INTRODUCTION. 101 
“‘ Observe the difference that a year of independence has produced 
in public opinion. In those whom you then looked upon as enemies 
you have discovered your truest friends ; and those that were esteem- 
ed friends have proved to be your enemies. Remember the ideas 
that were received a short time since, concerning commerce and 
manufactures ; and compare them with the just and liberal notions 
you now entertain on these matters. Did you not, accustomed to 
the blind habits of Spanish monopoly, believe, that it would be a 
robbery to Guayaquil if her commerce were not limited to her own 
merchants? Were not all strangers forbidden by restrictive laws 
from attending to their own business or interests, as if they had come 
only for your benefit ? and you kept officers, seamen, and ships, for 
your own commerce, without needing that of other nations. Now 
you perceive the truth ; and an enlightened government is ready not 
only to follow the public opinion in the promotion of your riches, 
happiness, and strength, but to assist it by the glorious privilege of 
disseminating, by means of the press, the just opinions of great and 
wise men on political matters, without fear of the Inquisition, the 
stake, or the faggot. 
“ It is very gratifying to me to observe the change that has taken 
place in your ideas concerning political ceconomy, and to see that 
you can appreciate and despise as it deserves the clamour of the 
few that still perhaps desire to interrupt the general prosperity, 
although I cannot believe that any inhabitant of Guayaquil can be 
capable of placing his private interest in competition with the public 
good. However, if such a one do exist, let us ask that monopolist, 
if his particular profit is superior to that of the community, and if 
commerce, agriculture, and manufactures are to be paralysed for him ? 
« Enlightened Guayaquilenos! cause your public press to declare 
the consequences of monopoly, and affix your names to the defence 
of your system: demonstrate that if the province of Guayaquil 
contains 80,000 inhabitants, and that eighty of those are privileged 
merchants, the effects of the monopoly bear upon 9999 persons 
out of 10,000, because the cottons, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, timber, 
