xxix 



try. In treating on these different objects 

 of political economy, I have endeavoured 

 to consider them under a general point of 

 view: I have drawn the parallel of New 

 Spain, not only with the other Spanish co- 

 lonies, and the confederation of the United 

 States of North America, but also with 

 the possessions of the English in Asia ; I 

 have compared the agriculture of the 

 countries situate under the torrid zone, 

 with that of the temperate climates ; and 

 I have examined the quantity of colonial 

 produce necessary to Europe in the pre- 

 sent state of it's civilization. In tracing 

 the geognostic description of the districts 

 of the richest mines of Mexico, I have 

 given a statement of the mineral produce, 

 the population, the imports, and exports, 

 of the whole of Spanish America ; I have, 

 upon the whole, examined several ques- 

 tions, which, for want of precise data, had 

 never hitherto been treated with the import- 

 ance which they demand; such as those 

 on the influx and reflux of metals *, on their 



* The recent travels of Major Zebulon Montgo- 

 mery Pike, in the northern provinces of Mexico, 

 (Account of the Expedition to the sources of Ihe Mis 



