110 



COMMERCE. 



city, ought to be left to follow up his pursuits tranquilly and 

 without molestation. When, at the . commencement of the 

 eighteenth century, the impossibility to which Spain was re- 

 duced, of supplying her colonies, stimulated the merchants of 

 St. Maloes to establish a trade with South America by Cape 

 Horn, the universal emulation inspired by the prospe6l of 

 gain, gave rise to a competition which rendered the merchan- 

 dizes of little or no value. In some instances, indeed, where 

 a market could not be found for them at any price, the super^ 

 cargoes were obliged to commit them to the flames. By this 

 example, however, the commercial equilibrium was soon re- 

 established. 



If an exa6t comparison be made between the progress of 

 commerce in the times anterior to the permission, and its pre- 

 sent state and influence, it will be seen that Peru has con- 

 stantly tended to preserve the same ratio between her imports 

 and exports ; and that their augmentation, by the means of 

 the free trade, has distributed the advantages which were be- 

 fore confined to a few hands, among a greater number of in- 

 dividuals, to the sensible benefit, both of the nation at large, 

 and of the public treasury. 



It is unnecessary to compare the present system with the 

 epoch of the armadas^ or galleons, its advantages being too 

 clear and obvious to need the slightest elucidation. The abo- 

 lition of the latter must have been a constant source of anxiety 

 to foreign nations, thus deprived of the benefits of supplying 

 Peru, and of extra6ling, by a destru6live importation, the 

 greater part of her treasures. 



The burthen of the galleons, and of the ships by which 

 they were followed, was regulated, in the seventeenth century, 



at 



