To return, however, to our subject. By far the greatest part of the British imports into Buenos Ayres consist of the plain and printed calicoes and cloths, which, as I have just stated, are become of the first necessity to the lower orders in this part of South America: the cheaper we produce them, the more they will take; and thus it is that every improvement in our machinery at home, which lowers the price of these manufactures, tends to contribute (we hardly perhaps know how much) to the comforts of the poorer classes in those remote countries. In the sale of most of these articles no other foreign country can compete with Great Britain, from the low cost of their production; and as to any native manufactures, it would be idle to think of them in a country as yet so scantily peopled, where every hand is wanted, and may be turned to a tenfold better account, in augmenting its natural resources and means of production, as yet so imperfectly developed. Besides our cotton, linen, woollen, and silk manufactures, we also send to Buenos Ayres considerable quantities of ironmongery and cutlery, coarse and fine earthenware, glass, foreign brandies and wines, and a variety of other articles, the nature and value of which, in detail, is fully exhibited in the general return given in the Appendix of the principal articles of British growth and manufacture which have been exported from this country to the River Plate in all the several years from 1830 to 1837 inclusive. The total amount of the produce and manufactures of the United Kingdom alone (exclusive of foreign and colonial produce), exported direct from Great Britain to the River Plate to the last sixteen years, has been as follows:-- Year. Declared Value. Observations. 1822 £981,047 } 1823 664,436 } Years of peace; average 1824 1,141,920 } £909,330. 1825 849,920 } 1826 371,117 } Buenos Ayres blockaded 1827 154,895 } by the Brazilians. 1828 312,389 } 1829 758,540 } 1830 632,172 } 1831 339,870 } 1832 660,151 } 1833 515,362 } Average from 1829 to 1834 831,564 } 1837, £643,291. 1835 658,525 } 1836 697,334 } 1837 696,104 } To these amounts may be yearly added about £40,000 more for the value of foreign and colonial produce sent direct from Great Britain. This will give some idea of the general nature and amount of our direct trade with the River Plate, and it will be evident how mainly Great Britain contributes to all the essential wants, as well as domestic comforts, of the people of that part of the world.