GENERAL IDEA OF PERU. 



5 



and commodities, he him^tf received the law from the mono- 

 polizing wholesale dealer. The negotiations of the capital 

 with the interior were then, in a great measure, dependent on 

 the intelligence and the decisions of the magistrates ; and the 

 commerce with Spain owed its best security to the circulation 

 of the silver entered in the bills of lading. Commerce, on the 

 other hand, being at this time subdivided into so many 

 smaller branches, maintains a greater number of merchants ; 

 at the same time that the fortunes which accrue from it 

 are not so numerous. It is necessary that a commercial 

 man should combine his plans skilfully, and extend his 

 speculations, to be enabled to acquire a handsome pro- 

 perty. 



The manufa6tures of this country consist almost entirely of a 

 few friezes, the use of which is in a manner confined to the In- 

 dians and negroes. There are besides an inconsiderable num- 

 ber of manufa6tures of hats, cotton cloths, drinking glasses, 

 &c. which do not, however, occupy much space in the scale 

 of the riches of Peru. Sugar, Vicuna wool, cotton, Peruvian 

 bark, copper, and cocoa (it is to be observed, however, that 

 the two latter articles, as well as a considerable part of the 

 Peruvian bark, are sent hither from Guayaquil, &c.), are the 

 only commodities, the produce of our mines excepted, which 

 we export. 



The mines are the principal, it may indeed be said, the only 

 source of the riches of Peru. Notwithstanding the little in- 

 dustry which is employed in working them, and the small 

 help which commerce affords to the miners, 534,000 marks of 

 silver, and 6,380 of gold, were smelted and refined last year 



(1790) 



