very trifling proportion being Russian. The quantity bartered at Kiachta, in 1843, will be found in a table given below.

The other principal articles of Russian export to China are linen goods of a coarse description; leather, skins, and furs. They also send firearms, cutlery, corals, mirrors, watches, and divers articles of ornament. The cost of carriage from Moscow to Kiachta is about R. 25 per pood (36 lbs. English.)

REPORT CONCERNING THE BARTER TRADE AT KLACHTA, IN 1843.

A note, appended to the foregoing report, states that the amount of trade therein specified, as compared with that of previous years, does not exceed one-third of the average. No cause is assigned for such a great fallingoff.

The foreign fur trade at Canton-twenty years ago amounting to a million of dollars annually-is now nearly or quite extinct; on the northern frontier, however, as shown in the foregoing table, there is still an extensive traffic; and were all the facts of the case at our command, we might find that this traffic is annually increasing.

The mode of transacting business at Kiachta deserves particular notice from its peculiarity. Commissioners are appointed on each side, who fix by regulation the price of every article of import, and of the tea to be given in exchange for it; and not only the price of the tea, but the proportion of each sort to be bartered for the different articles.

The "Chinese Olio" says that "a commission of six members chosen among the Russian merchants, and presided over by the custom-house director, treats for Russian merchandise. Another commission of an equal number of members taken among the Chinese, and presided over by their governor, treats for Chinese merchandise. These two commissions discuss the prices, which, once determined, become law for the merchants of the two nations."

The tea is classed into Family, and Flower tea; both which are said to consist chiefly of Pekoe, with a slight admixture of other leaves.

In 1843 the Chinese brought for sale 120,000 chests; of which 80,000

were Flower tea, and 40,000 Family tea. The prices, which have been unaltered for years, are—

R. 60 for one chest "quadrat" Family tea.

R. 120 for one chest 3d sort of Flower tea.

R. 80 for one chest "polootornoy" Family tea (i. e. 1 as large.) The prices of Russian produce were raised in 1843 from those of former years. Further it was arranged (as alluded to above,) that one chest of Family tea is to go along with every three chests of Flower tea.

The nature of the regulations fixing the price of Russian goods at Kiachta, will be shown by an example of the transactions by barter, as follows:

Against the 2d sort of Mezeritsky cloth the Russians receive 9

chests Flower tea, at Rs. 120 per chest,.

And 3 chests Family tea, at Rs. 60 per chest B. Rs...

For which the Russians pay,

Rs. 1,080

180

nearly 10

pieces of cloth.

R. 1,080 is equal, at the regulation price of
Rs. 125 per piece, to......

And R. 180 at Rs. 100 per piece, to....

R. 1,260

Pursuing the illustration, we will show the result of such a transaction

in 1843:

The 10 pieces of cloth cost at Moscow, in 1842, Rs. 145 cash

per piece, making.....

R. 1,522.50

Interest for 15 months-15 per cent.
Charges from Moscow to Kiachta,.

228.37 250.00

Cost at Kiachta of 10 pieces of cloth,

R. 2,000.87

But the value of tea in Russia in 1843, was 9 chests Flower tea at R. 555 per chest, at 12 months credit,.....

4,995

3 chests Family tea at R. 455 per chest, 1,365

Deduct 12 months interest,..
Duty and charges,......

R. 6,360

763.20 2,265.90

3,029.10

3,330,90

Leaving a profit of.......... R. 1,330,30 In this peculiar traffic we thus see that woollen cloths costing Rs. 2,000 are exchanged for teas estimated at R. 1,260, or at a loss of 37 per cent. But the tea taken in exchange, the nominal cost of which is R. 1,260, realizes a profit of R. 2,070, being 1031 per cent on the actual cost, (R. 2,000,) thus leaving a balance of profit on the transaction of 66 per

cent.*

The prices of tea at Nijni Novgorod in 1843 were (on twelve months credit :)

*The above calculation is copied from a paper written at Nijni Novgorod and communicated from Moscow.

The third sort of Flower tea is divided into about fifteen "families," sold by retail under different names applied to them by the Russians.

THE CHARGES ON A CHEST OF TEA FROM KIACHTA.

Besides these different sorts, the Russians receive what is called "brick tea," being tea dust formed by pressure into the shape of tiles or bricks. The greater part of this is consumed in Russian Tartary and Siberia, only a small proportion being carried to the fair at Nijni. It is not used as an infusion, but is stewed with milk, butter, salt and herbs, and eaten as food, as our matrons are said to have used the leaf when it was first introduced into England.

Besides tea, which is the staple article of produce bartered by the Chinese, they bring to Kiachta silks, nankeen cloth, preserves, lacquered ware, &c.

From the secresy which the Chinese maintain on their side of the commercial intercourse, we are unable to estimate the actual cost of the tea at Kiachta, or the expense of transport thither from the place of growth; and consequently have, at present, no means of ascertaining what the articles taken in exchange actually cost them at Peking, as compared with the prices at which they could be supplied by other nations. In 1830, a statement was laid before the Parliament committee on East India affairs, show. ing the retail price of tea at St. Petersburgh, and the valuations by London brokers, of samples brought over from thence. They were as follows:—

From the statements which we have given, it is plain that the profits of the export trade, and the ability of Russia to compete in the China market with England and other nations in the article of woollens, depends entirely upon the sale of the tea; and if we suppose the above valuations to be correct, or allow somewhat for deterioration of the samples in the voy. age from Russia to England, and looking at the price at which woollens

can now be produced in England and Germany, it is equally plain that unless their tea trade was protected by the present prohibitory duties, it would, even allowing for a considerable reduction in the large profits of the Russian importers, be driven out of the field by the merchants of other nations; and that in consequence they could not afford to sell their goods at Kiachta at the present low nominal prices, nor offer competition in the supply of woollens required for the consumption of China Proper. In supplying furs and other articles, suited to the north of China, they doubtless possess advantages over other nations, which would probably secure to them that branch of the trade; but even in that, the United States might offer some competition, as in former years they sent considerable quantities to China, although that trade afterwards dwindled down to a very trifling amount.

It is said that a part of the tea imported at Hamburgh is smuggled into Russia, where doubtless it yields the contrabandist a handsome profit.

Regarding the other articles of Russian manufacture, sent to Kiachta, we are not possessed of sufficient information as to what description of goods they are, and the prices at which similar articles could be manufactured in the United States or England and other nations, to give any data for a calculation of what the result of a shipment would be, in comparison with those of Russia.

The rigid prohibition of opium, which has so many times been thundered forth against the "barbarians" in the edicts of the emperor of the Chinese dominions, of course extends to the northern frontier, and probably with much the same effect as that resulting from the vigilance of the authorities on the sea-coast. The Russian autocrat issued an ukase to his subjects, forbidding any attempts at its introduction into China; and in their diplomatic intercourse with the Chinese court, the Russian officials take credit to themselves for excluding the drug from their caravans, thus showing themselves in a more favorable light as compared with those nations who persist in bringing it to the celestial shores.

It is nevertheless asserted that the Russian emperor is not averse to his subjects adding that to the other branches of their trade, and that opium is actually smuggled across the frontier by the Tartars who inhabit the neighborhood. We learn by a translation from a continental paper, which appeared in the columns of an English publication, that the idea of this trade was first suggested to the Russian minister of finance in 1838, by a Greek merchant, who was well acquainted with Asiatic commerce. He obtained several audiences of the minister, and by his plausible arguments gained his consent, securing to himself the privilege of transporting his opium as far as Kiachta, for twenty years, at the expense of the state; from which we may safely infer that the emperor's revenues are in some measure assisted thereby. The traffic is of course carried on with too much secresy to allow of any information being obtained by foreigners regarding its extent, and the means by which they secure the connivance of the Chinese officials, if (as is most probable,) it is carried on with their knowledge.

The Bombay Times, 1842, says, "We learn by letter from Smyrna, received by the present mail, that one hundred chests of Turkey opium have been purchased there by a Russian house, and shipped to Odessa, to be thence conveyed overland to Kiachta, and eventually smuggled across the Chinese border." If the existence of such a traffic be true, it is quite pos

sible that in the event of its becoming known to the emperor, there may one day happen a collision between the countries, the result of which may prove as momentous as that which has sprung from the late hostilities between China and England.*

Art. V. THE INVENTION OF THE COTTON-GIN:

WITH REFERENCE TO ITS EFFECT ON THE PRODUCTION OF COTTON.

THE American Journal of Science for 1832 contains a memoir of Eli Whitney, the inventor of the Cotton-Gin, which was prepared by Professor Olmsted, of Yale College. This memoir, together with some reminiscences of Mr. Whitney, by Professor Silliman, has recently been publish. ed in pamphlet form; and we trust that Mr. Sparks will soon add it to his "Library of American Biography," and thus give it a permanent place in the literature of the country.

Our object, in referring to the subject at this time, is for the purpose of embodying in the pages of the Merchants' Magazine, the appendix to the present edition of the memoir, which was prepared by D. Francis Bacon, Esq., of New York. Although that gentleman has drawn many of his facts from our Journal, it contains such concise, comprehensive, and well. digested views of the effect of the invention of the Cotton-Gin in the production of cotton in the United States, that we have concluded to republish it entire, well assured that it will be perused with interest by most of our readers.

THE EFFECT OF THE INVENTION OF THE COTTON-GIN ON THE PRODUCTION OF COTTON.

"The influence of mechanical inventions on the improvement of the human race, and the wealth of nations, is a circumstance which has peculiarly impressed the minds of practical men and of philosophic observers alike, since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Changes in the condition of society and in the intercourse of nations, far more momentous and lasting than the revolutions previously produced by political causes, have, within the last fifty years, been effected by the action of individual minds, in the development of neglected physical facts, and in the application of material agencies to the use and benefit of man. As new wants have been felt, and the needed uses of yet undiscovered powers have been made known in the progress of society, art and science have met each occasion; and the demand for new combinations of matter and motion has been continually answered by widely-various, unwearied invention.

"The application of steam to machinery, to navigation and to land carriage, the invention of the spinning-frame, and of the cotton-gin, are imposing instances of the operation of such causes, so insignificant in their inception, so immensely important in their results, to the convenience and happiness of mankind. The agency of Watt, Fulton, Stevens, Telford, Arkwright, and Whitney, in the production of the present wealth of the world, and in the development of the beforeunappreciated resources of the rapidly improving commonwealths and empires of progressive Christendom, has been greater than that of all other human causes. What may have been accomplished by government, by policy and by science, for the promotion of the general good of civilized nations, is little in comparison with

*To the writer of some excellent articles in the Bombay Times, to Mr. Macgregor's work on Tariffs, and to gentlemen in Shanghai and Hongkong, our readers are indebted for the foregoing article.-Editor.