THE DUTCH IN THE EAST. [From the Morning Chronicle, August 27.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 264, 9 February 1848, Page 4

THE DUTCH IN THE EAST. [From the Morning Chronicle, August 27.]

The effects of our policy in the Eastern Archipelago are rapidly developing themselves on all sides. As soon as the settlement on Labuan had been determined upon, the Ne-

therlands Government began to shape its i course in conformity with the commercial principles we had laid down for our own guidance. It relaxed the system which had until then prevailed in the external relations of Java. It declared Macassar a free port ; it pursued the same plan at Rhio ; and has now carried still further its deference for the liberal spirit of the age by declaring Mooarro Rampee, on the eastern coast of Sumatra, a free port. Mooarro, in the Malay language, signifies the mouth of a river, and is a name often bestowed in the Indian Archipelago on ports situated on the embouchures of streams, or on islands which seem to command their entrance. It only remains for the Dutch to abandon their unwise spice monopoly, and throw open the Moluccas to the general commerce of the world, properly to place Insular Asia in the track ol improvement. The natives of the islands, as well as of the neighbouring countries, experience the necessity of free trade, though incapable of comprehending its theory. In Siam and Cochin China, as well as in Java, Celebes, and Borneo, we discover a strong desire for European intercom se. No doubt it will require some skill on the parr of the more civilized traders to subdue the prejudices to which recen: events have in many places given rise ; as, for example, m Cochin China, whete, impatient of all slower methods, the French endeavoured the other day to open up a trade at the cannon's mouth. Should the attention of our merchants be turned to the Eastern Archifelago and the regions inhabited by the Hindoo-Chinese nations, it will behove them not to trust implicitly to the traditional rules by which the trade of these parts has hitherto been regulated. It may of course be assumed as a fact that in general the exports Of all these countries are analogous, if not identical, and that from the similarity of tastes, habits, and manners among the natives, the imports must likewise be similar, if not the same. But this view of the matter will soon be found in practice to be exceedingly unsatisfactory. Every nation and tribe have their peculiar wants, and nothing but a minute knowledge of their character and customs will enable the merchant to derive from his intercourse with them all the profit whiih it is calculated to yield. Sumatra, lor instance, furnishes most of the principal articles exported from Borneo ; such as gold, ebony, camphor, and cassia, though these last two articles are very inferior to those supplied by Borneo and the continent of India. When, however, we descend into more minute details, we find the productions of Sumatra to be strikingly differeut irom those of the neighbouring islands, so that it may be said to supply the materials for a peculiar trade. Again, the idiosyncracies of its inhabitants, and the turn which their minds have taken and are taking in their progress towards something like civilization, will impress a distinct on the import trade, though many of its staple commodities should be identical with those required by Borneo, Java, Celebes, and the other islands of the Archipelago. But in whatever manner and to whatever extent we may avail ourselves of the relaxation in the Dutch system of commerce, every day's experience may be sa ; d to show the immense importance of our new settlement on the north-west coast of Borneo. The slight move we have made seems to have agitated the whole mass of society in that part of the world, whether native or European, so that we everywhere discover symptoms of a disposition to co-operate with us in delivering trade from its restrictions, and calling forth the resources of the Archipelago. Most persons are probably aware of the lucrative trade we formerly carried on with Acheen in Sumatra, and of the bitter complaints constantly transmitted to Government by our merchants in the further East, of the harsh and arbitrary policy by which for many years past the Dutch-have attempted to prevent a renewal of ir. They would seem to have at length discovered their error, and to have accepted the great fundamental truth of political economy, that the most profitable trade is that which is clogged with the fewest restrictions.