3il 



to more than 70 millions of piastres. The ex- 

 ports from Spanish America, the United States , 

 France, and Great Britain, are at present as the 

 numbers 1,14? anc * ^m*- Many years must 

 no doubt elapse before 17 millions of inhabit- 

 ants, spread over a surface a fifth greater than 

 the whole of Europe, will have found a stable 

 equilibrium in governing themselves. The most 

 critical moment is that when nations, after long 



* I have shewn in another work (Political Essay, vol. iv, 

 p. 129), that in 1805, making the most moderate calculations, 

 Spanish America already stood in need of an importation of 

 foreign merchandize to the amount of 59,000,000 piastres, a 

 value nearly three times greater than that required by the 

 United States, eight years after their independence had been 

 recognized by Great Britain. To give a view of comparative 

 numbers, 1 shall state the imports and exports of the two 

 most commercial nations of the world, the English of Eu- 

 rope, and of America. The annual value of the imports of 

 Great Britain, from 1821 to 1823, amounted to 30,203,000 

 pounds sterling ; the value of the exports to 50,630,800 

 pounds sterling. The exports of the United States, in 1820, 

 were 69,974,000 dollars ; the imports 62,586,000 dollars. 

 At an anterior period, from 1802 to 1804, the exports were, 

 mean year, 68,461,000 dollars, and the imports 75,306,000 

 dollars j whence it results that the imports of the United 

 States, and of Spanish America, immediately before the po- 

 litical agitations of the latter country, were alike consider- 

 able. It must not be forgotten, that what is imported to 

 Spanish America, is there used, and not re-exported. The 

 exports and imports of France in 1821, were respectively 

 404,764,000, and 394,442,000 franks. 



