art, are bound by an oath never to impart it, hitherto religiously adhered to, and the disclosure of it is moreover guarded against by the laws of the country. This national source of wealth has been greatly impeded, in consequence of the Dutch having no herring fisheries of their own, but being obliged to seek them on the English coast at the proper season, where, particularly off Yarmouth, the herring shoals have been known to be six and seven feet deep with fish. The permission granted to the Dutch fishermen, to prosecute their occupation unmolested on our coasts, notwithstanding the war, was frequently withdrawn by our cruisers. Last year a private agreement took place between the two countries, and the indulgence was renewed, by which the Dutch were very abundanly supplied with their favorite fish: so much esteemed is it, that the first herring cured was always presented to the stadtholder, and opulent families have been known to give seven shillings, and even a guinea, for the first herrings brought to market,

CHAPTER XVII.

FORMER COMMERCE OF THE DUTCH-BATAVIA

ANECDOTES OF NA

TIONAL FRUGALITY-EXCHANGE AND BANKING BUSINESS-COMMERCIAL HOUSE OF MESSRS. HOPE--JEW FRUIT-SELLERS--MARINE SCHOOL-THE RASP-HOUSE-THE WORK-HOUSE-THE PLANTATION -PRIESTS HOW SUPPORTED--PARISH REGISTERS--THE POOR→→→→ LITERARY SOCIETIES-FELIX MERITIS-MODERN DUTCH PAINTERS.

FOR more than a century the Dutch EastIndia Company enjoyed the monopoly of the fine spices, comprehending nutmegs, cloves, mace, cinnamon, &c. which constituted the principal branch of the Asiatic as well as the European commerce of Holland: 360,000 cloves were annually sent to Europe, and about 150,000 ̋ were sold in India; 250,000 lbs. of nutmeg, the produce of the island of Banda, used to be sold in Europe, and 100,000 lbs. in India. In Europe also 400,000 lbs. of cinnamon used to be brought to market, and 200,000 lbs. consumed in India. Batavia presents a wonderful instance of the enterprize of the Dutch, who, born themselves in a marshy country, below the level of the ocean, erected a kingdom in the fifth degree of north latitude, in the most prolific part of the globe, where the fields are

covered with rice, pepper, and cinnamon, and the vines bear fruit twice a year. Although this colony remains to Holland, the Dutch spice-market must have very materially suffered, from the vigilance of our ships of war in various parts of the world, and particularly from the recent capture of her valuable spice ships returning home richly laden from that colony. The Dutch also carried on a large trade in rice, cotton, and pepper, and the Java coffee, which was thought to be second only to that of Mecca. The reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find that the amount of the spice exports should every year be the same. The Dutch East India Company was enabled to make this calculation in consequence of having acquired a tolerably exact knowledge of the quantity of each kind of spice that would be necessary for the consumption of the European markets, and never permitting any more to be exported. In this branch of trade they had no competition, and they were enabled to keep the price of their spices as high as they chose, by ordering what remained unsold at the price they had fixed upon it, to be burnt. Their spices gave them influence upon the trade of the north of Europe, in consequence of their being highly prized by the different nations on the shores of the Baltic, who furnished the Dutch with their grain, hemp, flax, iron, pitch, tar,

masts, planks, &c. The surrender of British arms must also be severely felt.

Curaçoa to the

This island was

292

COMMERCE OF HOLLAND.

always of great importance to the Dutch, the possession and commerce of which they were very desirous of retaining and extending. The Dutch West India Company, many years since, refused to exchange it for the Spanish island of Porto Rico. The commerce of Curaçoa formerly took up yearly about fifty large ships, upon an average of 300 tons each, and the quantity of goods annually shipped from Holland amounted to 500,000l. and the returns nearly doubled that sum. The exports from Holland consisted of German and Dutch linens, checks, East India goods, woollen and cotton manufactures, spices, cinnamon, building materials, and many other articles of ease and luxury. The imports to Europe were indigo, coffee, sugar, hides, dotton, dye-wood, tortoise-shell, varinas, Porto Rico tobacco, and occasionally cochineal. The Dutch also carried on a very flourishing trade to Turkey and the Levant, by selling their own, the Irish and English cloths, and purchasing tea, cocoa, ginger, and thread. The commercial intercourses also between Holland and England were very important, in which the balance in specie was greatly against the Dutch, which induced many, who were ignorant of their real character, to conclude,that they never could support so prodigious a drain of specie as they have invariably experienced in such com munications; an impression which subsides when it is considered that the Dutch consumed' but little of what

COMMERCE OF HOLLAND.

r

293

they imported from England, and that what they purchased they re-sold in an improved condition to other countries. A nation can only become rich from trade when its exports for the use of foreign states is in a greater proportion than its imports for its own consumption. An impression has gone forth, that a nation cannot be impo--verished if the importation of foreign merchandize be pur-chased abroad by native commodity, and not with specie; whereas upon a nation striking the balance of her account with the country she may have dealt with, it will be found that the deficiency on the side of her exportation must be made up in specie. Hence an industrious and frugal people like the Dutch will, when their country is in a state of tranquillity, possess great advantages over most other nations. Industry increases the native commodity, whether it arises from the soil or the manufacture, and in-creases the exportation. Frugality will lessen the consump-ntio, and of course increase the exportation of native, and reduce the importation of foreign produce, for home con-sumption. The excess of all native commodities is sure of a market, of which those who can sell the cheapest will be the masters: hence a frugal and industrious people will be able to live and accumulate, where those who are neither could not live. This spirit of industry and frugality has been for ages, and still continues to be the guardian of this nation, by which it was enabled to support its