Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/311

 INTERCOLONIAL COMMERCE. 295 soon necessitated to abandon it to their own ser- vants, and to the few Europeans who resided in India, by sufferance, under their authority. Hence the origin of what is termed " the country trade.*' The first branch of it, as far as my subject is con- cerned, is the intercourse with China. The most valuable branch of the trade of the Portug-uese was their colonial trade in India, and much of it was conducted by means of the commodities of the In- dian Islands. These greatly contributed especially to the lucrative trade which they carried on between China and Japan. The Dutch, from the illiberal character of the government which they establish- ed in the Archipelago, and from the peculiar ill fortune which attended most of their efforts to open a direct intercourse with China, never established a colonial intercourse of any value and extent with that great empire. Neither have the establish- ments of the English been founded on such prin- ciples, or carried to such an extent, as to give rise to an intercourse of such a beneficial or useful cha- racter as the peculiar suitableness of the two coun- tries for a commercial connection ought to have generated. Although the principal portion of the intercourse between the Dutch colonies and the Archipelago was always conducted by Chi- nese junks, still some traffic was also driven be- tween Batavia and Canton in colonial Dutch ves- sels ; and in this manner was brought much of the