THE WAR AND FLUCTUATIONS IN MARITIME INTERCOURSE 679
English parliament has laid a considerable duty on the ex- A.D.1776
. . . . . —1850.
portation of coals, which foreign nations are obliged to pay.
“ A nation whose active commerce is so preponderating,
compared with its passive trade, who is herself the ruler of
the most numerous and fertile colonies in all parts of the
world ; a nation that sends the produce of her industry to
every zone; that has so formidable a navy, and so widespread
 a navigation; a nation, that by her activity and the
genius of her citizens, manufactures its numberless articles of
merchandise, infinitely finer, in much superior workmanship,
in far more exquisite goodness, than all other nations, without
exception; and that is able to sell them infinitely cheaper,
owing to her admirable engines, her machines, and her native
coal; a nation, whose credit and whose capital is so immense despite the
as that of England; surely such a nation must render all ear of
foreigners tributary; and her very enemies must help to bear
the immense burthen of her debt and the enormous accumulation
 of her taxes.
“The commerce of France and Holland is at present
almost totally suspended by the blockade of most of their
ports’. Both countries are totally cut off from their possessions
in the East Indies, and are allowed to carry on but a very
insignificant trade with their West India colonies. How

i «Before the Revolution France employed, in its colonial trade, 180,000 tons of
shipping. Between the years 1763 and 1778, the returns in produce from the
French colonies, consisting of sugar, coffee, indigo, cocoa and cotton, amounted to
the annual value of about £6,400,000 sterling. Of these one-half was consumed in
France, the other half exported to other parts of Europe. In 1788 the tonnage
smployed in the French colonial trade had been augmented to 696 vessels of the
burthen of 204,058 tons. The imports rose in that year to the value of about
£7,000,000 sterling.
“From an official paper of the French minister of the interior, we learn, that
in the year ending Sept. 1800,
The value of the imports of France was .
Of the exports . 4 .™
Balance against France in 1800

In the year ending Sept. 1801, the imports were . .
Exports .

Value of prizes captured this year from the enemy . -
Balance against France in 1801

17,370,000
12,716,000

4,654,000
670,000
£3,984,000.*