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Chaymas, 7 piastres. According to these state- 

 ments, and supposing that in the two provinces 

 of Cumana and Barcelona, there are only 

 86,000 inhabitants, of whom 42,000 are Indians ; 

 and adding the necessary annual expences for 

 the embellishment and service of the churches, 

 for the support of the religious communities, 

 and the equipment of vessels, M. Navarete esti- 

 mates the value of goods drawn from foreign 

 parts at 853,000 piastres, which makes nearly 

 10 piastres for each individual, of every age and 

 caste. It cannot be doubted that during the 

 period of civil troubles, and by a more frequent 

 contact with the nations of Europe, luxury 

 has been prodigiously augmented in the popu^ 

 lous towns of Venezuela ; but the population 

 of towns is in Spanish America but an incon- 

 siderable fraction of the general population; and 

 with the habits of sobriety maintained by the 

 great mass who inhabit the country distant 

 from the coast, 1 conceive that the 785,000 in- 

 habitants, which we now attribute to Venezuela, 

 will require, when the country shall enjoy per- 

 fect tranquillity, foreign productions to the 

 value of more than seven millions of piastres. 



I entreat such of my readers as love to em- 

 ploy themselves on financial considerations, to 

 attend for a moment to these numerical results. 

 Europe, overloaded with manufactures, seeks 

 channels for the dispersion of the production of 



Q2 



