Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/187

 ASIATIC NATIONS. l?! ing, are committed as in that of foreign commerce. China affords examples of this as well as modern Eu- rope, and it is singular enough to remark, how much alike are the errors committed by the legislators of both. For the conduct of foreign commerce, each has its monopoly, and in China we discover all the errors and absurdities of the mercantile sys- tem of political economy, the ridicule of the pre- sent generation, though the boast of our predeces- sors. The Chinese, indeed, carry the principle of the mercantile system to an extreme, which would have excited the admiration or envy of the European politicians of the early part of the last century. As our politicians did, they believe that money is wealth ; they are peculiarly prepossessed in favour of that foreign trade, which appears to bring in the largest share of it ; and they prohibit its exporta- tion. They prohibit also the exportation of all articles of a durable nature, many articles of great value in use, and some to which the absurd nation- ality of the people attach a factitious value. The following may be enumerated in their list of ex- clusion : The precious metals, wrought and un- wrought ; the useful metals, wrought and un- wrought, especially in the form of domestic uten- sils, corn of all kinds, raw silk, and Chinese books. The importation, on the contrary, of the raw mia- terials of food in any forai, and of drugs, with the exception of those that are intoxicating, are either