COMMERCE. 297 

 i 



in foreign marts much larger quantities of goods 

 than are needed for her own consumption, exchang- 

 ing her colonial products for the fabrics of Europe, 

 and selling them again at Vera Cruz, Truxillo, 

 Laguaira, and Carthagena. 



I have examined in another work, fifteen years 

 since, the basis upon which are founded the tables 

 published "under the fallacious title of Balanzas de 

 Comercio /" and I stated then how little confidence 

 can be reposed in these pretended accounts between 

 nations making mutual exchanges, the advantages of 

 which it is believed can only be appreciated, under 

 a false principle of political economy, by the amount 

 of balances paid in coin. The following statistics 

 will exhibit two years from the Balanzas and JSstar 

 dos de Comercio, arranged by order of the govern- 

 ment. I have altered none of the figures, 'for they 

 present (and this is a great advantage in treating of 

 quantities which are difficult to estimate) the mini- 

 mum amounts. 



The values stated in these tables, are neither the 

 actual values of the articles at the place of produc- 

 tion, nor those of the markets of sale; but they 

 are fictitious valuations, official values, as they are 

 termed in the custom-house system of Great Britain, 

 that is to say (and I shall never tire of repeating it), 

 one-third less than the current prices. In order to 



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