225 



the year ; during that period the imports from Spain were 

 274,205 piastres ; from foreign parts, 768,705 piastres $ 

 total value of the imports, 1,042,910 piastres. The exports 

 for Spain were 778,802 piastres j for foreign parts, 623,805 ; 

 total value of the exports, 1,402,607 piastres. We may con- 

 sequently regard 2,700,000 piastres as the mean term of the 

 exports of the port of LaGuayra at the beginning of the 19th 

 century, in a year when the country enjoyed internal and ex- 

 ternal tranquillity*. 



The ports of Cumana and Nueva Barcelona, 

 at the period of the revolution, exported annu- 

 ally, (comprehending the produce of the illicit 

 trade,) to the value of 1,200,000 piastres ; in 

 which were comprised 22,000 quintals of cacao, 

 a million of pounds of cotton, and 24,000 quin- 

 tals of salt meat. If we add tothe exports of 

 La Guayra, Cumana, and Nueva Barcelona, a 

 million of piastres, as the produce of the trade 

 of Angostura and Maracaybo, and 800,000 

 piastres as the value of the mules and oxen em- 

 barked at Portocabello, Carupano, and other 

 small ports of the Atlantic, we shall find the 

 total value of the produce exported in the an- 



* I communicated many details respecting the merchan- 

 dize registered in the custom houses of Spain, for the ports 

 of Terra Firma, in 1795, to M. Dauxion-Lavaysse, which he 

 inserted in his Voyage d la Trinity Tom. ii, p. 464. I drew 

 my information from a very instructive memoir of the Count 

 de Casa Valencia, on the means of vivifying the trade of Ca- 

 raccas. M. Urquinaona (Retac. docum., p. 13), estimates the 

 total of the exports of Venezuela, in 1809, at eight millions 

 of piastres. 



VOJL. VI. Q 



