Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 2.djvu/181

Rh upon it they will not be at the trouble of driving their trades for nothing), we may very well affirm that the whole cost of this manufacture for consumption cannot be less than the sum of 5000l.; so that 2200 pound weight of Turkey raw silk manufactured here pays the sum of 5000l. to the subsistence of our own people." Our total annual export of cloths to Turkey is stated to be about 20,000 pieces, for about the half of which our returns were in raw silk.

A very minute and complete account of our trade with France for one year in the reign of James II., 1686, when the trade was free, as drawn up from official returns, and laid before the House of Commons during the discussion on the Utrecht Treaty of Commerce, is here adduced simply to show that our imports from that country then amounted annually in value to 1,284,419l.—namely, into the port of London 569,126l., into the outports 715,293l.; and our exports thither to only 515,228l.—namely, from London 409,563l., and from the outports 105,665.; so that the former exceeded the latter by the sum of 769,190l., or in other words that we lost by the trade to that amount, even by such goods as were entered at the custom-house. "This were loss sufficient, if annually repeated," exclaims the alarmed writer in the British Merchant, "to ruin this kingdom in a very few years." Dismissing that apprehension, we w ill here note a few of the entries in the account which throw a light upon the intercourse that formerly subsisted between the two countries in a social rather than a commercial point of view. Among the imports from France are the following items:—229 cwt. of unbound books, valued at 20s. per cwt.; 37 small gross of bracelets or necklaces of glass, valued at 44l. 8s.; 3876 fleams to let blood, at 2d. each; 162 dozen fans for women, at 40s. per dozen; 1487 cases of glass for windows, at 30s. per case; 20 reams of blue paper, at 10s. per ream; 20 of cap paper, at 7s. 6d. per ream; 77,336 of copy paper, at 5s. per ream; and 1659 reams of royal and larger paper, at 40s. per ream; besides 11,617 reams (probably