COMMERCE. 



93 



through which not a shigle river directs its course." Thus 

 spoke, very much to the purpose, one of the early historians 

 of Peru. 



Time, the supreme arbiter of speculations and possibilities, 

 has established the solidity of this observation, Peru not having 

 been susceptible, in the lapse of nearly three centuries, of any 

 augmentation in the amount of her productions. They are, 

 however, proportioned to the number of her inhabitants, the 

 sole consumers, between whom a constant intercourse is main- 

 tained, the provinces supplying each other reciprocally with 

 the particular articles of consumption, which are superabun- 

 dant in some, and defe6live in others. This commerce, 

 which is carried on both by sea and land, left a balance, at 

 the close of the year 1789, in favour of the viceroyalty of 

 Lima, of seven hundred and twenty-five thousand one hun- 

 dred and ninety-two piastres : — an estimate which will serve, 

 with a trifling variation, for the other years. 



The profits which that viceroyalty derived, in the course of 

 the above year, from the introduction of its productions into 

 the provinces of Buenos- Ayres, exceeded a million of piastres. 

 It cannot be said to carry on any maritime trade with these 

 provinces, although the circumstances of the w^ar of 1779 oc- 

 casioned two or three vessels to be sent from Callao to Monte- 

 video, partly laden with cacao and cinchona, destined to be 

 shipped on board vessels bound to Cadiz ; and partly with • 

 sugar, honey, and cloths of the fabric of the country, for the 

 consumption of the interior. It is indeed true, that in the 

 bark which sails occasionally Irom the port of Montevideo to 

 that of Arica, to supply the mines situated in that government 

 with quicksilver, it has been customary to ship tallow, and the 



herb 



