SPAIN.
The vast natural resources of this country present a striking contrast with its political imbecility. It is nearly as large as France, but contains little more than a third of the population, though its fertile soil and delicious climate yield in Lundance the produc tions both of the temperate and warm regions of the globe. With its great extent of sea-coast, numerous rivers, and excellent position for trade, and its rich and extensive colonies, nothing but extreme mis government could have prevented it from becoming the first commercial city in the world.
In addition to silk, tobacco, vines, olives, and all the agricultural productions of France and Germany, Spain produces the orange, citron, sugar-cane, cork tree, dates, figs, and cotton. Wheat is the grain most extensively cultivated. Barley and rye are next in quantity. Very few oats or potatoes are raised, but considerable quantities of maize and rice. Hemp to the value of a million of piastres is raised yearly; and flax is cultivated on a smaller scale. The vine yards, besides supplying the internal consumption, furnish 3,000,000 or 4,000,000, or, according to other accounts, 10,000,000 or 11,000,000 gallons of wine for exportation, and half as much brandy. Olive oil is exported to the value of L.600,000 a year. The annual produce of raw silk is valued at L.300,000. But wool is the produce for which Spain is most celebrated. The number of merinos or migratory sheep, which furnish the finest wool, is estimated at 5,000,000; those that are stationary at 8,000,000; and these 13,000,000 of sheep are sup posed to afford yearly 45,000,000 of pounds of wool. The right of pasture which the migratory flocks have over whole provinces, is one great obstacle to agri cultural improvement. From this and other causes, one-third or one-half of the kingdom is left entirely waste, and the part in cultivation is wretchedly ma naged. Nearly the whole land in the kingdom is locked up by entails in the hands of the nobles and the clergy, and the small portions brought into the market sell so high as not to afford more than one and a half per cent. upon their price. Agriculture is entirely in the hands of the peasantry, who are poor and ignorant; men of capital never engage in it; and the grandees, who should support and encourage improvements, all reside in the large towns. In the whole of Spain, there is scarcely to be seen a villa or gentleman's seat, except a few that are in ruins.
The mines of Spain, like her agriculture, are ne glected; but she still derives from her own soil a considerable supply of iron, copper, lead, and mer cury. About 5,000,000 centners of salt are annually obtained from mines, springs, or the sea.' The greatest number of the Spanish manufactures are in Catalonia, but a few are scattered through the other provinces. The most considerable are the woollen, silk, linen, cotton, hemp, leather, paper, and metal, but none of them are sufficient for the inter nal consumption of the country, and all of them are fettered by vexatious taxes, absurd regulations, and the difficulty of intercourse between the provinces. The manufacture of tobacco is a royal monopoly. (Laborde, IV. 320.) We have no accurate accounts of the commerce of Spain for a recent period. The exports in 1788 were L.6,951,000, of which rather more than the half went to America. (Laborde, IV. 410.) In 1802, the exports were estimated by Malte-Brun at 240,000,000 francs, or nearly L.10,000,000 Ster ling. (Mentelle et Malte-Brun, Geog. II. 31.) It is now pretty well ascertained, that the appa rent decline of Spain has been the consequence of the rapid progress of her neighbours; and that, down to the end of the eighteenth century, she was ad vancing both in industry and population. From a combination of circumstances, the cause; which check the progress- of society have operated more powerfully there than in any other country of Europe except Turkey. Among the greatest evils in the state of the country may be reckoned the excessive number of the nobility and clergy, with their oppres sive privileges, and their pernicious influence upon the other classes. In 1788, when the population amount ed to 10,500,000, the number of the secular and regular clergy was 147,722, of the nobles 478,716, of peasants and labourers 1,847,010, of manufactu rers and handicrafts 302,000, servants 276,090, mer chants 34,030. The Spanish army, in 1806, consist ed of 153,840 men in Europe, and 129,053 in Ame rica; the navy consisted of 42 ships of the line, and 30 frigates. In 1804, the revenue, according to Humboldt, was 43,000,000 piastres, or L.9,150,000. In the Budget for 1818, it is estimated at L.8,248,000, and the expenditure at L.9,611,000. The debt in 1809 was stated to amount to L.43,100,000, and in 1817 to L.127,852,000.' GensiANY.