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CIIAP. XXIV.
1810 had risen from eight to twenty-five mil-lions of pounds weight. The demand for raw silkfrom China had also rapidly increased towards theend of the term in question, and it more thancounterbalanced the deficiency which was createdby our improvements in the porcelain and cottongoods, which had in some measure lessened the de-mand for the nankeens and porcelain of China .
The trade with India, like that with China , hadconstantly absorbed a large portion of the silver ofEurope . The greater part had passed by sea bythe Cape of Good Hope ; but there was a current,constant though almost imperceptible, passingfrom the Levant to India in the south, and fromRussia to the north, the latter of which had vastlyincreased in the latter years of the term.
On the states of North America establishingtheir independence, they became rivals with thekingdoms of Europe in the trade to India andChina , and conveyed to both large quantities ofsilver. It was especially after the wars whicharose from the revolution in France that the inter-course of the Americans with the east had thegreatest extension, They were the medium ofcommunication for a long time between France and Holland and their remaining territories inIndia. The continent of Europe was supplied bytheir shipping, under the protection of the neutralflag, with tea and the other commodities of China and of India , and conveyed to those distant regions