ORIENTAL COMMERCE;

OR THE

East India Trader's Complete Guide;

CONTAINING

A GEOGRAPHICAL AND NAUTICAL DESCRIPTION

OF THE

MARITIME PARTS OF INDIA, CHINA, JAPAN, AND NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES, INCLUDING THE EASTERN ISLANDS, AND THE TRADING

STATIONS ON THE PASSAGE FROM EUROPE;

With an Account of

THEIR RESPECTIVE COMMERCE, PRODUCTIONS, COINS, Weights, and
MEASURES; THEIR PORT REGULATIONS, DUTIES, RATES, CHARGES, &c.
And a Description of

The Commodities imported from thence into Great Britain,
and the Duties payable thereon ;

TOGETHER WITH

A MASS OF MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, COLLECTED DURING MANY YEARS' EMPLOYMENT IN THE EAST INDIA SERVICE, AND IN THE COURSE

OF SEVEN VOYAGES TO INDIA AND CHINA.

ORIGINALLY COMPILED

BY THE LATE

WILLIAM MILBURN,

OF THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S SERVICE: A careful Digest having been made from the Papers left with his Executor, and the whole incorporated with much additional and valuable Matter,

BY THOMAS THORNTON, M. R. A. S.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR KINGSBURY, PARBURY, AND Allen,

LEADENHALL STREET.

1825.

LITTLE more need be said by way of Preface to this Work, than is necessary to explain how it has been reduced from its former bulk to a more convenient size. This object has been attained by excluding the long historical and financial disquisitions inserted in the Work when first published, as well as many tabular abstracts of official accounts, (upon the accuracy of which implicit reliance could not be placed); and also by rejecting whatsoever appeared to be calculated rather to gratify curiosity, than to prove of real utility. Much additional matter has nevertheless been incorporated, with all the essential information contained in the first Edition; and some parts of the present Work are entirely new. A few of the MS. Notes of the late MR. MILBURN have been used; but the chief portion of the additions has been supplied from other sources, private as well as public.

Criticism must not be wasted upon the style of this Work. The descriptions are mostly given in the words of the original Author (who wrote from actual observation); the supplementary matter is expressed in language which the Editor has been desirous of making intelligible, rather than elegant.

London, August 17, 1825.