useful arts and sciences, such as writing,[3]
astronomy, the mariner's compass, gunpowder, sugar, silk, porcelain, the
smelting and combination of metals,--and, in fine, enjoying within its own
territories all the necessaries and conveniencies, and most of the
luxuries of life; standing, as it proudly asserts, in no need of
intercourse with other countries,[4] which it is its studied policy to
prohibit,[5] openly and arrogantly proclaims its total independence of
every nation in the world!

_Origin of the Tea Trade of the East India Company_.--In 1668, the East
India Company ordered "_one hundred pounds weight of goode tey_" to be
sent home on speculation. A taste for the Chinese herb was created and
carefully fostered; the invoice was increased from year to year, until it
now amounts to 30,000,000 pounds weight (notwithstanding the excessive
duty of 100 per cent, and the onerous restrictions of the commutation act,
since 1784), yielding an annual revenue to government, on a _luxury of
life_, of about 3,300,000_l_. sterling, with scarcely any trouble or
expense in the collecting;--employing 35,000 tons of the finest
shipping,--requiring annually nearly 1,000,000_l_. sterling worth of
cotton, woollen, and iron manufactures, and affording employment to a
numerous class of society, for the wholesale and retail dealing in a leaf
collected on the mountains of a distant continent!

To enable them the better to prosecute this valuable commerce, the East
India Company sought and obtained permission to build a factory at Canton,
where their agents were permitted to reside six months in the year--a
favour specifically accorded as a matter of compassion to foreigners, who
are carefully debarred all intercourse with the interior of the country; a
dread being entertained that the introduction of Europeans to settle in
China, would lead (according also to ancient prophecy) to the total
subversion of the empire.

Other brunches of trade were subsequently added to that of tea. In 1773,
the East India Company made a small adventure of opium[6] from Bengal to
Canton; and the consumption of opium increased as rapidly among the
Chinese as tea did among the English, until it now yields (although a
contraband trade) 14,000,000 Spanish dollars annually,[7] and pays a
revenue to the Indian Government of 1,800,000_l_. sterling. Raw cotton
forms another extensive article of export to China; it is in general a
less profitable remittance than b