and the cause of its discontinuance, as affording a singular example of the ingenuity of the natives, deserves to be mentioned. One of them, who visited England a few years ago, frequented a manufactory in the neighborhood of London, and having acquired the art of preparing it, commenced, on his return, a similar establishment in the neighborhood of Canton, where it is now made at so cheap a rate and in such abundance as to exclude foreign competition. The Chinese are the only people of the East possessing the spirit, intelligence, or courage, to have accomplished such an enterprise. The total value of British manufactures imported in 1834, by the English and Americans, was upwards of £1,350,000 sterling; consisting of Woollens, Cottons, Metals, £835,217 305,513 188,643 25,150 Clockwork, glassware, etc., Total, £1,354,523 The importations by the Americans consist of Spanish dollars, furs, ginseng, Turkey opium, Chili copper, occasionally cotton-wool, cotton fabrics, woollens, quicksilver, wines, spirits, and generally all articles supplied by the English. They bring also sandal-wood from the Sandwich and Feejee Islands, and not unfrequently pepper, tin, and other commodities, technically known by the name of Straits' produce-that is, the produce of the Straits of Malacca, comprehending generally that of all the western countries of the Malayan archipelago. They not unfrequently also bring car. goes of rice from Java and Manilla. The trade in furs was created by that people, which, owing to the monopoly of the East India Company, has hitherto been almost exclusively in their hands; and the skins usually imported are those of the rabbit, seal, sea-otter, land-otter, beaver, and fox. They are frequently conveyed direct from the northwest coast of America, and of late years from the recently discovered land of New South Shetland. The total value of furs and skins imported into China in 1831-32, was only 166,766 dollars; that of British woollen carried in their ships amounted to 229,022 dollars; while the cottons, nearly all English, were estimated at 398,799 dollars. The metals imported by the Americans in the same year into China, consisting of quicksilver, lead, iron, copper, spelter, and tin, were of much higher value, being not less than 975,736 dollars, of which the quicksilver alone amounted to 720,650 dollars. In 1834, our imports of British manufactures, chiefly woollens and long-cloths, amounted in value very nearly to 2,000,000 of dollars. In the earlier period of our intercourse, and indeed until very lately, we were in the habit of importing bullion very largely. In 1834, it amounted to the value of a little more than 1,000,000 dollars, and we paid for our export cargoes in bills on London, and respondia bills, to the value of upwards of 4,600,000 dollars. The first American vessel that went on a trading voyage to China, sailed from New York in February, 1784; but so rapidly did the commerce thus opened increase, that in 1789 there were fifteen of our vessels at Canton,-being a greater number than from any other nation, except Great Britain. The following table exhibits the value in dollars of exports from the United States into China, and of the imports from that country into the United States, in each of the eighteen years from 1821-1838: We published in the Merchants' Magazine for September, 1840, a state. ment derived from official documents, kindly forwarded us by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Hon. Levi Woodbury, tables exhibiting-1st. A condensed view of the direct trade between the United States and China, from 1821 to 1839 containing the aggregate of exports, imports, and tonnage, for each year, with the number of men and vessels employed; 2d. A table exhibiting the value of exports of foreign merchandise and domestic produce to China, annually, for the same period, distinguishing in the former the articles free, from those paying specific and those paying ad valorem duties. We now proceed to give from the same source a tabular statement, exhibiting the imports from China annually into the United States, from 1821 to 1839, giving the articles separately. 1829 48,795 1830 945 end'g 30th Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Sept. Pounds. Dollars. Pounds. Dollars. Pounds. Dollars. Pounds. Dolls. 1821 1822 8 1823 1824 134,944 187,724 12,770 10,551 740 2,499 245 2 687,495 47,306 81,986 5,739 8,783 63,520 4,446| 357 63 97 7 71,828 4,869 1825 12,072 1,492 308,004 20,360 215,547 14,600| 1826 75,074 7,632 1,215,271 77,740 151,704 12,128| 1827 219 19 323,804 25,150 386,451 29,060 1828 51,512 4,359 77,104 4,990 2,474 249 3,695 1,451,726| 70,262| 1,493 70 502,592 40,297 2,593 273 1,465 199 71 481 4,927 393 41 440 68 214 28 151 10 1833 2,201 147 380,489 15,807 2,128 215 325 39 |