=425. Increase in importance of trade with distant continents.=—If we attempt to trace the changes in the direction of English trade in the first half of the nineteenth century, we find, in the maze of figures presented for study, some facts standing out as evident and important. The trade with other countries in Europe grew steadily, but grew slowly as a rule, and did not keep pace with the progress which English trade was making in other parts of the world. Most of the continental states looked with jealousy on England’s industrial development, and checked the free exchange of commodities by severe restrictions. We must look outside of Europe for the field of expansion of English trade. Africa still remained unimportant from the commercial standpoint, but America, Asia, and Australia dealt in increasing measure with the British merchant. =426. Great importance of the trade with the United States.=—The United States was, far and away, England’s best customer, taking, near the beginning of the century, when the ports of the continent were closed by Napoleon, as much as one third of the total English exports, and at the middle (1849) nearly one fifth. “It affords strong evidence of the unsatisfactory footing upon which our trading relations with Europe are established,” wrote an English author in 1838, “that our exports to the United States of America, which with their population of only twelve millions are removed to a distance from us of 3,000 miles across the Atlantic, have amounted to more than one half of the value of our shipments to the whole of Europe, with a population fifteen times as great as that of the United States of America, and with an abundance of productions suited to our wants, which they are naturally desirous of exchanging for the products of our mines and looms.” The United States paid for the wares by an export mainly of raw materials, and especially of cotton. [Illustration: _Longmans, Green & Co., New York_ ] [Illustration: THE WORLD 1902 _The British Possessions are colored Red_ ] During most of this period England drew three fourths of her supply of raw cotton from the southern States. =427. Trade with other distant countries.=—Other American countries were good customers of the British manufacturer; Brazil, for instance, bought more from England in 1849 than did England’s nearest neighbor, France. Among other independent states China deserves mention. Trade with that country had been included in the monopoly of the East India Company until 1834, when it was thrown open to British merchants in general; the trade grew rapidly thereafter, but suffered from the restrictions imposed by the Chinese until, as a result of the so-called Opium War of 1842, the English secured the cession of Hong-Kong and the opening of a number of ports.