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At the period of the great catastrophe, by which England lost nearly the whole of her continental possessions in America, several political writers examined the influence which the separation of the Spanish colonies would directly have on the finances of the court of Madrid. The statements which we have given respecting the general situation of the finances of Spain, in 1804, enable us to furnish some data for the solution of this important problem. If the whole of Spanish America had declared itself independent, at the period of the revolt of the Inca Tupac-Amaru"; this event alone would have produced several ef. fects: 1st, It would have deprived the royal treasury of Madrid of an annual receipt of from eight to nine millions of piastres, of net revenue (liquido remisible) of the colonies; 2dly, It would have produced a considerable diminution of the commerce of the Peninsula, because the Spanish American, freed from the monopoly which the Mother Country has exercised for three hundred years, would have drawn directly the foreign goods which he wanted, from countries not subject to Spain; 3dly, This change of the direction of the commerce of the colonies, would have occasioned | a diminution of the duties levied in the

* See vol. i. p. 200.

, custom-houses of the Peninsula, estimated at

five millions of piastres; 4thly, The separation of the colonies, would have ruined several

Spanish manufactures, which are mostly supported by the forced sale which they find in America, being unable, in their present state, to stand in competition with the goods of India, France, or England. These effects, which would have been very sensibly felt at first, would have been gradually compensated by the advantages arising from the concentration of moral and physical force, from the necessity of a better system of agriculture, and from the natural equilibrium between nations united by the ties of blood, and the exchange of productions, which the habit of several centuries has rendered necessary. But it would be wandering from our principal subject, to enter upon a discussion, which, at the period of the peace of Versailles, was thoroughly examined in several works of political economy. When we compare the extent, population, and revenue of Spanish America, with the extent, population, and revenue of the English possessions in India, we find the following results:—

246 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [Book vi.

From this table it appears, that New Spain, the population of which does not amount to six millions, contributes, to the treasury of the king of Spain, twice as much net revenue as Great Britain draws from her fine possessions in India, which contain five times the number of inhabitants of the former. It would be unfair, however, when we compare

* Territory of which the English company has acquired the sovereignty, not including the allies and tributaries, such as the Nizam, and the princes of Oude, the Carnatic, Mysore, Cochin, and Travancore. According to M. Playfair, whom I followed in the table published in vol. i. chap. viii, the population only amounts to twenty-three millions and half. The motives which have induced me to follow other data at present, are explained in note I. at the end of the work.

Spanish Ame- English possesrica. sions in Asia.” | Extent in square leagues of 25 to the equatorial degree 460,000 48,300 Population - - 15,000,000|32,000,000 Gross revenue in piastres - - - - || 38,000,000 |43,000,000 Net revenue in piastres - - - - 8,000,000 || 3,400,000

V

the gross revenue" with the number of inhabitants, to conclude, from this comparison, that the Hindoos support smaller burdens than the Americans. We must not forget that the price of labour in Mexico is five times greater than in Bengal, or, to use a word consecrated by a celebrated mant, in Hindostan, the same quantity of money commands five times more labour than in America. - - , When we turn to the budget of expences of state, we find with surprise, that in New | Spain, which has hardly any other neighbours to fear but a few warlike tribes of Indians, the military defence of the country consumes | nearly a fourth part of the whole revenue. It is true, the number of troops of the line only amounts to nine or ten thousand; but when we add the militias called provinciales land urbanas, we find an army of 32,000 men distributed over an extent of country, of six hundred leagues in length. We shall here examine a few of those states annually presented to the court of Madrid, since the Counts de Galvez and Revillagigedo, and the Marquis de Branciforte, thought proper to increase the militia corps. The following table

* Revenue of British India (in the year 1801) 9,742,937l. sterling; charges, 8,961,180l.; net revenue, 781,7571.

Plaufair Stat. Breviary, p. 59. t Adam Smith." -

explains, in the greatest detail, the heteroge

neous elements of which the military of Mexico and the provincias internas is composed.

^ I. General Table of the army in 1804.

o Denomination of Corps. - Men. o I. Regular Troops (Tropas veteranas) 9,919 Men. 1. In Mexico proper - - 6,225

2. In the provincias internas administered by the Viceroy of Mexico - - - - 595 .

8. In the provincias internas administered by commandant generals - - - 3,099

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oil. Militia (cuerpos de milicias) 22,277 -- Men. 1. Provincial militia (provinciales)21,218 Viz. In the Viceroyalty, 18,681 In the provincias *; 2,587

termaS - 2. Militia of towns (urbanas) 1,059 22,277 Total in a time of peace, not includ- ing the peninsula of Yucatan and 32,196 Guatimala - - - - *

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