higher grounds produce wheat, barley, oats, flax, hem() lands of an inferior altitude, and ; warmer temperature, grow vines and maize ; while rice, and other arti‘tes, are raised in the low grounds. The cultivation potatoes has been introduced on the more elevated parts of the country with such success, that they now form a considerable proportion of the sustenance of the inhabitanti, The Portuguese are extremely indolent and lazy ; and ccordingly those productions that requiro little labour, such as chestnuts, almonds, oranges, lemons, citrons, arc profusely raised. Olive trees are one of their chief products; and the oil obtained from them forms an important article of the table ; and though not of a cha racter or flavour that causes it to be used as an article of sustenance in foreign countries, it is exported lo a great extent, being used by the woollen manufacturers of Eng land, Holland, and Germany, in their respective opera tions. Improvements in husbandry, and in the general cultivation of the soil, have of late, as hinted above, been rapidly made; but.the only province that has yet attained to much distinction in this way, (a distinction, indeed, which it has enjoyed more or less for centuries,) is that of Entre Douro e Minho. It possesses, indeed, some pecu liar advantages ; its supply of water is great, and its sur face is comparatively level ; but it is to be hoped that the slight natural disadvantages of the other provinces will not deter them from endeavouring to rival a province which has set them so noble an example, and the improvements and cultivation of which have gained to its population a degree of wealth and refinement unequalled by the other inhabitants of the country. The quantity of land belong ing to the monasteries, which may or may not be culti vated or neglected, as the lazy proprietors incline, and which is excluded from the enterprising efforts of private individuals, may be mentioned among the causes already stated, on accnupt of which agriculture in this kingdom has been so long overlooked or despised.
Nor are the manufactures of Portugal in a much more thriving condition than her agriculture. The Portuguese manufactures, indeed, are few and unimportant. NVith the exception of the lower orders of the nation, who are clothed with their domestic manufactures, or with the skin of their sheep, nearly the whole of the population besides may be regarded as furnished with their apparel from Eng land, Holland, and Germany. They, however, export wool to a considerable amount. Extensive manufactories, and those chiefly for woollens, silk, and earthenware, are extremely rare : they are in general carried on in separate cottages, on the most limited scale, each district, as it were, manufacturing for its own consumption. The most common manufactories, which the kingdom contains, are,, those of cotton, linen, woollen cloths, silk, paper, glass, earthenware, salt. Cambrics, shirting and table-linens, and sewing threads, are those in which she principally ex cels. There is one species of manufacture, however, in which Portugal has obtained great celebrity, namely, that of wine, which is carried on to a great extent, chiefly in the northern provinces. It is probably indeed owing to
the great extent to which the vine is cultivated, that their pursuits, particularly those of agriculture, have been so much neglected, as, according to Mr. Murphy, the culture of the vine is four times mole profitabl • than that of wheat or maize. The quantity of wine usually made is about 30,000 pipes of rcd, and 60,000 of white, annually. Of these wines, about a half are exported to England alone, and the remainder tq the different countries in Europe ; and formerly a great quantity was sent to Brazil, the ave rage annual value exported being about 2,000,000/. The Portuguese themselves ger...rally drink wine of a quality so inferior, that it could not find vent in a foreign market.
The navigation and commercial 'ntercourse of Portugal are more considerable than her The emi gration of the court to Brazil, in 1807, or... 'n' ,p y injured the interests of the kingdom in this respect. The colonial produce of Brazil was formerly monopolized the Por tuguese, and Portugal formed the emporium at which the imports and exports of that colony met and were exchanged. The exports of Brazil, during the residence of the court there, instead of being imported to Lisbon, and thence distributed throughout Europe, were carried directly to their several places of consumption, without the interven tion of the mother country ; and, on the same principle of exclusion from the parent state, the Brazilians obtained their supplies of European commodities without any con nexion with Portugal. The import and export trade of Portugal has for a considerable time been chiefly in the hands of foreigners, particularly British, settled in Lisbon and Oporto. The commercial relation, indeed, between England and Portugal, has long been very important ; and the balance, to a great degree, is in favour of England. England exports to Portugal woollens, hardware, salted and dried fish, shoes, stockings, and such articles as can be ftirinished by a country like England, far advanced in the division of labour, to one in which productive industry it still in its infancy ; while Portugal gives in return bullion, coin, diamonds, precious stones, wines, salt, wool, oil, oranges, lemons. Portugal has a very trifling commercial connexion with any of the other countries of Europe; but she trades pretty extensively with her colonies, with the United States, and the East Indies. The internal trade of this country is much limited, as previously stated, by the badness of the roads, the want of canals and bridges, and the difficulty and precariousness of river navigation.
The colonial possessions of Portugal, it may not be im proper to mention in this place, are the Madeira, the Azores, and Cape de Verd islands, with some settlements in Africa, as Guiana, Angola, Mozambique; and in Asia, Goa, Timor, and Macao. The Asiatic •ettlements may be regarded as mere relics of former great splendour and importance. Of the recent revolution in Brazil, long the most important colony of which Portugal was possessed, an account may be found in a subsequent portion of this article.