foS A VOYAGE TO Book Vll. 



€r fend them to their fadlors in the inland provin- 

 ces, who remit the returns in money or bills of 

 exchange to their principals at Lima. Thefe con- 

 Cgnments are repeated till they have difpofed of 

 their whole flock. Thus the cargo of a flotilla laft? 

 a confiderable time, there being no immediate vent 

 for the whole. 



The produce of the fales in the inland parts of 

 the kingdom, is fent to Lima in bars of filver, and 

 Pignas fy and is coined at the mint in this city. 

 Thus the traders have not only a great profit in the 

 fale of their goods, but alfo in the returns of their 

 filver, which they take at a lower rate than is al- 

 lowed them for it. All thefe fales may therefore bp 

 confidered as an exchange of one commodity for 

 another •, for he who fells the goods agrees both 

 with regard to their price, and the rate in which he 

 is to take the filver bars, or pignas and thus two 

 fpecies of trade are tranfad\ed at the fame time, one 

 a faie of goods, and the other of filver. 



The remittances fent to Lima during the inter- 

 val between the Flotillas, are laid out in manufac^' 

 tares of the country, great quantities of which come 

 from the province of Quito ; and this trade is car- 

 ried on in all refpedts like the former for the con- 

 fumption of them being equal or rather larger j 

 they are not lefs necelTary here than in Europe, being 

 worn by all the lower clafs of people, who cannot 

 afford the price of European fluffs ; and the generality 

 of traders who come to Lima purchafe fluffs of 

 both kinds, that they may be provided with aflbrt-* 

 ments for cuflomers of all ranks. 



Besides this commerce, which is the moll con- 

 fiderable, and tranfa6led wholly by means of this 

 ^ity, Lima has alfo its particular trade with the king- 



I Pignas are porous and light mafles of filver, being an amal- 

 gama of mercury and duU taken out of the mines. 



dom^ 



