230 



port of Vera-Cruz, according to the registers of 

 the custom-house, amounted to 259,105,940 

 piastres, of which 186,125,113 piastres were 

 from the mother country. The consumption of 

 New Spain in European articles, during the 

 same period, was 224,447,132 piastres, or 

 8,977,885 piastres annually. We are struck 

 with the smallness of this sum, compared with 

 the wants of a population of 6 millions of souls ; 

 and therefore the secretary of the Consulado de 

 la Vera Cruz, M. Quiros, concludes that the 

 contraband exportation rose, taking one year 

 with another, to more than 12 or 15 millions of 

 piastres. According to these calculations, made 

 by persons who have a perfect knowledge of 

 the localities, Mexico must consume at the ut- 

 most, in its present state, foreign articles of the 

 value of 21 to 24 millions of piastres, that is, 

 with a population eight times greater, not four 

 times as much as the ancient Capitania-general 

 of Caraceas. So great a difference between 

 two markets open to the trade of Europe, on the 

 coasts of Mexico and Venezuela, will, I believe, 

 appear less extraordinary, if we recollect that 

 among the 6,800,000 inhabitants of New Spain, 

 there are more than 3,700,000 indians of an un- 



and the value of mercury and paper for cigares, received on 

 account of the Real Hacienda, the extent of trade, in 1802, 

 would have been 82,077,000 piastres - 3 and in 1803, it would 

 have been 43,897.000 piastres instead of 37,379,637. 



