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Spanish Honduras.

United States...
Yucatan...

$7,312 16

62, 998 16
4, 704 04

$232, 350 84

The principal articles imported during the year 1861 were from the United Kingdom, books, wines, soap, general merchandise, powder, tin salt, glassware, malt liquors, hardware, earthenware, and slates. The principal articles imported from the United States were wines, lumber, shingles, soap, refined sugar, spirits, tar and pitch, tobacco, general merchandise, groceries, flour, pork and beef, rice, furniture, hay, hardware, books, cigars, coffee, drugs. Guatemala furnished wines, salt, deerskins, horses and cattle, indigo, silver ore, sarsaparilla, hules, India-rubber, and cochineal. Spanish Honduras contributed wines, sarsaparilla hules, India-rubber, cigars, cocoa, tobacco, deerskins, horses and cattle, indigo, and cochineal. And from Yucatan, sponges, general merchandise, salt, hules, cigars, tobacco, rice, deerskins, cocoa, horses and cattle.

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To Great Britain were exported:

India-rubber, cotton, shell, hides and skins, tobacco, mahogany, logwood, lignumvitæ, cochineal, cocoa-nuts, sarsaparilla, sugar, (Muscovado,) cigars, rosewood, cedar and Santa Maria wood.

To the United States:

India-rubber, indigo, skins and hides, deerskins, spices, rosewood, logwood, cochineal, old copper, old iron, lead, mahogany, and lignumvita.

To Guatemala:

Merchandise, gunpowder, quicksilver, wines, logwood, cocoa-nuts, provisions, spirits, lumber, and lignumvita.

To Yucatan:

Malt liquor, gunpowder, spirits, merchandise, and provisions.

To Spanish Honduras:

Coffee, lead, provisions, wines, merchandise, cigars, gunpowder, logwood, &c. Thus it will be seen that the total commercial movements of this colony for the year 1861 were $2,621,600, and to the United States above $458,600; the imports having been $314,990, nearly all of which were provisions, and the exports $143,510, principally mahogany, logwood, cochineal, sarsaparilla, deerskins, &c.

The general commercial movements of the states of Guatemala, Spanish Honduras, Salvador, and Nicaragua combined, amount to about $8,756,234. Hence it will be seen that the commerce of Belize is nearly one-third as great as the commerce of those four states combined, and is greater than either that of Spanish Honduras, Nicaragua, or Salvador, and within a fraction as large as that of the state of Guatemala.

The following tabular statement will show imports and exports of Belize for the year 1860, in Spanish or American dollars, and the countries from which the articles came, and to which they went, viz:

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The principal articles of import were malt liquors, coffee, cocoa, wines, spirits, soap, lumber, iron, hardware, dry goods, salt, cattle, American provisions, tobacco; and generally in transit, free of duty, sarsaparilla, cochineal, indigo, rawhides, metals, cocoa nuts, cocoanut oil, dyewoods, sponge, and turtle.

The principal articles of export were mahogany, dyewoods, rosewood, lignumvitæ, cedar, India-rubber, cocoa-nuts, cigars, metallic ores, turtle shell, sarsaparilla, cochineal, indigo, rawhides, sponge, and sugar. The first export of the latter article was 86 tons in the year 1859. There were exported during 1860, of mahogany, to Great Britain, 7,462,452 feet, to the United States, 627,514 feet, making a grand total of 8,089,966 feet.

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Besides, there are mahogany works established on the Spanish coast, between the Gulf of Dulce and Wanko river, on the Mosquito coast, which are supported by Belize merchants, and yielded about 1,000,000 feet, which do not appear in the above figures. In the year 1860, which may be regarded as a fair average of the commercial movements between this place and the United States, the imports from the States were: of pork, 2,398 barrels; flour, 8,923 barrels ; lumber, 315,213 feet; beef, 471 barrels; cigars, 105,300; coffee, 21,452 pounds; spirits, 2,090 gallons; sugar, refined, 47,462 pounds; wines, 1,631 gallons. And the exports to the United States were: cochineal, 399 seroons; hides, 6,515 bales; indigo, 270 seroons; logwood, 724 tons; mahogany, 627,514 feet; merchandise, 22 packages; sarsaparilla, 984 bales; specie, $22,000.

The average prices of provisions, &c., for 1858, 1859, and 1860, were, for wheat flour, per barrel of 196 pounds, $9 25; beef, per pound, 12 cents; pork, per pound, 15 cents; tobacco, per pound, 25 cents; salt, per pound, 3 cents; sugar, Muscovado, 10 cents; sugar, refined, 25 cents; tea, $125; coffee, 25

cents.

The following will show the number of foreign vessels that entered and cleared from the port of Belize during the year 1800, and the aggregate tonnage, viz:

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Giving a grand total of 104 vessels, with a tonnage of 34,162. All vessels arriving at or departing from Belize are subject to the payment of pilot dues, but vessels that take in cargoes beyond the limits of the port may come in and receive a portion of cargo without the payment of tonnage dues, which are fifty cents per ton. There are a number of vessels of small draught, both British and foreign, not included in the foregoing list that are employed in the coasting trade. These qualify themselves by taking out a coasting license, which exempts them from the payment of tonnage dues. The limits of the coasting trade are defined to be along the line of the coast north and west from Belize to the port of Campeachy, in Yucatan, and south and east along the coast to San Juan del Norte or Greytown, including the Bay Islands, and in this coasting trade British coasters have no advantage over other or foreign countries. The cost of a coasting license is sixteen dollars.

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The legal currency of this colony is English sterling, but all the business is conducted in dollars and rials, the rial being valued at twelve and a half cents, or eight rials to the Spanish dollar. The pound sterling is taken at five dollars, or four shillings to the dollar.

The following statement will exhibit the duties in the colony on all foreign merchandise, as well as hospital and harbor dues, viz:

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Horses, mules, and asses, per head....

Malt liquor and cider, per imperial gallon, or per six reputed quart bottles, with an allowance of five per cent. for breakage.........

Soap, per cwt....

Spirits, cordials, and liquors, per imperial gallon, or per six reputed quart bottles, allowance of five per cent. for breakage.

Spirits and cordials, excise at per imperial gallon...

Sugar and candy, per 100 lbs....

Sugar, excise, per 100 lbs..

Tea, per lb...

Tobacco, per 100 lbs..

Tobacco, cigars, per M...

Wines, in bulk or bottle, per imperial gallon, or per six reputed quart bottles; if in bottles an allowance of five per cent. for breakage.. Wood, lumber, 1,000 feet

...

Wood, shingles, per 1,000.......

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HOSPITAL DUES.

On vessels of every class entering from any port or place beyond the colonial limits, and not within the limits defined for granting of

coasting licenses for each man, cook, or apprentice, to be paid at Dolls. Rials. the time of entry . . . . . .

On all decked vessels and bungays of five tons and upwards entering
from seaward, that is, from any port or place beyond the colonial
limits, but within the limits defined for granting of coasting licenses,
and not possessing such coasting licenses, for each man, cook, ap-
prentice, or boy, to be paid at the time of entry.

On all decked vessels and bungays of five tons and upwards entering
from seaward, that is, from any port or place beyond the colonial
limits, but within the limits defined for the granting of coasting
licenses, and possessing such coasting license per month, per man,
for the average crew, payable annually, by the owners or consignee,
on the first day of March, or on the first entry or clearance thereafter,
either for the whole of the twelve months, commencing on such
first day of March, or for so much of a twelve month as may at
such time have to run before the following first day of March, and
to be chargeable against the wages of such seamen.....
And all decked vessels and bungays of five tons and upwards regu-
larly employed in droghing or other lawful business within the
limits of the colony, and not trading beyond such limits, and having
no coasting license, for each man, cook, or boy, per average crew,
per month, to be paid annually, by the owner, on the first day of
March for the ensuing year, or as soon thereafter as may be, and
to be chargeable against the wages of the seamen
On all vessels or craft other than those previously named, except
vessels of five tons and upwards entering from any port or place
beyond the colonial limits, but within the limits defined for the
granting of coasting licenses, and not possessing such coasting
license per trip on entry....

WHARF DUes.

For laying alongside any public wharf or landing place for a longer period than twenty-four hours, between any two voyages, for each day or part of a day, on every bungay or boat under five tons.... If 5 and under 10 tons..

If 10 tons and under 20..

If 20 tons and upwards.

Storage on gunpowder on each barrel..

And on small packages proportionably.

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The trade of British Honduras could be greatly increased by energy, not only in the exportation of its valuable cabinet woods, as before stated, and which up to the present have not found a portion of the exports, and the cultivation of the soil, and the raising of stock, for home consumption, thus diminishing. the amount of imports, and thereby adding greatly to the wealth of the country, but in the cultivation of those things that now grow wild, and are suffered year after year to perish and decay upon the spot that produced them. It has been shown that the cochineal exported from Belize is not the product of British Honduras, but of Guatemala, whilst the cactus, upon which the insect feeds, grows in great abundance wild upon the soil of this colony. The sarsaparilla which this place exports is also not the product of this country, but is imported from Spanish

Honduras, but it is a native also of British Honduras, growing wild, and allowed to be trodden under foot by man and beast.

The article of indigo forms a considerable item of exports from Belize, but this comes almost altogether from Salvador, whilst an abundance of the plant grows wild in all parts of British Honduras, and yet not a pound is here manufactured. Besides, all the palma christi, or castor oil plant, grows wild, and likewise the pepper from which cayenne is made, and ginger and other spices, might form a considerable trade if the cultivation and preparation were cared for. Indeed, there is here an extensive field which would yield a valuable reward for the exercising of men's energies and perseverance.

NOTE -In addition to the specific and other taxes, there is a fixed and unalterable tax of one per cent, on all important articles, which is appropriated to the payment of certain colonial officers by virtue of a solemn agreement between the mother country and the colony on granting them a new constitution in 1853. The other annual duty for the year is 23 per cent. for all nonenumerated articles; making, with the perpetual tax of one per cent. ad valorem on all imported articles, three and a half per cent.

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ZANTE-A. S. YORK, Consul.

AUGUST 3, 1863.

* * The Ionian islands possess a central position, being surrounded by Countries undergoing daily great political changes. They are midway between England and the Persian Gulf, are two-thirds of the way to the Red sea, and conveniently situated to communicate with all parts of the Levant. They block up the mouth of the Adriatic sea, Greece, Constantinople, Smyrna, Alexandria, Tripoli, Tunis, Malta, Venice, Sicily, Naples, Leghorn, Genoa, Ancona and Trieste, form a belt of great towns around them at no very unequal distance. Steamers run from the Ionian islands to any of these great commercial cities in about sixty or eighty hours. Italian steamers leave the islands every week for all the commercial towns of that kingdom and Marseilles; Greek steamers go round the Ionian islands; Grecian, Turkish and English steamers touch at the islands, and at the several ports of Italy, France, Malta and England. In fine, steamers from the islands can reach Asia, Europe and Africa within a few hours, being central to those countries, and bearing strongly upon the lines of the Mediterranean commerce.

This premised, will it not be wise to cultivate the American Levant trade through the Ionian islands, especially now that the annexation with free Greece is to take place? have every reason to hope and believe that the islands, and especially Zante, being so near the continent, would afford a good market for American produce and manufactures. Zante is pointed out for a kind of Lipari for the commerce of all the Levant.

The Ionians are expert sailors and keen traders, and drive considerable business with the Levant and Russia, which will doubtless increase with the annexation and the opening of the Suez isthmus. Their system of trading is peculiar, and affords them easy and ample means of success, without incurring great risks. A vessel is freighted thus: The owner, the master, the sailors, and all their friends, contribute in money or goods, and when the vessel is loaded they direct her course to all places where the master or crew think a demand may be found for her cargo or any portion of it. If the vessel is large, she goes to Constantinople, the Black sea, Azoff, Smyrna, Alexandria, to the coasts of Italy, &c.; and if small, she runs up a thousand little creeks and

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