CHAPTER XI. General Commerce o f Marocco.— Annual Exports and Imports o f the Port of Mogodor.— Importance and Advantages o f a Trade with the Empire o f Morocco.— Cause of its Decline.— Present State o f our Relations with the Barbary Powers. T T h e city o f Marocco, besides its trade with the various districts o f the interior, receives the most considerable supplies o f European merchandize from the port o f Mogodor, which is distant from it four days journ ey, caravan tra ve lling ;* some o f the more valuable articles, however, are transported from Fas to the Marocco market, such as muslins, cambricks, spices, teas, pearls, coral, See. and the elegant Fas manufactures ofsilk and gold, There is a considerable market held at Marocco eve ry Thursday, called by the A rabs Soke-el-kumise,-j- at which a ll articles o f foreign as well as home manufacture are bought and sold, also horses, J horned.cattle, slaves, See. Samples o f a ll # A caravan journey is 24 miles, f The word kumise signifies the 5th day of the week. t The (Delels) auctioneers, who sell the horses, have a mode of shewing them off to great advantage, so that if a person be not experienced in the purchase of them he will very often be imposed upon ; to prevent which, the bestjudges, even the Arabs, give a small fee to the Delel, by way of purchasing his fidelity ; and when this mode is adopted, he may be depended on as far as his judgment extends. When the horse has been rode up and down the market several times in different paces, he is sold to the highest bidder, who is immediately apprised of his purchase : he then repairs to the Cadi, or chief judge, and procures from the court of law a (Akad el beah) declaration of sale, which is signed by two (CJkils) attorneys, and confirmed by the Cadi at the bottom or left corner of the paper; the declakinds o f merchandize are carried up and down the market and streets o f the c ity b y the Delels, or itinerant auctioneers, who proclaim the price offered, and when no one offers more, the best bidder is apprised o f his purchase, the money is paid, and the transaction terminated. T he shops o f Marocco are filled with merchandize o f various kinds, many of which are supplied b y the merchants of Mogodor, who receive, in return for European goods, the various articles o f the produce o f Barbary for the European markets. T h e credit which was given b y the principal commercial houses o f Mogodor to the natives has o f late considerably decreased owing to the change o f system in the go vernmen t; for, in the reign o f the present Emperors father, the European merchants were much respected, and their books considered as correct, so that a book debt was seldom disputed, and e v e ry encouragement was given to commerce b y that Empero r; but Muley Soliman s political principles differ so wid ely from those o f his father, that the most trifling transaction should now be confirmed by law, to enable the European to be on equal terms with the Moor, and to entitle him to recover any property, or credit given ; these measures have thrown various impediments in the way o f commerce, insomuch that credit is either almost annihilated, or transformed into barter, which has necessarily thrown the trade into fewer hands, and consequently cui tailed it in a great degree. For the purpose o f showing at once the traffic carried on in the port of Mogodor, I shall here g iv e an accurate ration expresses the purchase to be, for better or for worse, by the Arabic term Eladem fie el Kunshab, which, if literally rendered into English, means the bones in the sack or skin. The same custom is observad in the sale and purchase of mules, and other animals.
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