The principal imports consist of
English manufactures and colonial produce, especially coffee and sugar,
wines, silks, &c. The commerce of the Black Sea has lately increased much,
especially at Odessa. The principal exports are, corn, furs, provisions,
&c.; its imports, wine, fruit, coffee, silks, &c. Russia carries on a
considerable internal trade with Prussia, Persia, and China, especially,
with the latter. Nearly the whole of her maritime commerce is in the hands
of foreigners, the Russians seeming rather averse to the sea; and the state
of vassalage in the peasants, which binds them to the soil, preventing the
formation of seamen. Latterly, however, she has displayed considerable zeal
in posecuting maritime discoveries; and as she seems disposed to extend her
possessions in the north-west coast of America, this will necessarily
produce a commercial marine.
2. The next portion of Europe to which we shall direct our attention
consists of Germany, the Netherlands, and France.
Germany, though an extensive and fertile country, and inhabited by an
intelligent and industrious race of people, possesses few commercial
advantages from its want of ports: those on the Baltic have been already
mentioned; those on the German Ocean are Hamburgh and Embden, of which
Hamburgh is by far the most important, while, to the south, the only port
it possesses is Trieste.
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