The commerce of Portugal has increased very much in the course of the last thirty years. More than half of it falls to the share of Great Britain, a circumstance not to be wondered at when we bear in mind the relative geographical position of the two countries, for Portugal lies upon the direct route followed by English steamers proceeding to the Mediterranean, Western Africa, or Brazil. The assistance which England rendered Portugal during the peninsular war has cemented these commercial bonds.
The commercial relations with Brazil, now joined to Lisbon by a submarine cable, are likewise the natural result of the relative positions of the two countries and of the common origin of their populations. Portugal, in fact, participates in every progress made by its old colony, and its commerce will assume immense proportions when slavery is abolished in Brazil, when the solitudes of the Amazonas resound with the stir of industrious populations, and the coasts of the Pacific are joined to the Atlantic by means of railways crossing the Andes.185
But, after all, it will be Spain with which the most intimate commercial relations must finally be established, in spite of national prejudices and dynastic interests. The two nations will in the end become one, as the Aragonese and Castilians, the Andalusians and Manchegos, have become one. It is merely a question of time; but who can doubt that community of industrial and social relations will lead to a political union. We only trust that this union may be brought about without a resort to brute force, and with due regard to special interests.