are objects eitherof domestic and foreign commerce,
or both. The principal are camphor, benzoin,
lignum aloes, dragon’s-blood, sassafras, sapan wood,
and morinda. The camphor of Sumatra and Borneo
is divided in commerce into'three sorts, according
to quality, the relative values of which
to each other may be estimated in the proportions
of 25,, 14, and 4. The price of this article depends
upon the factitious value which the Chinese attach
to it, and to its limited production in nature. A
pound avoirdupois of the best kind usually sells in
China at the exorbitant price of about 1S ~ Spanish
dollars, or L. 4 ,4s. 4|d., while the camphor of
Japan, which does not apparently differ from it,
and is equally esteemed every where else, sells for
the 7 8 th part of this amount, or costs no more
than Is. Id. per pound. The best camphor is
purchased at Barus, in Sumatra, always the emporium
of the commodity, and which strangers usually
affix to its name, at about 8 Spanish dollars
per cattiy or 27 s. per pound, which, it is remarkable
enough, is nearly the price assigned to it by
Beaulieu in the first French voyage to the Archipelago
two centuries back.
Benzoin, or frankincense, called in commercial
language Benjamin, is a more general article of
commerce than camphor, though its production
be confined to the same islands. Benzoin is divided
in commerce, like camphor, into three sorts, according
to quality, the compai’ative value of which
may be stated in figures as follow, 105, 45, 18.
Benzoin is valued in proportion to its whiteness,
semi-transparency, and freedom from adventitious
matters. According to its purity, the first sort
may be bought at the emporia to which it is brought
at from 50 to 100 dollars per picul, the second
from 25 to 45, and the worst from 8 to 20 dollars.
According to Linsehoten, benzoin, in his
time, cost, in the market of Sunda Calapa, or
Jacatra, from to 2 5 ^ Spanish dollars the
picul. By Neibuhr’s account, the worst benzoin
of the Indian islands is more esteemed by the Arabs
than their own best olibanum, or frankincense.
In the London market, the best benzoin is fourteen
times more valuable than olibanum, and even the
worst 2- times more valuable. Benzoin usually
sells in England at 10s. per lb. The quantity generally
imported into England, in the time of the
monopoly, was 812 cwts. The principal use of
this commodity is as incense, and it is equally in
request in the ceremonies of the Romish, the Ma-
homedan, the Hindu, and Chinese worships. It
is also used as a luxury by the great in fumigations
in their houses, and the Javanese chiefs are fond
of smoking it with tobacco. Its general use among
nations in such various states of civilization, and
the steady demand for it in all ages, declare that
it is one of those commodities the taste for which