Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/305

 EUROPEAN NATIONJS. Q$Q That they are not at present, at least, ripe for the Indian trade, is sufficiently evinced from the exam- ple of Holland. Although possessed of the finest co- lonics in India, and although her national shipping be encouraged by large protecting duties on foreign vessels, still the free traders of Britain, and the Ame- ricans, conduct almost the whole intercourse between the mother country and these colonies. In the China trade, although the teas imported into Hol- land by Americans pay double duties, still scarce- ly a ton of Dutch shipping is engaged in the Chinese trade ; and Holland, as well, indeed, as almost all continental Europe, is supplied with tea, the great- est article of the commerce of India, by the Ameri- cans. I think it highly probable, indeed, that the Americans themselves, with their inadequate ca- pital, would scarcely have adventured, or, at least, adventured to any extent, in the India trade, had not the exclusion from it of the free capital of this country acted as a powerful bounty to induce them. They are now, however, in fair possession of by far the most valuable part of it, and as they are the only people that stand any chance with us, it will be matter of instruction to institute a short com- parison into our respective capacities of conducting it in a state of free trade on both sides, and in a fair and amicable competition. The block of an American ship is cheaper than that of an English vessel, at the first cost ; but this is compensated by VOL. HI. T