Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/540

 524 DESCRIPTION OF rect with several ports of China. The Dutch con- tinued to find it for their interest to import the principal parts of their teas by this channel, ex- cept during the short interval from 16 V2 to 1662, when they possessed the valuable and con- venient colony of Formosa. Tliis channel is pro- bably still the most natural and easy by which a large portion of the European intercourse with China may be conducted, as long as the singular policy of that people in regard to strangers is per- severed in. This subject is of such moment, that I shall be excused for taking a more comprehensive view of it than seems, at first sight, to belong to the nature of this work. Europe, at present, con- sumes yearly about 27,000,000 lbs. of tea ; and Europe and America, or the whole European race, ^2,000,000 lbs. When we speak of the consump- tion of Europe, Britain is the country chiefly con. cerned, because it consumes 22,000,000 lbs. of all the teas imported into Europe, and ~th parts of all that is consumed by the European race. The im- mense quantity of tea now mentioned, owing to the jealousy of the Chinese government, must all be brought from a single port, if we trade direct with the country, while all our commodities, bulky as well as otherwise, must be imported into that country through the same confined channel. It necessarily happens from this, that such Chinese goods as are not produced at or near the port of exportation, are wan- tonly enhanced in price by distant carriage j and that.