lished, that extends farther back than 1777. But this deficiency is now, for the first time, supplied; the Directors having obligingly furnished us with an account of the issues of the Bank on the 28th of February and the 31st of August of each year, from 1698, within four years of its establishment, down to the present time. We have also procured a statement, from authority, of the mode of transacting business in the Bank of Scotland; and have been able to supply several additional particulars, both with respect to British and to foreign banks.

We have made many additions to, and alterations in, the numerous articles descriptive of the various commodities that form the materials of commerce, and the historical notices by which some of them are accompanied. We hope they will be found more accurate and complete than formerly.

The Gazetteer department, or that embracing accounts of the principal foreign emporiums with which this country maintains a direct intercourse, was, perhaps, the most defective in the old edition. If it be no longer in this pre dicament, the improvement has been principally owing to official co-operation. The sort of information we desired as to the great sea-port towns could not be derived from books, nor from any sources accessible to the public; and it was necessary, therefore, to set about exploring others. In this view we drew up a series of queries, embracing an investigation of imports and exports, commercial and shipping regulations, port charges, duties, &c., that might be transmitted to any port in any part of the world. There would, however, in many instances, have been much difficulty in getting them answered with the requisite care and attention by private individuals; and the scheme would have had but a very partial success, had it not been for the friendly and effectual interference of Mr. Poulett Thomson. Alive to the importance of having the queries properly answered, he voluntarily undertook to use his influence with Lord Palmerston to get them transmitted to the Consuls. This the Noble Lord most readily did; and answers have been received from the greater number of these functionaries. There is, of course, a considerable inequality amongst them; but they almost all embody a great deal of valuable information, and some of them are drawn up with a degree of skill and sagacity, and display an extent of research and a capacity of observation, that reflect the highest credit on their authors.*

The information thus obtained, added to what we received through other, but not less authentic channels, supplied us with the means of describing twice the number of foreign sea-ports noticed in our former edition; and of enlarging, amending, and correcting the accounts of such as were noticed. Besides much fuller details than have ever been previously published of the nature and extent of the trade of many of these places, the reader will, in most instances, find a mirute account of the regulations to be observed respecting the entry and clearing of ships and goods, with statements of the different public charges laid on shipping, the rates of commission and brokerage, the duties on the principal goods imported and exported, the prices of provisions, the regulations as to quarantine, the practice as to credit, banking, &c., with a variety of other particulars. We have also described the ports; and have specified their depth of water, the course to be steered by vessels on entering, with the rules as to pilotage, and the fees or account of pilots, light-houses, &c. As it is very difficult to convey a sufficiently distinct idea of a sea-port by any description, we have given plans, taken from

The returns furnished by the Consuls at Hamburgh, Trieste and Venice, Naples, Dantzic, Bordeaux, Christiania, Amsterdam, Elsineur, New York, Charleston, &c. are particularly good.

the latest and best authorities, of about a dozen of the principal foreign ports. Whether we have succeeded, is more than we can venture to say; but we hope we have said enough to satisfy the reader, that we have spared no pains to furnish him with authentic information on this important department.

The TARIFF, or Table of Duties on Imports, &c., in this edition, is highly important and valuable. It is divided into three columns: the first containing an account of the existing duties payable on the importation of foreign products for home use, as the same were fixed by the Act of last year, 3 & 4 Will. IV. cap. 56. The next column exhibits the duties payable on the same articles in 1819, as fixed by the Act 59 Geo. III. cap. 52.: and the third and last column exhibits the duties as they were fixed in 1787 by Mr. Pitt's Consolidation Act, the 27 Geo. III. cap. 13. The duties are rated throughout in Imperial weights and measures; and allowances have been made for differences in the mode of charging, &c. The reader has, therefore, before him, and may compare together, the present customs' duties with the duties as they stood at the end of the late war, and at its commencement. No similar Table is to be met with in any other work. We are indebted for it to J. D. Hume, Esq., of the Board of Trade, at whose suggestion, and under whose direction, it has been prepared. Its compilation was a work of great labour and difficulty; and could not have been accomplished by any one not thoroughly acquainted with the customs acts, and the various changes in the mode of assessing the duties. Its accuracy may be relied on,

The article SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADE contains a full abstract of the late important statute for the abolition of slavery.

Among the new articles of a miscellaneous description, may be specified those on ALIENS, IONIAN ISLANDS, POPULATION, TALLY TRADE, TRUCK SYSTEM, &c. On the whole, we trust it will be found, that the work has been improved throughout, either by the correction of mistakes, or by the addition of new and useful matter. Still, however, we are well aware that it is in various respects defective; but we are not without hopes that those who look into it will be indulgent enough to believe the this has been owing as much to the extreme difficulty, or rather, perhaps, the mpossibility, of obtaining accurate information respecting some of the subjects treated of, as to the want of care and attention on our part. Even as regards many important topics connected with the commerce and manufactures of Great Britain, we have had to regret the want of authentic details, and been obliged to grope our way in the dark. Nothing, indeed, can exceed the accuracy and luminous arrangement of the customs accounts furnished by the Inspector General of Imports and Exports. But, owing to the want of any details as to the cross-channel trade between Great Britain and Ireland, the value of these accounts is much diminished. The condition and habits of the people of Ireland and of Great Britain are so very different, that conclusions deduced from considering the trade or consumption of the United Kingdom en masse, are generally of very little value; and may, indeed, unless carefully sifted, be the most fallacious imaginable; while, owing to the want of any account of the trade between the two great divisions of the empire, it is not possible accurately to estimate the consumption of either, or to obtain any sure means of judging of their respective progress in wealth and industry. As respects manufactures, there is a still greater deficiency of trustworthy, comprehensive details. We submitted the articles relating to them in this work, to the highest practical authorities; so that we incline to think they are about as accurate as they can well be rendered in the absence of official returns. It is far, however, from creditable to the country, that we should be obliged, in matters of such import

ance, to resort to private and irresponsible individuals for the means of coming at the truth. Statistical science in Great Britain is, indeed, at a very low ebb: and we are not of the number of those who suppose that it will ever be materially improved, unless government become more sensible, than it has hitherto shown itself to be, of its importance, and set machinery in motion, adequate to procure correct and comprehensive returns.

The statistical Tables published by the Board of Trade embrace the substance of hundreds of accounts, scattered over a vast mass of Parliamentary papers. They seem to be compiled with great care and judgment, and are a very valuable acquisition. We have frequently been largely indebted to them. But their arrangement, and their constantly increasing number and bulk, make them quite unfit for being readily or advantageously consulted by practical men. Most part

of the returns relating to the principal articles given in this work, go back to a much more distant period than those published by the Board of Trade.

We have seen no reason to modify or alter any PRINCIPLE OF COMMERCIAL POLICY advanced in our former edition. In some instances, we have varied the exposition a little, but that is all. In every case, however, we have separated the practical, legal, and historical statements from those of a speculative nature; so that those most disposed to dissent from our theoretical notions will, we hope, be ready to admit that they have not been allowed to detract from the practical utility of the work.

The maps given with the former edition have been partially re-engraved, and otherwise improved. Exclusive of the plans already referred to, the present edition contains two new maps: one, of the completed and proposed canals and rail-roads of Great Britain and Ireland; exhibiting, also, the coal fields, the. position of the different light-houses, &c.: the other map exhibits the mouths of the rivers Mersey and Dee, and the country from Liverpool to Manchester, with the various lines of communication between these two great and flourishing emporiums. Care has been taken to render them accurate.

The important service done to us, or rather to the public, by Mr. Poulett Thomson, in the obtaining of the Consular Returns, is a part only of what we owe to that gentleman. We never applied to him for any sort of information which it was in his power to supply, that he did not forthwith place at our free disposal. That system of commercial policy, of which the Right Honourable gentleman is the enlightened and eloquent defender, has nothing to fear from publicity. On the contrary, the better informed the public become, the more fully the real facts and circumstances relating to it are brought before them, the more will they be satisfied of the soundness of the measures advocated by Mr. Thomson, and of their being eminently well fitted to promote and consolidate the commercial greatness and prosperity of the empire.

It is proper, also, to state, that, besides the Board of Trade, all the other departments of government to which we had occasion to apply, discovered every anxiety to be of use to us. We have been particularly indebted to Mr. Spring Rice; Sir Henry Parnell; Mr. Wood, Chairman of the Board of Stamps and Taxes; Mr. Villiers, Ambassador at Madrid; and Mr. Mayer, of the Colonial Office.

We are under peculiar obligations to the many mercantile and private gentlemen in this and other countries, who have favoured us with communications. We hardly ever applied to any one, however much engaged in business, for any information coming within his department, which he did not readily furnish. We have not met with any mystery, concealment, or affectation of concealment.

Every individual scemed disposed to tell us all that he knew; and several gentlemen have taken a degree of trouble with respect to various articles in this work, for which our thanks and gratitude make but a poor return.

The expense of reprinting a work of this sort, containing a greater mass of figures and of small type than any other volume in the English language, is quite enormous. This edition is, therefore, stereotyped; and will not be recast for a few years. But we intend to publish, whenever they seem to be required, Supplements, containing statements of any alterations in the duties on commodities, and in the laws and regulations as to commercial affairs in Great Britain and foreign countries, with such additional information on other topics as may seem to possess general interest. And we do most anxiously hope that our mercantile and other friends at home and abroad will enable us to make these Supplements as useful as possible, by pointing out whatever errors or omissions they may perceive in the present edition, and by supplying us with fresh details. Much of what is most valuable in this work has been derived from the Circulars issued by mercantile houses, brokers, &c.; and the transmission to us, through Messrs. Longman and Co., of such documents, is one of the greatest favours we can receive. Any stipulations as to the use to be made of them will be carefully attended to; and we beg no one will consider his Circular as not being of sufficient interest to be acceptable to us.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE FIRST EDITION.

Ir has been the wish of the Author and Publishers of this Work, that it should be as extensively useful as possible. If they be not deceived in their expectations, it may be advantageously employed, as a sort of vade mecum, by merchants, traders, ship-owners, and ship-masters, in conducting the details of their respective businesses. It is hoped, however, that this object has been attained without omitting the consideration of any topic, incident to the subject, that seemed cilculated to make the book generally serviceable, and to recommend it to the attention of all classes.

Had our object been merely to consider commerce as a science, or to investigate its principles, we should not have adopted the form of a Dictionary. But commerce is not a science only, but also an art of the utmost practical importance, and in the prosecution of which a very large proportion of the population of every civilised country is actively engaged. Hence, to be generally useful, a work on commerce should combine practice, theory, and history. Different readers may resort to it for different purposes; and every one should be able to find in it clear and accurate information, whether his object be to make himself familiar with details, to acquire a knowledge of principles, or to learn the revolutions that have taken place in the various departments of trade.

The following short outline of what this Work contains may enable the reader to estimate the probability of its fulfilling the objects for which it has been intended:

I. It contains accounts of the various articles which form the subject matter of commercial transactions. To their English names are, for the most part, subjoined their synonymous appellations in French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, &c.; and sometimes, also, in Arabic, Hindoo, Chinese, and other Eastern languages. We have endeavoured, by consulting the best authorities, to make the descriptions of commodities as accurate as possible; and have pointed out the tests or marks by which their goodness may be ascertained. The places where they are produced are also specified; the quantities exported from such places; and the different regulations, duties, &c. affecting their importation and exportation, have been carefully stated, and their influence examined. The prices of most articles have been given, sometimes for a lengthened period. Historical notices are inserted illustrative of the rise and progress of the trade in the most important articles; and it is hoped, that the information embodied in these notices will be found to be as authentic as it is interesting.

II. The Work contains a general article on COMMERCE, explanatory of its nature, principles, and objects, and embracing an inquiry into the policy of restrictions