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214 RIESBECK’sS TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
burg takes from Spain, and with which it drivesa very confiderable trade in the north,
are wine, falt, fruit and the like. _ Befides all thefe, manufactures of handkerchiets, rat-
teens, and ribbons, apothecaries’ drugs, and the fifhery, form a very confiderable part of
the trade of the country. ‘There is no place in the world which contains finer and more
cunning fpeculators than this does; no circum{tance or moment favourable to a fingle
article efcape them. ‘The prefent war has brought them in aftonifhing fums.
_The enlightened and patriotic governors of this place omit nothing which can con-
tribute to the extenfion of trade. Some years ago the profpect of advantage to their
fellow citizens made them attempt to open a trade for them on the coaft of Barbary ;
the Dutch were immediately jealous of this, and made the King of Spain believe that
the Hamburghers furnifhed the Saracens with implements of war: the King, in confe-
quence, made feveral orders, which have {topped the channel to the prefent merchants,
whom however he cannot prevent from a much more profitable commerce with his own
fubjects.
This {tate is furrounded on all fides by mighty rivals, of whom, however, the induftry,
cunning, and liberty of the inhabitants ever get the better. The Danifh government
omits nothing that can hurt the country; nay it often feeks to hurt it without any prof
pect of advantage to itfelf One of the favourite projects of the Danifh minifters is to
unite the Eaft Sea to the German Ocean, by a canal joined to the Eyder. ‘This would
give a death ftroke to the commerce of Lubeck and Hamburg ; but the government
and the intelligent part of the country are as eafy about this, as they would be if his
Danifh Majefty was to order a canal to be dug in Greenland. On the other fide, the
King of Pruffia had, by his terrible taxes, cut off the communication of this country
with Saxony by the Elbe, which was a fevere {troke to both countries. What did the
wife government here do? It entered into a treaty of commerce with Hanover and
Bruniwick, and laid the plan of a road between Saxony and this place. This foon con-
vinced the King of Pruffia that his toll on the Elbe would be ruined fooner than the
trade between Hamburg and Saxony, and forced him to lower it accordingly. — Still
however it is too high for the Saxons and Hamburghers, but muft continue for fome
time within tolerable bounds.
Notwithftanding all the impediments caft in the way of it, the trade of this country
has been continually gaining ground during this century. No doubt, the immediate
caufes have been the improvements in agriculture, the increafe of population, and the
greater approaches towards luxury, made by the inhabitants of the north. Liberty
alone would however in time have been fufficient to have removed many of the hind-
rances which hoftile neighbours fought to put in the way of the trade. Whilft the
neighbouring powers were increafing their excife and cuitom-houte duties, and by fo
doing ftoppmg up fo many channels of commerce to their fubjects, here they were
opening every door both of exports and imports ; and inftead of feeking to raile, were
inventing every poflible method to diminifh the taxes. This illimited freedom of trade
is of a piece with the fpirit of the conftitution and of the city, and was the only means
which the wife governors of it could hit upon to raife the ftate. But if the flate had
not been a fingle independant city, as the luxury which fupports a free trade could not
have been kept up but at the expence of the country, the illimited freedom would have
been very difadvantageous to the country belonging to it. ‘The politicians of this place
are in the right when they maintain that illimited liberty of trade is the foundation of
the well-being of their country ; but they are in the wrong for blaming, as they all do,
the Pruffian fyftem of excife, as a mad fyftem, equally deftructive to the country and
people. Thereisa great difference between a fingle independant city and a great flate.
That
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