CHAPTER XLIV. COMMERCE AND QUARANTINE.
SYNOPSIS:—Commercial Review.—Early Exports and Imports.—Mr. Charles Williams, the " Self-trumpet Blower."— The Commercial Exchange. — The F'irst Chamber of Commerce. — The First Mercantile Muster Roll. — The First Tariff. — The Melbourne Auction Company.—Sir George Gipps Refuses a Private Bill.—Harbour Quarantine Stations,
- VHE mercantile beginnings of Melbourne were certainly "small beer" of an humble and
unpretending brew. T h e so-called "merchants" were for years mostly "storekeepers," and commercial houses in Sydney, Hobart T o w n , and Launceston established agencies until, ^p-] accompanying the tide of British emigration, which commenced its inflow in 1839, representatives arrived from firms in the Mother-country. T h e introduction of banking has been treated of in a previous chapter, and here it is only necessary to add that for some time the imported freights were usually general cargoes of live stock, flour, groceries and other kinds of provisions, spirituous and fermented liquors, unmanufactured drapery goods, and made-up articles of wearing apparel, passing under the general denomination of "slops." T h e exports were chiefly wool and tallow, to which bark was, after a time, added, and then wheat and other commodities. It is impossible to obtain any reliable data of the importing and exporting trade during the earlier years of Port Phillip; indeed anything like even a correct approximation of the quantities and values is not procurable anterior to the creation of the independent colony in 1851. T h e reason is thus explained in Archer's Statistical Register published in 1 8 5 4 : — " I n the Customs books in the years 1838 to 1841, the particulars are not given, only the total amounts, and with reference to these and all the rest of the totals prior to Separation, it is well to remark that the district of Port Phillip, being a portion of N e w South Wales, articles coming from and going to that colony were not entered in the Customs books; so that there is a deficiency in each year up to 1851." T h e following particulars are gleaned from Hayter's Victorian Year Book, A n n o 1 8 7 4 : — "In 1837 the total value of imports was ^£115,379, and exports _£i2,i78. T h e latter comprised 175,081 lbs. wool, estimated as worth .£11,639, 2240 lbs. tallow at ,£28, and hides and skins ,£22. In 1838 the imports diminished to .£73,230, whilst the exports increased to ,£27,998. T h e quantity of wool shipped off was 320,383 lbs,, valued at ,£21,631, tallow 18,114 lbs., ,£489, and hides and skins, ,£117." In 1839 there was a stiff jump-up in all the items except tallow, as is thus shown: — "Value of imports, ,£204,722, exports, ^77,684. Wool, 615,603 lbs., ,£45,226; tallow, 18,552 lbs., ,£396: and hides and skins, ,£249." In 1840, the Bounty Emigration system gave such an impetus to importing speculation, that the end of that year distended thefigurativeresults, thus:—"Value of imports, ^435.3 6 7 : whilst the exports reached ,£128,860. These were—941,815 lbs. wool, ,£67,902; tallow, 48,048 lbs., ,£953; and hides and skins, ,£251. For 1851, the imports were assessed at ,£1,056,437, and the exports, ,£1,422,909. T h e wool appeared as 16,345,468 lbs., worth ,£734,618; tallow, 9,459,520 lbs., ,£123,203; and hides and skins, ,£7414." From a heap of old Customs papers before m e , I select a few miscellaneous items, which m a y be worth disinterring in 1884 : Grain, consisting of wheat, barley, oats, and malt, was imported in 1842 to the extent of 81,719 bushels, valued at ,£13,223; while the exports consisted of only six bushels of wheat, valued at ,£4. In 1842, the quantity of butter and cheese imported was 3293 cwt., ,£1016; whilst the exported consisted of 5592 lbs., ,£186.
