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Comparative tabular statement showing the number, tonnage, and situation of American vessels at Marseilles from the year 1858 to the first quarter of 1863, inclusive.

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Comparative statement showing the situation of the French merchant service from 1852 to 1862, inclusive.

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The southern rebellion has imparted a lively impulse to the growth of cotton in the Levant, and the opinion is being entertained that nothing but care to provide good seed, coupled with European capital and enterprise, is needed to give an unlimited extension to the culture of this plant.

The following table exhibits the importations of cotton at Marseilles during the years 1860, 1861, and 1862:

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It is urged that Macedonia, Antola, and Smyrna present immense surfaces appropriate to this culture; that the people already have the experience, and so long as the price remains remunerative the cultivation of cotton will not fail of extending itself from year to year.

Egypt also offers strong hopes to the European manufacturer, and it is contended that present prices will justify this cultivation in all the countries bordering the Mediterranean. An agriculturist in the department of the Gard has been quite successful in this respect; and it is believed that in the Var, and also in the eastern Pyrenees, this culture will be found most profitable.

A large company was being organized last year for the prosecution of this culture in Algeria, and the Chamber of Commerce express the opinion that "such a company, well established and wisely administered, would assure the independence of our industry, and its security in the future."

The only unfavorable aspect which the culture of cotton in the Levant presents to the mind of the Marseillais is that this product must be paid for in coin, while the American article was received in exchange.

WHEAT.

Thanks to the abolition of the Echelle mobile, Marseilles has become, within the last two years, a great market for cereals. The Echelle mobile, or sliding scale, was unfavorably deserving the attention of the curious. Once every month in the year officers appointed by the administration of Paris reported the market prices of grains ruling in the twenty or thirty principal cities of France. From these reports the administration found the average market price in the country, and the import duty on grains was fixed accordingly, so that this duty was always subject to a monthly change. The consequence of this policy was the direction of the greater quantity of the grains of the Levant to Italian ports, particularly to Genoa, Leghorn, and Messina, where it was left in entrepot to await foreign demand. The abolition of the sliding scale has drawn to Marseilles a large share of the commerce hitherto in the hands of the Italians.

I subjoin the following extracts from the Compte Rendu of 1862, showing the relative dependence of England and France upon other countries for alimentary grains :

"The English have imported, in the last three years, 145 millions of hectolitres of all kinds of grains, viz: 43 millions in 1860, 47 millions in 1861, and 55 millions in 1862.

"It requires all the resources of a nation as powerful and prodigiously rich as England to face such an expense without a crisis-three billions five hundred millions of francs in the year, ($224,000,000 annually.)

"The English do not dream even of alarming themselves. Do they not find their compensation for it in the increasing extension of their commerce and of their industry, in the exportation, also by millions, of their manufactures, and in the increasing value which a perfected culture gives to their lands? The figures of this last importation have never before been reached. That of the year 1847, which they still remember as the year of famine, was less by almost one-half. She will continue, therefore, to be, for her alimentation, tributary to all producing countries, either because her population is increasing from year to year, or because she has, if not abandoned, at least seriously reduced her culture of cereals.

"France, a country essentially agricultural, may possibly be struck with relative sterility, with local dearths, but she will never be compelled to demand of the foreigner the immense quantities of grain required by England.

"When the figures of our importations for 1861-1862 are recalled-the highest that our commercial annals have had to register-one sees with what facility and by what hands it was effected, and cannot help drawing from these facts just feelings of confidence, with instruction the most precious.

The importations of 1861 rose to 5,700,000 hectolitres of all grains. Those of 1862 to 4,800,000 hectolitres-in 1862, as in 1861, the largest portion coming from Turkey and Russia.

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The ports of America, from which England received in 1862 nearly 30,000,000 hectolitres, have played a very insignificant part in our importations of the same year. It is not from these ports that Marseilles can expect great quantities. American wheat, which, in ordinary times, is the almost exclusive lot of English consumption, will come to France only in the years of great want, and then it will prefer to direct itself to our northern ports, of Havre above all, rather than to our own."

It is generally conceded that the American wheat is superior in quality to that of Turkey, Russia, Poland, the Azores, or of any country which sends to this place, and it is held at a higher price in market. But freights from the Levant are so much lower than those from America that it is scarcely possible for the latter to compete successfully with the former in this trade.

SILK.

Marseilles is already reaping sensible advantages from the Indo-China line of steamers lately established by the Massageries Imperial. The old line between Marseilles and Alexandria is in prosperous activity, while seven or eight magnificent boats of 500 horse-power each are running from the isthmus of Suez to Bombay, Calcutta, and Singapore, with a terminus at different ports of China.

The importation of silk from the Celestial Empire for 1862 was 3,000 bales above that of 1861-an augmentation more remarkable as the production was much diminished in the silk countries by reason of the civil war.

The importations from Japan for the same year were 767 bales against 210 for 1861.

The new Anglo-French treaty of commerce went into operation at an opportune moment. It proved itself the salvation of the Lyons manufacturers. The Compte Rendu says of it, "Our great national industry, the manufactures of Lyons, so grievously tested by the American conflict, has seen its ouvriers retake a great part of their activity, by reason of the treaty of commerce concluded with England."

WINE.

But if the new treaty came to the rescue of the Lyons manufacturers, it turned a deaf ear to the solicitations of the wine merchants of southern France. In 1860, the first year under the treaty, the importation of ordinary wines amounted to 18,441 hectolitres in 1861 it fell to 5,500, and in 1862 to 5,300 hectolitres. This falling off may be partly attributed to the very inferior quality of the first year's shipment, and which in the language of the Compte Rendu “justified the cessation of any new demand." But another reason is also stated: "The popular classes of England, whose wants would seem to offer a market without limit, appear to remain faithful to their beer. The intelligence of the English brewers has taught them how to meet the competition of cheap wines from France, by diminishing the price of their beer and in improving its quality. We are, therefore, though regretfully, obliged to conclude that the treaty has deceived the general expectation in that which concerns the ordinary wines of southern France. This treaty has thus far had no other result than of increasing the trade in the fine wines of Bordeaux, of Burgundy, and in the champaign of Roussillon."

WOOL.

The only interest attaching to this article arises from the important demands which have come from the United States, for the furnishing of troops, atoning not inconsiderably for the lull in the silk and Parisian trade. Thirty thousand bales of foreign wool, and about 1,000,000 kilogrammes of French product, were exported from this port in 1862.

PETROLEUM.

The commerce in this article dates from 1861, and already in 1862 5,218 barrels were.brought to this port from the United States.

The chamber of commerce expressed the opinion, in their report for 1862, that the importation of petroleum in 1863 would attain a much higher figure, and their anticipations have been fully realized; 14,308 barrels were imported during the year ended September 30, 1863. The shipment of the first year consisted mostly of the refined oil; but now three large refineries are established, and the crude article is generally imported.

Considerable excitement has characterized the commerce in petroleum, and there is reason for believing that the importations of the last year have more than supplied the demand.

LARD.

The commerce in lard has witnessed an extraordinary growth during the last three years. Prior to 1860 the quantity of lard shipped from the United States to this port was too inconsiderable to be noticed. Indeed, so insignificant were the receipts in 1861, as entirely to escape the notice of the chamber of commerce in their Compte Rendu for that year. But the soap manufacturers of Marseilles having once experimented with it in their savonnerics, and found its fitness for their fabrications, the imports rose from comparatively nothing in 1861 to 4,000,000 kilogrammes for 1862, with a further increase to 9,000, 000 for the nine months ended September 30, 1863, and it now ranks as one of the principal and most important articles of import.

ALCOHOL.

The alcohol of the United States stands higher in public estimation than the French article, as it contains more spirits and possesses a purer taste.

The chamber of commerce complain that the American alcohol is subjected to too heavy a duty, by reason of which the American exporters who formerly made their shipments to Marseilles exclusively now send their cargoes directly to the Italian ports and to Constantinople.

The duty on English and Belgian alcohol is fifteen francs for the former, and twenty francs for the latter, per hectolitre. American alcohol is taxed twenty

five francs per hectolitre.

The Marseilles chamber insists that the American import should be received at the same rate as either English or Belgian.

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