CHAP. XXII. CONTRABAND TRADE. l6l 



hundred and ten years would be four hundred 

 and sixty-two millions, or ninety-six millions two 

 hundred and fifty thousand pounds. 



In the preceding century the whole of the 

 Spanish American dominions have been consi- 

 dered as engaged in contraband transactions, to 

 an extent that made it proper to add to the 

 quantity of the gold and silver which paid the 

 legal duty one-fifth for that which was drawn 

 surreptitiously from the mines and smuggled out 

 of the countries. As far as regards Mexico that 

 proportion has been deemed sufficient in the 

 present century; but in the other portions of 

 South America the contraband transactions were 

 much more extensive through the whole of the 

 eighteenth century. 



In the early part of that century, after the 

 treaty of Utrecht, a large supply of negroes was 

 conveyed by other nations to the Spanish do- 

 minions; and under the Assiento contract, which 

 .was first made with the French, and afterwards 

 transferred to the English, it is calculated that 

 more than fifty thousand slaves were conveyed 

 chiefly to Buenos Ayres.to be employed in the 

 mines of the western parts of that viceroyalty, 

 and in some degree to Carraccas and Carthagena 

 to cultivate sugar, cocoa, coffee, and the other 

 productions of the tropical climate. The in- 

 tercourse was not, however, limited to the sale of 

 slaves. Manufactured goods to a stipulated extent 



VOL. II. M 



