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Excerpt from Annals of Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries, and Navigation, Vol. 2 of 4: With Brief Notices of the Arts and Sciences Connected With Them; Connecting the Commercial Transactions of the British Empire and Other Countries Herrera, the great Spanifh hifidrian' of America, exprefsly aflirms, That 'neither on thecontinent, ' 'nor ifles of the welt-indies, (the name the Spaniards ufually-gi've to all America), were there either filk, wine, 'fugar, ' olives, wheat, barley, 'rorrfpulfe; all which, and many Other things, have been tranfplanted thither from Spain.' Their own originalprodué'tions were only tobacco, indigo, cochineal, cotton, gin ger, cocoa, pimento, fundry ufeful drugs and woods for dying, fur niture, phyfic, and {hip and hoofe-building. Our Britifh colonifts have fince found plenty'of ir'onf'tonle, as alfo Copper and lead mines. And it is from thofe two countries of Spain and Portugal, that Europe has been fupplied with that-immenfe quantity of treafure, which has fo much en riched and improved it. From 'peru and Mexico, as alfo from fome weft-india ifles, Europe has been fuppl'ied with great quantities of ex cellent materials for dying, (and above ally with that incornparable One of Cochineal, hitherto peculiar only to Mexico), drugs, gums, colours and minerals for painters, preferved fruits of their own growth, ginger, Jamaica pepper (called pimento), tobacco, furs, (kins, and many excel lenttimbers 'all which were; originally in thofe countries, but which have, by the cultiv-ation of the Europeans, been fince improved in qual ity, and much increafed in quantity': So that, upon the whole, it may be faid, that, even abfiraéting from' the gold and filver of America, there has really been a greater accefiion. Of rich and ufeful materials for commerce introduced into it by the Europeans (their great improve ments of American productions jointly confidered) than all America afforded, before it was known to Europe; all which, through the be nignity of the climate, and the fertility of the'virgin foil. Of America, have long fin'ce repaid, and do {till continue to fupply Europe with im tnenfe ufury. This, it is true, was alfo moflly the cafe with refpeét to many of the colonies fettled in ancient times by the Arabians, Egyp tians, Phoemcians, Greeks, and Romans, though perhaps not in fo. Emi nent a degree as in the modern cafe, of the plantation of America. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
