There are no data on which a calculation can be grounded of the value of the coasting trade of England. In the evidence lately given before the House of Com mons, on the establishment of a new chartered marine insurance company, It was calculated that the value of the goods carried coastwise, was one half of the value of the exports and imports; but it is not possible to ascer tain whether this calculation comes near the truth or not.
It is still more difficult to form an estimate of the in land trade of England; nor can any person even ima gine its extent, who has not considered the wonderful and numerous facilities of conveyance, which, springing at first from the commercial enterprize and wealth of the country, have in their turn served to increase and extend it. The state of the roads in almost every part of England ; the almost infinite number of carriages, waggons, &c. which arc either conveying our mer chants and manufacturers, or their goods, without in termission, and in the most regular, certain, and expe ditious manner ; but, above all, the numerous canals by which the country is intersected, in almost every direc tion, must be taken into the account, if we wish to entertain any thing like an adequate idea on this sub ject. Nor shall we yet be doing justice to our country, if we do not recollect that all these facilities of convey ance are the work of little more than half a century: The highways of Britain were not equal in goodness to those of foreign countries, when the peace of Aix-; la-Chapelle was concluded. From this time to the death of George II. great exertions were made to im prove the state of the roads; and during the first 14 sessions of the reign of George III. the various road laws were collected into one act, and no fewer than 452 acts were passed for repairing the high ways of diffe rent districts. Since that period, not a session has pass ed in which acts for repairing and improving the high ways have not been enacted.
The evidence respecting the extent and rapid increase of our inland trade, derived from the numerous canals which have been made since the commencement of the present reign, is not less striking and unequivocal. A very early attention was paid to the navigation of our rivers; and from the Revolution, to the death of George II. many streams had been rendered navigable; a still greater number, however, have been rendered com modious to internal commerce, during the present reign, besides the more valuable improvement of ca nals; nineteen acts during the first fourteen sessions of this reign having been passed for making artificial navi gations ; and subsequent sessions have witnessed nearly an equal attention to this mode of facilitating internal commerce.
It would carry us far beyond our limits, even to enu merate all the canals which now exist in England. On this subject, we must refer our readers to the article INLAND NAVIGATLON ; and content ourselves with re marking, that nearly all the great manufacturing towns are connected with one another by means of canals ; that by them they can receive most of the raw mate rials, which they respectively work up ; and that by far the largest proportion of the manufactured articles are dispersed over the kingdom, or sent to the ports whence they are embarked to foreign parts, by means of inland navigation.
The foreign trade of this country is generally con sidered of much more importance than its domestic trade; but this idea appears to us to be erroneous : the foreign trade is undoubtedly much more imposing in its aspect, and the extent of it is more easily ascertained ; but the real value of the domestic trade, if properly in vestigated, will be found to be much greater. Let us only reflect on the population of England and Wales, which is upwards of ten millions; and on the industry and wealth of that population; our foreign customers are undoubtedly more numerous, but they are far be hind what may be called the domestic customers in in dustry and wealth. Even on the very moderate cam rotation, that the average annual expence of each in dividual of the ten million inhabitants, amounts only to 20/., the annual domestic consumption will amount to the enormous sum of 200,000,000/.
We come now to the consideration of the foreign trade of England; and in describing it, we shall enu merate the most important and material articles which England imports from each particular foreign country, and which she exports into each particular foreign coun try; and give a statement of the value of the exports and imports, where they have been ascertained, and also of the number of vessels employed in each branch of foreign trade. NVe shall conclude this part of our sub ject, by a statement of the whole exports and imports, and of the tonnage, both domestic and foreign, which an nually enter or leave our ports.