Alicant, like most of the other Spanish sea-ports, has greatly declined in its general commerce. In the days of its prosperity, as many as one thousand vessels have been known to enter the port in one year: at present the average number is about three hundred. The exports of every kind, with the exception of barilla, are gradually declining. The export of wine particularly, formerly an important article of Alicant trade, is now reduced to almost nothing. A little dry wine is still shipped to Gibraltar; and the sweet wine (_tent_) is exported in such very small quantities, as scarcely to enter into the tables--the little that is shipped, is for Russia. I am convinced, that if the common red wine of Alicant were better known, it would find a ready market;--it is made from several qualities of grape mixed, and if kept a few years is truly delicious. The export of almonds and of raisins does not at present decline; the former are for the English and Hamburgh markets,--the raisins exclusively for English consumption. The Alicant raisin, which is dipped, like the _lexia_ of Malaga, is used in England for plum-pudding, and in the manufacture of raisin wine. The export of brandy, of which one hundred thousand pipes have been known to leave Alicant, has almost entirely ceased; and oil, since the loss of the colonies, has been exported in comparatively small quantities. The only exports of any consequence are barilla and salt. I have already stated the amount of the former export in the year 1829. In 1830 it would greatly fall below that quantity; but, upon the whole, the export of barilla maintains itself. This is not, however, a lucrative trade. The profit from barilla affords the cultivator nothing beyond a bare livelihood. But in a country where rain is so uncertain, barilla is the only safe crop upon land that is beyond the reach of irrigation. The price of this article is extremely low, because, in the markets of Ireland, to which it is chiefly exported, it has to compete with the potash. The barilla of an inferior quality is sent to England for the use of the soap boilers. It is possible that some may not know how barilla is made. The weed, which is planted by seed, is pulled up by the root, and is stacked and dried; circular pits are made in the ground and heated; bars are laid across the mouth of these, and the weed being placed upon them, melts and drops into the pit, and hardens into barilla. The cultivation of barilla is expensive, because the land requires much dressing, and a large supply of manure. The other principal export, salt, is embarked from Torre Viejo, though the vessels make their clearances at Alicant. From fifty to sixty vessels yearly clear out with cargoes of salt, chiefly for Sweden and the different ports of the Baltic. This salt is remarkably strong, and best suited, therefore, for those countries where salted provisions are the most in use.