PART lY. 



COMMERCE. 



HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL DISSERTATION ON THE COMMERCE OF 



PERU. 



TO have a just idea of a country, it is necessary to know, 

 analytically, what are the resources which may constitute 

 its felicity. The intelle6lual faculties, the police, the fashions, 

 the warlike energies even, and the mode of thinking, are ele- 

 vated or depressed in proportion to the degrees of the industry 

 and opulence of nations. According to the universal system 

 of social and political relations, modern nations cannot flourish 

 without a well-regulated system of commerce. To the per- 

 fect comprehension of this branch of knowledge, and to its 

 skilful combination, Holland has been indebted for her riches 

 and support, if we may judge from the disadvantageous site 

 of her steril, and, in a manner, submerged territory. By 

 the same principle she was, in former times, crowned with 

 martial laurels, and enabled, whether in peace or in war, to 

 didlate laws to Europe. Unless for that commerce which is 

 studiously cultivated by all the ranks of her inhabitants. Great 

 Britain would be the slave of the ocean, the empire of which 

 she so proudly maintains. Peru having given a decided, and, 

 indeed, almost exclusive preference to the working of her mines, 

 has not deemed the hmits of the commerce in which she is en- 

 gaged, to be worthy of her profound meditations. Custom, 



imitation, 



