with great facility, and at little expence, to transmit his goods to the places of exportation; and to ascertain very quickly the state of the markets by which he regulates his purchases, sales, and even the quantity and direction of his labour.  It is advantageous indirectly, in so far as by stimulating and encouraging internal trade, it increases wealth, and with increased wealth comes the increased desire of obtaining foreign produce, and the increased means to gratify that desire.

We deemed it proper to preface the details we shall now give on the subject of the present state of commerce with these general remarks on the principal causes which have enlarged it, in those two countries in which alone it flourishes to a very great extent.  But, as we have already remarked, commerce cannot extend in one country, without receiving an impulse in other countries.  While, therefore, British and American commerce have been increasing, the general commerce of the whole civilized world, and even of parts hardly civilized, have been increasing; but in no country nearly to the extent to which it has reached in Britain and the United States, because none are blessed with the political advantages they enjoy, or have the improved machinery and capital of the one, or the almost inexhaustible land of the other.

In the details which we are now about to give, we shall confine ourselves to the statement of any particular circumstance which may have been favourable or otherwise to the commerce of any country during the last hundred years, and to an enumeration of the principal ports and articles of import and export of each country.  We shall not attempt to fix the value of the imports and exports in toto, or of any particular description of them, because there are in fact no grounds on which it can be accurately fixed.  We shall, however, in the arrangement of the order of the goods exported, place ihose first which constitute the most numerous and important articles.

1.  The countries in the north of Europe, including Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the countries generally on the south shores of the Baltic.  From the geographical situation of these countries, and their consequent climate, the chief articles of the export commerce must consist in the coarsest produce of the soil.  These, and the produce of their mines, are the sources of their wealth, and consequently of their commerce.

The principal exports of Norway consist of timber, masts, tar, potash, hides, (chiefly those of the goat,) iron, copper, cobalt, tallow, salted provisions, and fish.  Corn, principally from the southern shores of the Baltic, is the most considerable article of import.  The only event in the modern history of this country, which can affect its commerce, is its annexation to Sweden; and whether it will be prejudicial or otherwise, is not yet ascertained.