180 COMMERCE "VTITH abhor the arbitrary interference of the officers of government with their property, and are glad to purchase an immunity from it at any price. In the native ports this price, indeed, is not extrava- gant, for it is, on calculation, seldom found to ex- ceed two or three per cent. At the European ports, as usual, there is more exaction. The com- merce of the Chinese is tolerated, because the go- vernments are bribed to a little toleration from the supply which their needy treasuries receive from the trade of the junks. The practice, at Batavia, was to sell the privilege of trading to China in a junk of a certain size, from year to year, excluding all competition, and allowing, therefore, the paten- tee or contractor to impose what price he pleased on his goods. The junks are distinguished into those o? green heads or prows, and those of red prows ; the first being distinguished by the Chinese laws with some privileges, and usually bearing by far the most va- luable cargoes. The goods exchanged in the in- tercourse between China and the Indian islands are generally such as constitute the trade between a rich and a poor country, between a country densely peopled — and one thinly inhabited, but dis- tinguished alike by the richness and singularity of its natural products. A large portion of the in- vestments from China, howeyer, it is to be remark- ed, are intended for the supply of the emigrants or
