Before, however, this decline of the English trade to India, we have some curious and interesting documents relating to it particularly, and to the effects produced on the cost of East Indian commodities in Europe generally, by the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.  These are supplied by Mr. Munn, in a treatise he published in 1621; in favour of the East India trade.  We have already given the substance of his remarks so far as they relate to the lowering the price of Indian commodities, but as his work is more particularly applicable to, and illustrative of the state of English commerce with India, at this time, we shall here enter into some of his details.

According to them, there were six million pounds of pepper annually consumed in Europe, which used to cost, when purchased at Aleppo, brought over land thither from India, at the rate of two shillings per lb.; whereas it now cost, purchased in India, only two-pence halfpenny per lb.:  the consumption of cloves was 450,000 lbs.; cost at Aleppo four shillings and nine-pence per lb., in India nine-pence:  the consumption of mace was 150,000 lbs.; cost at Aleppo the same per lb. as the cloves; in India it was bought at eight-pence per lb.:  the consumption of nutmegs was 400,000 lbs.; the price at Aleppo, two shillings and four-pence per lb.; in India only four-pence; the consumption of indigo was 350,000 lbs.; the price at Aleppo four shillings and four-pence per lb.; in India one and two-pence, and the consumption of raw silk was one million lbs., the price of which at Aleppo was twelve shillings per lb., and in India eight shillings.  It will be remarked that this last article was purchased in India, at a rate not nearly so much below its Aleppo price as any of the other articles; pepper, on the other hand, was more reduced in price than any of the other articles.  The total cost of all the articles, when purchased at Aleppo, was 1,465,000 l.; when purchased in India, 511,458 l.; the price in the latter market, therefore, was little more than one-third of their Aleppo price.  As, however, the voyage from India is longer than that from Aleppo, it added, according to Mr. Munn’s calculation, one-sixth to the cost of the articles beyond that of the Turkey voyage.  Even after making this addition, Mr. Munn comes to the conclusion we have formerly stated, “that the said wares by the Cape of Good Hope cost us but about half the price which they will cost from Turkey.”

Mr. Munn also gives the annual importation of the principal Indian goods into England, by the East India Company, and the price each article sold for in England; according to this table, the quantity of pepper was 250,000 lbs., which, bought in India for twopence halfpenny, sold in England for one shilling and eightpence:—­150,000 lbs. of cloves, which bought in India for ninepence, sold in England for six shillings:—­150,000 lbs. of nutmegs, bought for four-pence, sold for two shillings and sixpence:—­50,000 lbs. of mace, bought for eightpence, sold for six shillings:—­200,000 lbs. of indigo, bought for one shilling and twopence, sold for five shillings:—­107,140 lbs. of China raw silk, bought for seven shillings, sold for twenty shillings:—­and 50,000 pieces of calico, bought for seven shillings a piece, sold for twenty-six shillings.