China, from the immense number of its population, and their habits, possesses great internal commerce; but, with the exception of her tea, which is taken away by the English and Americans, her export trade is not great.  She also carries on a traffic overland with Russia, to which We have already alluded, and some maritime commerce with Japan.  Besides tea, the exports from China are porcelain, silk, nankeens, &c.; the imports are the woollen goods, and tin and copper of England; cotton, tin, pepper, &c. from the British settlements in India; edible birds’ nests, furs, &c.

The trade of Japan is principally with China:  the exports are copper, lackered ware, &c.; the imports are raw silk, sugar, turpentine, drugs, &c.  The trade of the Birman empire is also principally with China, importing into it cotton, amber, ivory, precious stones, betel nuts, &c., and receiving in return raw and wrought silk, gold leaf, preserves, paper, &c.  European broad cloth and hardware, Bengal muslins, glass, &c. are also imported into this country.

But by far the most important commerce that is carried on in the eastern parts of Asia, consists in that which flows from and to Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras.  In fact, the English country trade there, as it is called, is of great value, and embraces a very great variety of articles.  Bombay is the grand emporium of the west of India, Persia, and Arabia; here the productions of those countries are exchanged against each other, and for the manufactures, &c. of England.  The principal articles of export from Bombay to these places, as well as to England, are cotton piece goods, sugar, and saltpetre, received from Bengal; pepper from Sumatra; coffee from the Red Sea.  The imports from Europe are woollens, tin, lead, &c.  A very lucrative trade is carried on from Bombay to China, to which it exports cotton in very great quantity, sandal wood, &c., and receives in return sugar, sugar-candy, camphire, nankeens, &c.  There is also considerable traffic between Bombay and Bengal, Ceylon, Pegu, and the Malay archipelago.  The exports of Ceylon are cinnamon, arrack, coir, cocoa nuts:  the imports are grain, piece goods, and European merchandize.  The commerce of the eastern coast of Hindostan centers in Madras:  the exports from this place are principally piece goods, grain, cotton, &c.; the imports, woollen manufactures, copper, spirits, pepper, and other spices.  The trade of Bengal may be divided into four branches:  to Coromandel and Ceylon, the Malabar coast, Gulph of Persia and Arabia, the Malay archipelago and China and Europe.  The principal exports by the port of Calcutta are piece goods, opium, raw silk, indigo, rice, sugar, cotton, grain, saltpetre, &c.:  the principal imports are woollen goods, copper, wine, pepper, spices, tea, nankeen, camphire, &c.