144 



POPULATION. 



With the free trade, this capital has gained much in the 

 resources which contribute to its maintenance, and to the 

 conveniences of hfe. Until the present time, coffee-houses, 

 and banking-houses, were unknown to the inhabitants of 

 Lima. The magazines of different descriptions were fewer by 

 at least a third. Notwithstanding this, many persons are to 

 be found, more especially among the abettors of the ancient 

 system, who delight in expatiating on the poverty of Lima, 

 and who regret the times and customs that are past. To form 

 a just estimate of this opinion, it is necessary to come to an 

 agreement as to the acceptation of what they name poverty. 

 If they make it refer to those overgrown capitals which were 

 to be found, at the commencement, and even in the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, in the hands of a few persons, 

 sometimes unjust, or, at the least, the sole masters of the 

 prices, and which capitals do not exist at the present time ; 

 if they mean to say, that the country is poor, because the 

 gains in each enterprize are small, in proportion as they are 

 divided among many ; in that very suspicious point of view 

 they are right. But if their proposition be considered as it re- 

 lates to the common felicity, then are they manifestly wrong. 

 To be satisfied of this truth, let the present free and ra- 

 pid circulation of specie be considered, and the greater 

 degree of prosperity which results from the mediocrity of con- 

 dition of the citizens, all of whom, from the merchant down 

 to the petty trader and the artisan, are easy in their circum- 

 stances. The dire6l navigation, the erection of a custom- 

 house, the enlargement of the public warehouses for to- 

 bacco, and the augmentation of the troops, have multi- 

 plied the sources of circulation. The game of chances 



alone, 



