in money at 16s. 8d. per hundred. The ministers submitted. In 1758, anticipating another short crop, the measure was tried again, but the clergy, deeming forbearance no longer a virtue, came out against this species of robbery, as they considered it. The king, being appealed to, pronounced the act illegal and void, and a Virginia court decided favorably on the suit of the ministers, though the decision was afterward reversed.

RICE. The export of rice from South Carolina in 1753 was 31,418 bbls.; in 1754 it was 104,682 bbls. From Savannah, in 1755, there were exported 2,999 bbls., and in 1760, 3,283 bbls.

INDIGO. The exports of Indigo from South Carolina in 1754 was 215 pounds, and in 1757 it was 754,218 pounds.

SUGAR. A little maple sugar began to be made in New England about the year 1752, and the manufacture was continued on a small scale up to the Revolution, when it largely increased. In 1758, M. Dubreuil established a sugar plantation, and erected the first mill in Louisiana, or in any part of the present United States. His mill was situated in the lower part of the present city of New Orleans. His success induced others to follow.

COTTON is mentioned among the exports of South Carolina in 1754. The value of this article manufactured by England in 1760 was only £200,000.

IRON. A furnace for iron was erected in Orange County, New York, in 1751, and is said to have produced 1,500 tons per annum of pig-iron, which was worked up at the same establishment into bar-iron.

An act of Parliament in 1757 gave liberty to the colonies to export pig-iron to all parts of Great Britain, it having before been limited to the port of London.

SILK. The export of silk from Georgia in 1755 was 138 pounds; in 1757, there was received at the filature in Georgia 1,052 pounds; in 1758, 7,040 pounds; in 1759, 10,000 pounds. Notwithstanding the encouragements offered by Parliament, the culture now declined, although there was now some increase in the product of South Carolina. In 1760, the export of silk from Georgia had fallen to 558 pounds. The culture of silk was commenced in Connecticut in 1760, from whence it afterward spread to New York and Pennsylvania, though pursued only to a limited extent.

GRAIN AND FLOUR. The export of wheat from Pennsylvania in 1749 was of the value of £148,104 currency; in 1750, £155,175; in 1751, £187,457; in 1752, the amount was 86,500 bushels. The exports of flour from Philadelphia in 1752 were 125,960 barrels, and from New Jersey (port of Perth Amboy) 6,424 barrels, besides 168,000 pounds of bread, and 17,941 bushels of grain. The export of corn from South Carolina in 1748 was 39,308 bushels; from North Carolina in 1753, 61,580 bushels; and from Philadelphia in 1752, 90,740 bushels.

HEMP, FLAX, &c. The export of hemp from New Jersey in 1751 was 14,000 pounds; of flax from Philadelphia in 1752, 70,000 bushels; from New York in 1755 the export of flaxseed was 12,528 hogsheads, all of which was sent to Ireland. Six wagon loads of flaxseed came into Baltimore in 1751 from the upland parts of Maryland. In 1751, the Assembly of Virginia offered bounties on the cultivation of hemp and flax in that colony.

NAVAL STORES. The exports of tar from North Carolina in 1753 were 60,000 barrels; of turpentine, 10,000 barrels; of pitch, 12 barrels. From

South Carolina-tar, 6,221 barrels; turpentine, 3,808 barrels; pitch, 13,814 barrels.

FURS AND SKINS. Exports from North Carolina, 1753, about 30,000 deerskins, and 203 hogsheads of the same article from South Carolina. LUMBER, &c. South Carolina exported, 1753, or lumber, 591,412 feet; shingles, 581,020 pieces; cask-staves, 78,932. Large quantities of lumber were sent from North Carolina, also, and as usual from New England. NEW PRODUCTIONS. A society for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and Commerce, composed of nobles, merchants, and men of wealth, and being the third association of that kind in the realm, was organized in England in 1754. Among the objects for which it offered encouragement by premium was the growth in the American colonies of the rich and precious productions of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, as well as the products of Asia and Africa. We suspect that people were too much engaged in their ordinary avocations to experiment very deeply in consequence of such encouragement.

THE SLAVE TRADE. This business still continued active, and the Rhode Islanders, and the merchants of some other northern colonies, had not yet become convinced, at least practically, of its turpitude. The number of negroes imported into Jamaica, in the ten years from 1752 to 1762, was 71,115, selling at £30 sterling per head. The number imported into South Carolina in 1753 was 511. The number of negroes in the town of New York (nearly all slaves) in 1755 was about 2,500; in Newport, Rhode Island, 1,300, out of a population of 6,574. Soon after this time the Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipated their slaves, there being 8,000 to 10,000 slaves in that colony. But the Quakers had not, after 1755, the administration of the government of the colony, and numbered but about one-fifth of the population.

MARINE SOCIETIES. The Massachusetts Marine Society, composed of shipmasters, was incorporated by the General Court of that colony in 1754, and the same year a similar institution was organized at Newport.

POPULATION. The population of Maryland in 1755 was 153, 64, of whom 107,208 were whites, 42,764 blacks, and 3,592 mulattoes. Pennsylvania is estimated to have had 220,000, but the number of taxables, 36,667, in 1760, would indicate less than 200,000 at the later period. New York, in 1756, had 96,776 whites and 13, 42 blacks, a total of 110,317, the town of New York containing about 13,500 inhabitants. Connecticut, in 1755, had 128,218 whites and 3,587 blacks, the total being 131,805. Rhode Island, in 1761, had 35,939 whites and 4,697 blacks, total, 40,636. A British writer, at 1760, says that apart from emigration, the population of the North American colonies had doubled in the last twenty-five years. THE MUSQUITO COLONY. The British settlement on the Musquito shore, in Central America, was becoming better worthy the attention of the northern merchants. The British subjects there, exclusive of Indians, in 1757, were 1,100, and the exports were mahogany, sarsaparilla, tortoiseshells; also specie, indigo, cocoa, hides, and tallow, obtained in barter from the Spaniards. Several vessels were owned there.

PAPER-MONEY. In 1751, Rhode Island amended the act for the bank of 1750, repealing the bounties offered, that on manufactured wool being displeasing to the English government; 64s. old tenor, or 16s. new tenor, or 6s. 9d. of the new bills, were made equal to one ounce coined silver sterling alloy. The bills were for ten years. The value of a Spanish

milled-dollar was fixed, in February, 1752, at 56s. old tenor. In February, 1756, Rhode Island issued £80,000 lawful money bills, redeemable in two years, fixing its value at 6s. 8d. to an ounce of silver; and in August provided for sinking the bills issued for the Crown Point expedition, 1755-6, with money received from England, &c. One dollar specie was to be paid for every £4 of old tenor, and treasury notes to be given in part for the bills. In 1759, the colony was owed on worthless bonds, £49,869, and had £35,000 to be collected on bonds, the affairs of the Paper-Money or Grand Committee's Office being now settled up.

Large issues were made in most of the colonies during the war, and considering the urgency of the case, were allowed by the English government. In 1752, the Assembly of Pennsylvania attempted to avail itself of the exception made by the act of Parliament in 1751, to issue £40,000. Benjamin Franklin, as chairman of a committee on the subject, advocated the measure in a report, setting forth the good results of previous issues, and the advantages to be hoped from further moderate issues. The governor refused his assent to the bill, an angry controversy ensued, and no farther issued in the colony until 1755.*

CANADA-VALUE-THE PROSPECT. Upon the conquest of Canada great attention was turned in England and the colonies to this new North American province. In England there were some opposed to its retention, preferring to hold Guadaloupe instead, or advocating its retrocession as a check upon the fast-growing colonies already possessed in North America. Among these is said to have been Edmund Burke. The greater portion of the English statesmen, however, and the English public, were desirous of retaining Canada, and a pamphlet urging this policy, by showing the superiority of continental to West India possessions, was published in England in 1759. The fear of the colonies uniting against Great Britain is considered triumphantly answered, by referring to their inability to confederate under a crisis so momentous as the existing war had for several years been.

The Commerce of Canada under the French, though confined to a small number of vessels, had been respectable for such a province. Nine or ten vessels usually arrived yearly from the French West Indies, with ratafia, molasses, coffee, and sugar, and thirty vessels from France, with French merchandises. The imports in 1754 were, of manufactured goods, &c., £157,645 sterling; of rum, sugar, &c., £59,123; total, £216,769. The exports were, to France, of furs and skins, £64,570; oil, ginseng, capil laire, lumber, &c., £7,083; to the West Indies and other places, of fish, oil, iron, &c., £3,906; total, £75,560, leaving a balance against the colony of £141,209, to be paid by bills drawn by the Intendant upon the treasury

of France.

But the commercial abilities of this great region were deemed susceptible of vast augmentation. With Canada, England and her colonies had complete possession of the whole fur trade of the continent, and it was thought this trade might be indefinitely extended, and a great market thus afforded for British manufactures among the Indians. It was even anticipated that in the back parts of the continent might be found many un

The Canadian bills of exchange on the French treasury had reached an enormous amount in 1752, and owing to peculations by the Intendant-General, were protested to the amount of £3,333,333. In 1759, payment was absolutely refused until an investigation should occur. The bills fell to a low rate in consequence.

known nations, like those, perhaps, found in Spanish America, with whom important commercial relations might be opened.

The never-forgotten idea of the North-west Passage into "the ocean of Japan, of China, and the Indies," also recurred, as an attendant upon this conquest. From the other side of Canada it was deemed that the project might be attempted with a better prospect of success. "So miserable a shore" as that of Hudson Bay was no longer to be solicited to reveal that desired avenue to the treasures of the East. They saw, in imagination, a more genial clime and a more favorable coast, redolent with the sweet odors wafted over the milder ocean from the luxurious fields of Cathay and the Archipelagian Isles. Here the farther end of the mysterious channel would readily reveal itself to the easy search, and sailing through it from that point, the envious Atlantic would be forced to open the concealed terminus of its own side.

The visions of the colonists, rid of all their ancient fears, and with nothing to do but to embrace the glorious prospect before them, were equally grand. They began to realize how boundless were their destinies, and saw the time near at hand when the political and commercial importance of the nations of Europe should yield to the magnificent developments of America.

Art. IV. THE CULTURE OF TEA IN BRAZIL.*

Ir cannot be contested now that the productions most profitable for planters are not those which provide more immediately for our wants. Coffee, sugar, and brandy are among those fictitious necessities which civilization has introduced into refined societies; and these commodities, which are generally more injurious than useful, occupy the first rank in all markets, leaving the second to those that serve for general nourishment; and this is the reason for which beets, since chemistry has succeeded in extracting sugar and spirit from them, have acquired so much importance in Europe.

The history of the culture of tea is also a proof of this truth. This plant was left for a long time to vegetate in its native country, without being noticed, and it was used only for medicinal purposes; but since the caprice of an emperor and of fashion found in the leaves of this plant a flavor agreeable to our senses, and somewhat exciting our intellectual faculties, agricultural industry got hold of it, and gave to the culture such an extension, that an English writer (Mr. R. Fortune) values its annual production at 2,895,000l.

It is well ascertained that the consumption of tea is becoming, for the greater portion of the inhabitants of Europe, a necessary of life, and as such, this substance must necessarily hold a distinct place amongst the exotic vegetables to which we are accustomed, as none of them unites all the qualities wished for like this plant. Moreover, chemistry has just discovered in the leaves of tea a nutritious principle, which classifies this

Translated from the Rio Janeiro Jornal de Commercio of the 12th of June, 1855, for the Merchants' Magazine by Dr. LIANTAUD, Le writer.

vegetable as an alimentary article. Therefore, tea can now be considered a beverage analogous to coffee and chocolate, and which, by its hygienic and medical qualities, can well compete and be preferred to any other luxury of the same kind, so that it is obtaining new triumphs every day, and enlarging the boundaries of its dominions.

These few remarks will sufficiently explain the cause of so many efforts made for this last century in many countries, to introduce the culture of this valuable shrub, and thus deprive the Chinese of a monopoly which makes the wealth of their farmers.

Having been sent by the French government to look into the actual state of this culture in Brazil, I endeavored to prop my own observations with the interesting communications kindly offered to me by some of the most experienced dealers in this article, which led me to the conclusions which close my official report to the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, and to the scientific associations of which I am a member.

The most important question which I had been directed to study most accurately, and which is also very momentous for the Brazilian people, is-Whether the culture of tea can be advantageous as a branch of husbandry? This question, of course, refers to two arts: 1st, the culture of the plant; and 2d, to the transformation of the leaves from the raw into a prepared state.

The raising of tea prospers in Brazil perhaps better than in China. Only here we can see such luxuriant plants and with such a rich foliage, as those of New Friburgh, St. Paul, Santos, &c., which are far superior to the best that I saw in the environs of Canton, Nin-po, Chu-san, &c. All those who, like myself, have seen this plant gain in Brazil the proportions of a third-class tree, and thrive, without any difference for an eastern or western exposure, in any soil, without the least trouble, will class among the most absurd stories all which has been published by agricultural societies concerning the different methods of this culture, and the great expenses and care with which it is attended.

In relation to the profitableness of the culture of tea, I have only to copy the figures which Mr. Vincent Jose de Queiros, of St. Paul, handed to me, which are still more significative by comparing them with the culture of coffee :

"An algueire of tea (about an acre of land) can raise about 20,000 plants of tea," says Mr. Queiros, "which will yield about 160 arrobas (32 pounds to the arroba) of tea, when dried, which, being sold at 800 reis per pound, give the net proceeds of 3,000,000 of reis, and pay the expenses of its cultivation, amounting to 25 per cent. On the same quantity of land, we cannot raise more than 2,000 plants of coffee, which will only give 500,000 reis a year, calculating the yield at 200 arrobas."

This is only to what refers to the culture of tea; but things are changed when we consider the preparation of its leaves, as it is now done in Brazil. When the planters of St. Paul began to prepare tea, their production was considered somewhat inferior to that from China, although it was paid in Rio Janeiro 2,000 reis a pound, which was much above the price paid for the tea from China of the same grade.

It is evident at such a price the teas of Brazil could not compete with those from China in the markets of Europe, and even for the home consumption. This is proved conclusively by the prices current of St. Paul, where the price of tea fell from 2,000 to 1,200 at first, and 1,000 and 800