Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/51

Rh a quantity of valuable commodities as one, two, or three horses could draw.

But the canals of Rotterdam are covered with dismantled vessels, and whole streets of warehouses are unoccupied. This decay of the trade of Rotterdam is not to be attributed solely to the war with Great Britain, but to a variety of causes. The most striking, perhaps, are the emigration of their opulent capitalists, and the oppression and ridiculous ordinances of the Batavian government. By the emigration of the rich and respectable merchants of the British nation, the trade which Rotterdam at present carries on with England has fallen into the hands of men with whom the independent and honest trader of most nations would be averse to deal; and the government, according to the temper and prejudices of the times, has imposed those vexatious restrictions on the export and import trade, which are always peculiarly injurious to commerce. It is a curious fact, deserving to be known, that at the time when the government rigorously prohibited the importation of English manufactures