hbour nearer than Great Britain. According to an official report
made to his Government by Don Mateo Durou, the active and intelligent
consul for Spain at Bordeaux, and the materials for which were extracted
from the customhouse returns of France, the trade betwixt France and
Spain is thus stated, but necessarily abridged:--

Francs.
1840.--Total exports from France into Spain, 104,679,141
1840.--Total imports into France from Spain, 42,684,761
-----------
Deficit against Spain, 61,994,380

France, therefore, exported nearly two and a half times as much as she
imported from Spain; a result greatly the reverse of that established in
the trade of Spain with Great Britain. In these exports from France,
cotton manufactures figure for a total of

34,251,068 fr.
Or, in sterling, L.1,427,000
Of which smuggled in by the
land or Pyrennean frontier, 32,537,992 fr.
By sea, only 1,713,076 ...
Linen yarns, entered for 15,534,391 ...
Silks, for 8,953,423 ...
Woollens, for 8,919,760 ...

Among these imports from France, various other prohibited articles are
enumerated besides cottons. As here exhibited, the illicit introduction
of cotton goods from France into Spain is almost double in amount that
of British cottons. The fact may be accounted for from the closer
proximity of France, the superior facilities and economy of land
transit, the establishment of stores of goods in Bayonne, Bordeaux, &c.,
from which the Spanish dealers may be supplied in any quantity and
assortment to order, however small; whilst from Great Britain heavy
cargoes only can be dispatched, and from Gibraltar quantities in bulk
could alone repay the greater risk of the smuggler by sea.

Senor Durou adds the following brief reflections upon this _expose_ of
the French contraband trade. "Let the manufactures of Catalonia be
protected; but there is no need to make all Spain tributary to one
province, when it cannot satisfy the necessities of the others, neither
in the quantity, the quality, nor the cost of its fabrics. What would
result from a protecting duty? Why, that contraband trade would be
stopped, and the premiums paid by the assurance companies established
in Bayonne, Oleron, and Perpignan, would enter into the Exchequer of
the State."