COMMERCE. 



105 



would approach as nearly as possible to the real entries, if the 

 different classes of the inhabitants of Peru did not observe a 

 total difference in the articles of their dress. That of the in- 

 dividuals destined to cultivate the plains, and to perform the 

 other useful labours in the different provinces, consists entirely 

 of the cloths and other manufa6lures of the country. 



The rule the best adapted to obtain these useful data, and 

 to preserve that nice balance which ought to be maintained 

 between the introduction and the expenditure, is to propor- 

 tion the imports to the effective value of the territorial pro- 

 dudlions. If the former be less than the country requires, its 

 inhabitants are compelled to suffer all the disastrous effe6ls of 

 a scarcity. If they exceed their consumption, the importers 

 are subje6ted to the losses inseparable from an overwhelming 

 abundance, which, by a natural principle, lowers the estima- 

 tion and price of every commercial effe6t. 



This constant axiom, which is alike supported by theory 

 and pra6lice, appears to be clearly demonstrated by the pre- 

 sent state of the commerce of the viceroy alty of Peru. Its an- 

 nual produce in gold, silver, and other effe6ls, as has been 

 already shewn, amounts to little more than five millions of 

 piastres. Now, in the course of a year, reckoning from the 

 month of September 1785, sixteen vessels anchored in the 

 port of Callao, with cargoes estimated at twenty -four 

 millions. 



This excessive importation, together with those of the sub- 

 sequent years, pretty nearly to the same amount, and the fa- 

 cility of supplying the provinces situated in the interior by the 

 river of La Plata, have occasioned a general clamour to be 

 raised on the subje6t of the decline of commerce, its embar- 



p rassraents, 



