164 CONTRABAND TRADE. CHAP. XXII. 



sionally called " the force trade." At Moro Mo- 

 rena, Yqueque, and other landing places where 

 there were only slight or no garrisons, such ships 

 anchored, and trains of mules were seen crossing 

 the mountains with silver, as it came from the amal- 

 gamation moulds, with ornaments and utensils, with 

 images of the virgin and other holy persons, with cru- 

 cifixes in great abundance, and with the spurs, bits 

 of the bridles and saddle furniture, all eager to ex- 

 change them for the scarce manufactured articles 

 of cotton, linen, and wool, with which the markets 

 of England were fully stocked if not overloaded. 



On a review of this commerce, and taking into 

 consideration the compendious nature of the pre- 

 cious metals, and the great effects which by the 

 accounts of all reports from Spanish America 

 might be produced by bribery of the officers of 

 the revenue, we are reluctantly compelled to differ 

 from Baron Humboldt in the estimate of the pro- 

 portion between those metals which did, and 

 those which did not pay the duty between the 

 years 1700 and 1800, especially as we include, 

 under the same head, some of that which passed 

 from America to Asia by the Philippine Islands. 

 The estimate of one-fourth, instead of the Baron's 

 estimate of one-fifth for Columbia, Peru, Chili, 

 and Buenos Ayres, which is here assumed, would 

 be gold and silver which had paid the duty, 

 thus : 



