COMMERCE. Hg 



and assented to without investigation, must yield to a discus- 

 sion of the invincible obstacles which prevent an unwearied 

 application to agricultural pursuits. 



From the very nature of the soil, climate, and situation of 

 the greater part of the lands, they cannot be ploughed with 

 any prospe6l of advantage. Either they are immense parched 

 deserts, without any irrigation or refreshing moisture, if we 

 except the small portion of humidity they receive from heaven ; 

 or frozen mountains, which, being condemned to a perpetual 

 rigidity, are not susceptible of such a degree of culture as 

 would hold out the reasonable hope of a crop. 



There is no doubt but that the produce might be augmented 

 to a certain degree by the melioration of the lands, and the 

 constant ploughing of the extensive plains ; since there are 

 many of them to which the water colle6led by the rains might, 

 as well as the currents of the large rivers, bedire6l:ed, at the 

 same time that the vices inherent in the soil might be cor- 

 re(5led by artificial means. 



By such resources the Spanish provinces of Biscay and Gui- 

 puzcoa, naturally steril, have been rendered so fertile as to 

 yield, on the greater part of their grounds, two distin6t an- 

 nual crops. It is owing to the same cause that Catalonia, al- 

 though a mountainous territory, is represented as one of the 

 best cultivated provinces of Spain. It would not be expedient, 

 however, to undertake works of such an immense expence in 

 Peru, seeing that they would not repay the funds indispensable 

 to their execution, and would not elevate the viceroyalty to a 

 great pitch of prosperity. 



It consists in the augmented number of vassals, and not in 

 the excessive extent of territory. By men the lands are culti- 

 vated. 



