On the Commerce of Mexico. 423 
arroba, to represent the sum of 312,000 dollars; not less 
than 20,000 mules and donkeys laden with the beverage 
entering the city every month by the gate leading to the 
maguey districts. To the quantity paying duty must also 
be added a considerable quantity which is smuggled in and 
including this, it may be calculated that about 50,000,000 
bottles are now annually introduced into the city of Mexico, 
De Humboldt having fixed the number at 44,000,000 ; and 
the amount of money annually expended in the drink at 
the average rate of about a quarter of a real per bottle to 
be about 1,600,000 dollars annually; the number of “ pul- 
querias” or pulque stores within the capital (which in the 
year 1771, when the increasing popularity of the beverage 
compelled the Spanish Viceroy, Revillagigedo, to issue 
special regulations respecting licences to sell it, &c., 
amounted to thirty-four, afterwards increasing to eighty), 
now amounts to 513. These stores are usually painted in 
gay colours outside; the wall behind the counter almost 
invariably exhibiting to view a rudely executed allegorical 
fresco setting forth the “ Power of Love” the stimulating 
effects of the maguey plant; Venus, Bacchus, and the 
nymphs occupying prominent positions in the back ground, 
whilst a little image of the Virgin with a lamp burning be- 
fore it sometimes occupies a retired corner of the establish- 
ment. 
The line of railway from the city of Mexico to Vera, will 
pass through the great maguey plantations of the “ Plains 
of Apam,” and by the conveyance of pulque from thence 
at moderate rates the company reckon upon an annual re- 
ceipt of about 250,000 dollars. 
The best quality of the beverage is known under the 
different denominations of “ pulque fino,” “pulque dulce,” 
or “pulque fuerte,” whilst the inferior sort, the produce of 
the maguey when planted in an unfavourable soil, and 
which is commonly only consumed by the poorer class of 
Indians, by whom it is often manufactured in earthenware 
pots, is called “ilachique ;” and there is another sort sold 
in the “pulquerias,’ composed of an admixture of this with 
some other sorts of a somewhat better description, deno- 
minated “ pulquecriollo,’ or “creole pulque.” On account 
of the manufacture of “ilachique” being erroneously sup- 
posed to be carried on by the poor Indian population 
alone, it is subject to the payment of a very slight duty, 
and little is known of the real amount of its consumption. 
From a chemical analysis of pulque it is found to con- 
