COMMERCE. 81 



imitation, and necessity, bestow a greater or less degree of 

 impulsion on every speculation. Several intelligent merchants 

 have, indeed, made this subjedl their profound study, and 

 have deduced many excellent results ; but the nation has hi- 

 therto been deprived of the fruits of their investigations. 



To avoid the obscurity and confusion which the multiplicity 

 of materials would otherwise occasion, they will be treated se- 

 parately in this dissertation, in the order and method fol- 

 lowing. 



I St, What are the produ6tions and commodities of the vice- 

 royalty of Peru, for its internal circulation, and commerce of 

 exportation. 



2dly, Its external commerce, or importation. 



3dly, The causes of its decline. And, 4thly, the remedies 

 which may be applied for its re-establishment. 



SECTION I. 



Peru, one of the principal parts of South America, compre- 

 hends the wide space which extends along the whole of the south- 

 ern coast, from the river of Guayaquil to the port of Atacama, 

 by a territory of from four to five hundred leagues in length, and 

 fifty in breadth. It has the sea in front, and, at the back, 

 the great Cordillera, and unexplored countries. Its commu- 

 nication is closed to the north, and at the confines of Guaya- 

 quil, by forests and inaccessible mountains, which extend to 

 the isthmus of Panama ; and, to the south, it is separated 

 from the kingdom of Chile by a desert of a hundred leagues in 

 extent. At the same extremity, it is disunited from the pro- 



M vinces 



