Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/544

 ;528 DESCRIPTION OF foreign goods, jiarticularly the European, con- sumed iu China, and which do not find a market in the two provinces' of Quantang and Kiangsi, the limited neighbourhood of Canton, the present port of importation. It need hardly be insisted, that the natural course of a free trade, were it permit- ted, would bring the skilful and intrepid na- vigators of Europe at once to the true emporia of the tea trade. The irrevocable edicts of the Chinese government, by confining our trade to a single port, forbid, as is but too well known, this freedom of intercourse. The cost of conducting it by a more circuitous and expensive channel is the tax we pay for our restless ambition, an ambition which has compelled a numerous and industrious people, who once admitted us freely into all their ports, to place us under limitations. It remains for us only to submit to what we cannot change, — to make the best of our situation, — and not aggravate it by superadding shackles of our own making. If a free trade were established between the ports of China not now frequented by Europeans, and the colonial establishments of Europeans in the Indian Islands, as well as between the latter and Europe, we should be, in some measure, compen- sated for our exclusion from a free and direct inter- course with the ports of China. The Chinese merchants of Canton are of opinion that there is a difference in the charge of bringing black teas by land and sea carriage of from one-third to one-half.