22 



THE NEW-BORN FREEDOM OF COMMERCE. 



whom she gave a kind welcome, and hoped their 

 stay would be long and agreeable. She then re- 

 tired amidst the plaudits of the company, who were 

 delighted with the manner in which she had done 

 the honours of the house ; but she returned im- 

 mediately, bringing with her a guitar, which she 

 placed in the hands of a young lady, her friend, 

 who had just come in, and then dropped off 

 modestly and quietly to the furthest end of the 

 great sofa. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



Discussions on the Freedom of Commerce. — Letter on the 

 Subject of Unrestricted Commerce.— Gradual Introduc- 

 tion of Wiser Notions on this Subject. 



Meanwhile the master of the house sat apart 

 in deep conversation with a gentleman recently 

 arrived from Lima, who was recounting to his 

 friend the amount of various duties levied at that 

 place by San Martin's government. He listened 

 very composedly till the narrator mentioned the 

 duty on cocoa. The effect was instantaneous ; he 

 rose half off his seat, and with a look of anger and 

 disappointment was preparing to utter a furious 

 philippic against San Martin. The other, ob- 

 serving the expression of his friend's countenance, 

 which was wrinkled up like that of a game-cock 

 in wrath, and dreading an explosion, took upon 

 himself to put his friend's looks into language, and 

 then to answer them himself ; and all with such 

 volubility, that the unhappy master of the house, 

 though bursting with impatience to speak, never 

 got an opportunity of saying a single word. The 

 scene itself was in the highest degree comic ; but 

 the inference to be drawn from it is also worth 

 attending to. In former times, when monopoly 

 and restrictions blighted every commercial and 

 agricultural speculation ; and when the wishes of 

 individuals were never taken into account ; and 

 all exertion, or attempt at interference with the 

 establishment of duties, was utterly hopeless ; this 

 man, now so animated, had been given up to indo- 

 lence, and nothing connected with the custom-house 

 had ever been known to rouse him to the slightest 

 degree of action. Ever since the opening of the 

 trade, however, he had taken the liveliest interest 

 in all that related to import duties at Lima, espe- 

 cially on the subject of cocoa, of which he was an 

 extensive planter. 



In former times all such things, being irrevo- 

 cably fixed, no exertions of any individual could 

 remedy the evils which, by rendering every effort 

 the inhabitants could make useless and hopeless, 

 repressed all the energies of the country. And 

 the charge, so often laid against the natives by the 

 Spaniards, that they were stupid and incapable of 

 understanding such subjects, was a cruel mockery 

 upon men who had been from all time denied the 

 smallest opportunity of making any useful exertion. 

 Now, fortunately, it is far otherwise : the people 

 have acquired a knowledge of their own conse- 

 quence and power ; and, instead of submitting 

 quietly, as heretofore, to be cheated at every turn, 

 and letting all things pass unregarded, from utter 

 hopelessness of amelioration ; they take a deep 

 and active interest in whatever affects their for- 

 tune! in the slightest degree. This spirit, which, 



in the hands of persons but partially acquainted 

 with the subject, at first leads to many errors in 

 practice, will, ere long, undoubtedly produce the 

 best effects, by enriching that great field of com- 

 merce, which wants nothing but the fertilising 

 influence of freedom to render it in the highest 

 degree productive. 



The most glaring practical error which the 

 Guayaquilenians have committed, and under which 

 they were suffering at the time of our visit, was 

 the exclusion of foreigners from their commercial 

 establishments ; none except a native being per- 

 mitted to be at the head of a mercantile house ; 

 while the duties paid by foreign goods were so 

 great as to amount nearly to a prohibition. They 

 had thus voluntarily reduced themselves in a great 

 degree to the state in which they were placed 

 before the revolution. This arose from ignorance 

 it is true ; but ignorance is sufficiently excusable 

 in people heretofore purposely misdirected in their 

 education. It was pleasing, however, to observe 

 more correct views gradually springing up, and in 

 the quarter where they were least likely to appear 

 — amongst those very merchants themselves for 

 whose benefit these absurd restrictions had been 

 imposed. The following translation of a letter 

 published in the Guayaquil newspapers, will show 

 the progress already made in the right path. If 

 is written by a man who probably derived more 

 benefit than any other from the restrictions he 

 condemns ; but his good sense and liberal views 

 showed him that if they were removed, his gains 

 would become still greater. 



To those who recollect the state of the press, 

 and of everything else in former times, such a 

 letter in a Spanish colonial paper will appear a 

 wonderful phenomenon; and though containing 

 nothing but common-places, brings with it a long 

 train of interesting and useful reflections. 



" Mb. Editor, 



" Nothing could distress me more than to hear 

 that my former observations had offended any in- 

 dividual ; and I declare that my sole object has 

 been to explain my opinion on a subject, upon 

 which, according to my view of it, much of the 

 prosperity of this province depends. I allude to 

 the commercial regulations ; and all the world 

 knows that those existing before our political trans- 

 formation subjected the whole province to the 

 most insulting monopoly ; the right of supplying 

 it with goods, and of exporting its productions, 

 being reserved exclusively for the merchants of 

 Cadiz, so that the province could not possibly 

 prosper. After our conversion into a free state, 

 the public had a right to hope that the disease 

 being discovered, the remedy would have been 

 instantly applied ; and I for one confess that I 

 really did hope it would be so. I believed that 

 we should immediately see liberal institutions 

 tending directly to the benefit of the province ; 

 but, lamentable to say, the same monopoly still 

 continued in a very great degree. I see that its 

 effects are the same, and that the population in 

 general have received no relief from the establish- 

 ment of the new institutions. 



" The commercial regulations, recently pub- 

 lished, bear me out in what I have said. I respect, 

 in the highest degree, the authority which enforces 

 those laws ; but I must be allowed to observe, 



