JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. Bonds Outstanding and Real and Personal Property of the States.. Funded Debt of the Country..... Public Debt of the United States.. Stock Exchange Defalcations in Paris. Cost and Consumption of Gas in the United States.. COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. Maryland Guano Inspection Law for Baltimore.. Law of Ohio on the Adulteration of Alcoholic Liquors.. Remission of Duties by Great Britain.-The Commercial Treaty with Japan COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. Value of Foreign Merchandise Exported from the United States. Value of Foreign Imports into the United States Foreign Merchandise Exported from the United States 238 Price of Perfumery 242 Prices Thirty-seven Years Ago 243 RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. The Canals and Other Public Works of New York, No. II., as a Dependent System. STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c. The Census Legislation of the United States, from 1790 to 1850, Inclusive STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE, &c. Products of Agriculture in Massachusetts..... JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES. American and European Manufactures.-The Coal Trade of Pennsylvania. MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES. 245 246 247 249 251 251 252 254 255 258 260 261 263 264 265 265 266 266 £67-272 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. AUGUST, 1854. Art. I.-COMMERCIAL VIEW OF THE RUSSO-TURKISH QUESTION. FOR the first time during the space of more than thirty years three mighty European empires are engaged in actual war, the flames of which bid fair to envelop the whole continent of Europe. Though there exist not between us and the two principal parties to the war, any affinity of language, race, or religion, though they are combating for no principle dear to American hearts, still we feel an interest in the contest, and all have discussed for the fiftieth time the probability of the dismemberment of the Turkish empire. Upon examining the peculiar condition of this empire it seems strange at first thought that she possesses of herself the power to awaken such deep and almost universal attention, for she has no noble institutions to commend her to mankind, no large manufactories that supply the world with their fabrics, no Commerce extending itself to every part of the world, and diffusing imperceptibly its elevating, humanizing, and liberal influences, and lastly it has no citizens honored by an enlightened world either for their advancement in civilization, or for the pure and beneficent character of their government and legislation. Nor in reality is it her own intrinsic virtue that gives her so prominent a place in the public mind, but it springs from causes that date their birth in past centuries, and which instead of retarding will only hasten her ultimate fall. Since the day that Venice annihilated her naval power at Lepanto, and Sobeiski chased her armies from before the walls of Vienna, since the day that Pitt planned the alliance with Prussia in order that Russia might not obtain the country between the Bog and the Dneister, -we say from these earlier and later times she has been the toy of the maritime powers of Europe, each grasping for the bauble, not on account of its intrinsic worth, but merely that another might not possess it. England, France, and Russia are the powers that covet her possession, nor was it till the two first came to the rescue of Turkey against the latter, that her present position attracted much attention. And that which has really given this question such an interest to the American mind, is the query why those two powers are so anxious for justice to be meted out to Turkey, when they both sat silently by and saw Poland deprived of her nationality and Hungary of her constitution, and made no protest against it. And this is indeed an important question, for it looks to the cause of a nation's actions, to see whether they are founded on the immutable principles of justice and right, or whether they are the result of a policy which is founded on expediency, and sets at defiance every dictate of honor, save when commercial or pecuniary interest bids them to act in behalf of the oppressed. It is for the purpose of showing the reasons that have induced France and England to interfere in the Turko-Russian question, together with its relations to the interests of Commerce, that we have penned this article, to which we ask your candid attention. Before speaking of the events that at present attract public attention, it may seem necessary to revert to the past history of the Ottoman Empire; but it would throw no new light on her present position, and we shall only note a single peculiar fact in her history. While we are struck at their wonderful success in their early conquests, and seem to see in it the germ of a brave and progressive people, still, on a closer examination of what Guizot would call the "philosophy of their history," our wonder ceases, and our expectations are disappointed, for, strange as it may seem, still it is an undeniable fact, that in no period of their history do we see any movement of its masses for the possession of political power. While the history of almost every other nation tells of the struggle of the people to obtain more power, that of Turkey is devoid of a single attempt for such a noble and praiseworthy purpose. And further than this, you may read her history as written by Voltaire and others, and you shall find no record of any advance they have made in civilization during the past five centuries; and by civilization we mean that development of a better order of society that elevates the individual as well as the State, and which so strongly and surely marks and evidences the power of genuine, self-sustaining progress. We shall find no traces of the extension of the arts and sciences, manufactures, and Commerce, but in place of them the customs, habits, and mechanism of a barbaric and warlike race, and, in fine, we shall find them to-day a people of whom, to use the language of Sir Charles Napier, (uttered at a public meeting held at London Tavern to express sympathy for Turkey,) and also the expression of the official organ of Great Britain, "The less we say about them the better our cause is against Russia." With these brief remarks upon the character of her history we proceed to the consideration of her trade and its connection with her present relations to England and France. Like all other barbaric nations she has never shown any desire to become a maritime nation, unless it was upon the single occasion when she attempted to thwart Portugal in her voyages of discovery to the Indies, in order that she might monopolize the trade of that boundless empire. In fact, her commercial policy has been so at variance with that of Europe, so liberal, free, and unrestricted, while that of others has been so guarded, close, and prohibitive, that she may be said to have fettered her own hands, for by treaty stipulations as early as 1565 and 1604, she bound herself not per cent to lay upon merchandise entering her territories, more than three duty, ad valorem. That this stipulation (which cannot be too highly commended if it had been reciprocal) has resulted in the destruction of her own manufactures, and consequently destroyed the very foundation of her Commerce no one can fail to see; but it must ever be remembered that her rulers adopted this policy not on account of wishing to establish a free and unrestricted trade between all nations, but because, in the language of her own rulers, they deemed it unworthy of the children of the Prophet to be panderers to the taste of the scheming gaiours. Many have ascribed this freedom of trade as the cause of Turkey's present depressed condition; but the truth is, all Turks are warriors, and under no protective or prohibitive system would they ever become a manufacturing or commercial people. With this freedom of trade they combined one very illiberal principle and that was the forbidding the export of grain. The pernicious effect of such interference with the legitimate course of trade and exchange are too well known to be here commented upon, and so apparent were they to the Turkish government, that we find them in 1837 abolishing this prohibition, which the present state of her affairs has made necessary to again resume. With these remarks upon her commercial principles, we pass to the amount of her Commerce, and here we meet with a perfect dearth, and can only refer the reader to the various articles in the Merchant's Magazine, on the Commerce of the Ottoman Empire. Aside from this source we have but one datum of her aggregate Commerce, and that for the year 1850, and which was compiled by Huhner, a German statist. Add to the above the trade of Leghorn, Spain, Italy, Barbary, and the coast of the Red Sea, and her imports will amount to ninety millions Prussian thalers, and her exports to one hundred millions. Of this trade England has 37.5 per cent, Austria 29.5, France 18.7, and Russia 8.5. For the details of this trade, see the articles on Turkey's Commerce before alluded to. With this brief view of her aggregate Commerce, we proceed to examine her commercial relations to the two great powers who are so anxious to preserve the integrity of an empire which they themselves once helped to rob of the brightest jewel she ever possessed, and who sunk her fleets at Seventy cents. the battle of Navarino. We will first examine her trade with Great Britain and show her relations to that power. Let us here remark, that as early as the close of the sixteenth century England sent agents to Turkey to examine into the state of manufactures in that country, and to bring home with them such inventions and discovery, as regards dyeing and coloring cloths, as would make their cloths marketable in that country. Soon after this they obtained an admission to the ports of Turkey, and commenced that trade which is to-day so necessary and important to her. Below we give its amount for a series of years, and also some of the articles that constituted the bulk of the trade between the two nations: COMMERCE OF ENGLAND WITH TURKEY. -- Of the exports thus given, cloth constitutes the principal item, it amounting in 1837 to 953,190l., and in 1850 to 2,458,5381. The number of yards exported at different times is as follows: Such is the character of her exports; and her imports are alike interesting, when viewing her relations to Turkey. Of the 7,093,458 quarters of grain which Great Britain imported in the nine months ending October, 1853, she obtained from Wallachia and Moldavia...qrs. 501,481 | Egypt Total.... ... .qrs. 543,934 689,703 ...... 1,859,694 By this it will be seen that Turkey supplies the operatives of England with a fourth part of all the grain that is imported for their consumption. Her tonnage engaged in trade with this empire is estimated at seventy-five thousand tons, engrossing 37 per cent of the whole Commerce of Turkey. In 1850, there arrived at Constantinople 1,260 English vessels; at Galatz and Ibraila, 226; and at Trebizonde, 23. It will be at once perceived that the peculiar value of England's Commerce with Turkey is the foundation of her desire to preserve and perpetuate the existence of the Ottoman empire; for if Russia or any other power were to absorb that empire, the merchandise of England, instead of |