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really profit by French conquests the Indo-Chinese peninsula. It appears that there is hardly any French Commerce in Tonquin; and that, notwithstanding the privileges secured for the French port of Saigon, the merchandise imported from that place does not exceed the insignificant sum of twenty-three thousand eight hundred (23,800) francs; while the imports from China, that is, are one principally from Hong Kong, one hundred and forty-one times greater, and amount to a sum of nearly three and a half millions of francs. And with regard to the export trade of Tonquin, it appears that Saigon received hardly any merchandise of value from Tonquin, the exports of which, valued at above two millions of francs, are destined chiefly for Hong Kong. These, it will be recollected, are the statements of French Officers and political writers, who also admit, further, that if even the route through Tonquin into the neighbouring Provinces of China acquires its proper and "natural importance," it will be Hong Kong.

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