112 CUSTOMS OF THE TRADERS. 
It is usual for each trader, upon his arrival 
in that city, to engage a store-room, and to 
open and exhibit his goods, as well for the 
purpose of disposing of them at wholesale as 
retail. His most profitable custom is that of 
the petty country merchants from the sur 
rounding villages. Some traders, it is true, 
continue in the retail business for a season 0} 
more, yet the greater portion are transient 
dealers, selling off at wholesale as soon as a 
fair bargain is offered. 
The usual mode of selling by the lot in 
Chihuahua is somewhat singular. All such 
cottons as calicoes and other prints, bleached, 
brown and blue domestics both plain and 
twilled, stripes, checks, etc., are rated at two or 
three reales * per vara, without the least refer- 
ence to quality or cost, and the ‘general as- 
sortment at 60 to 100 per cent. upon the bills 
of cost, according to the demand. The va- 
rage is usually estimated by adding eight per 
cent. to the yardage, but the vara being thir- 
ty-three inches (nearly), the actual difference 
is more than nine. In these sales, cloths— 
* The Mexican ee mol is as follows: 12 granos make 1 
real ; 8 reales, 1 peso, or dollar, These are the divisions used in 
om but instead at af granos, the copper coins of Chihuahua 
many other places, are the claco or yum t (4 real) and the cuar- 
tilla (4 real). The silver coins are the medio (6} cents), the real 
(12% cents), the peseta (2 reales), the tbat or half poste ae the 
or dollar. The gold coins are t ‘on or onza (doubloon), 
