never flourifh while this reftridtion fuhfifted, enadted, that-
•one peafant in a family ihould be periqitted to quit his village,
either for the. purpofe of trade or literature ; but the.
claufe, which ordered them to requeft and obtain the confenfc;
of the lord, frnftrated the purpofe o f this excellent law, and
rendered jt abfolutely nugatory %
As the Poles, are obliged,to draw from foreign »countries,
the greateft part of the manufactured goods- neceffary for-
their interior confumption,, the fpecie which is exported-
exceeds the imported more than 20,000,000 Polifh florins,
o r ¿ 5 5 5 >5 5 5x
Poland has been called the granary of the North, an ap-.
pellation which it feems to deferye rather froqj its former;
than from its prefent fertility.. For. its lands not-being fuf-
ficiently cultivated,', aswell on account o f the flavery of the
peafants, as the unequal-diftribution o f property, the exportation
of corn, is by no means anfvverable to the general
nature of the foil, or the extent of its provinces, which, if,
properly improved,..would be capable o f fupplying half Europe
with grain..
Several palatinates in Poland, and ■ more particularly Po-
dolia and Kiovia,.are extremely adapted to the production of;
grain : though many parts of thefe provinces remain uncul-.
tivated, yet the portion which is in tillage yields.a greater,
fupply,. than is neceffary for the confumption of the inhabitants.
The only method of. employing the overplus is to extradb.
from it a fpirituous.liquor. But an ingenious Poliih author!
has fhown, that the. provinces-in queftion might -undoubt-
* Stat. Reg. Pol. p . 169. o f this work, is, written in ,the Polifli lan-.
•f Mr.. de Wiebitfki, a Polilh gentleman guage, and called Patriotic Letters, ad-
o f great learning and information. T h e dreiT^d tQ the ChancellorZamoiiki,
treatife alljjded.to in.this^and other place?.
•edly fend their grain down the Dniefter through Turkifh c h a p .
Moldavia; and open an intercourfe with the ports of tin* ■ . ' *
Black Sea. This project was formerly in agitation.
During the reign of Sigifmond Auguftus, Cardinal Corrr-
mandon,‘in. travelling through-Podolia,"being-much ftruck
'With the fertility of that province, firft fuggefted the mea-
fure; and Sigifmond, having obtained the concurrence of
'the grand feignor, actually difpatched. fome Poles down the
Dniefter, to explore the ftate of the fiver.. But the perfbns
»employed on this occaiion, happening aft®: a few days voy-
-age to meet with fome’impediments from rocks and fand
hanks, declared, without any further examination, that the
Dniefter was not navigable ; and although Commandon »re-
prefented to the king, that' the -obftacles pointed oiit might,
•Without any great difficulty, be'furmo unted-; yet the project
was poftponed, and never again revived *.
The judicious author above-mentioned+, in touching upon
this fubjedt, laments the ignorance of his countrymen ; - and
’ridicules ’the precipitation with which they abandoned a
plan fo favourable to the improvement of their commerce.
He ffiows, that the inattention of the Poles to the natural
-advantages of 'their country has beCn exemplified in another
inftance of a fimilar kind. By means of "the Notez, a
river of Great Poland, which falls'irito the Oder, the Poles
•might have conveyed grain into Silefia, and from thence
down the Oder into other parts of Germany. But they
never attempted the navigation of the Notez, from an ill-
founded perfuafion of its not being practicable. No fooner,
however, had the king of Pruffia acquired the country
’through which that river takes its Courfe, than it was
Vie de Commandon. -j- Mr.-tie Wiebitfki.
Q 2 inltan