AGRICULTURE-MINES.

305

tivated under the torrid zone, wherever the surface rises from 3,900 to 4,300 feet of elevation, produce twenty-four for one. The maguey (agave) may be considered as the Indian vine. The cultivation of sugar-cane has lately made a rapid progress; and Vera Cruz annually exports Mexican sugar to the value of 282,000. The finest cotton is produced on the western coast. The cultivation of cocoa and indigo is equally neglected. The vanilla of the forests of Quilate produces annually 900 millares. Tobacco is carefully cultivated in the districts of Orizaba and Cordova; wax abounds in Yucatan; the cochineal harvest of Oaxaca amounts to 880,000 lbs. per annum. Horned cattle have greatly multiplied in the Provincias internas and on the eastern coast between Panuco and Huasacualco. The tithes of the clergy, the value of which points out the increase of territorial produce, have increased two-fifths within the last ten years.

Mines.-Annual produce in gold, 4,289lbs. troy; in silver, 1,439,832lbs. ; in all, to the value of 5,000,000l. sterling, or nearly the half of the precious metals annually extracted from the mines of North and South America. The mint of Mexico has furnished, from 1690 to 1803, more than 293,150,000.; and from the discovery of New

Spain to the commencement of the nineteenth century, probably 878,800,000l., or nearly two fifths of

the entire quantity of gold and silver, which in that interval of time has flowed from the New Continent into the Old. Three districts of mines, Guanaxuato, Zacatecas,and Catorce, which form a central group between the 21° and 24° of latitude, yield nearly the half of all the gold and silver extracted from the mines of New Spain. The vein of Guanaxuato alone, richer than the mineral depository of Potosi, furnishes at an average 286,000 lbs. troy of silver annually, or a sixth of all the silver which America annually throws into circulation. The single mine of Valenciana, in which the expense of working exceeds 180,000l. per annum, has for the last forty years never ceased to yield annually to the proprietors a net profit of more than 120,000l.: this profit has sometimes amounted to 240,0007.; and it amounted to 800,000/. in the space of a few months for the family of Fagoaga at Sombrerete. The produce of the mines of Mexico has tripled in fifty-two years, and sextupled in a hundred years; and it will admit of greater increase as the country shall become more populous and industry and information be more diffused. The working of the mines, far from being hostile to agriculture, has favoured cultivation in the most uninhabited regions. The wealth of the Mexican mines consists more in the abundance than in the intrinsic riches of the silver minerals, which amount at an average only to 0002 (or from 60 to 80 ounces per ton). The quantity of minerals extracted

MANUFACTURES-COMMERCE-REVENUE. 307

by means of mercury is to that produced by smelting in the proportion of 3 to 1. The process of amalgamation used is long, and occasions a great waste of mercury the consumption for all New Spain amounts to 1,540,000 lbs. per annum. It is to be presumed that the Mexican Cordilleras will one day supply the mercury, iron, copper, and lead, necessary for internal consumption.

Manufactures.-Value of the annual produce of manufacturing industry from 1,500,000., to 1,700,000. The manufacture of hides, cloth, and calicoes, has been on the increase since the conclusion of the last century.

Commerce.-Importation of foreign produce and goods, 4,400,000/; exportation in agricultural produce and manufactures of New Spain, 1,300,0007. The mines produce in gold and silver 5,000,000., of which about 1,750,000l. are exported on account of the king consequently if we deduct from the remaining 3,250,000., 3,034,000l. to pay the excess of imports over the exports, we find the specie of Mexico hardly increases 216,0007.

Revenue. The gross amount of the revenue is 4,400,000%. ; whereof 1,192,000l. from the produce of the gold and silver mines, 816,000l. from the tobacco farm, 650,000l. from the alcavalas,

282,0007. from the Indian capitation tax, and 173,0007. from the duty on pulque or fermented juice of the agave.

Military defence.-It consumes the fourth of the total revenue. The Mexican army is 30,000 strong, whereof scarcely a third are regular troops, and more than two thirds militia. The petty warfare continually carried on with the wandering Indians in the provincias internas, and the maintenance of the presidios or military posts, require a very considerable expense. The state of the eastern coast and the configuration of the surface of the country facilitate its defence against any invasion attempted by a maritime power.

ADDENDA.

Since my return to Europe I have received the following particulars, which carry on our in

formation on the subjects in question to the year 1806.

The road from Vera Cruz to Xalapa, and from thence to Perote, begun in the month of February 1803, has been continued with great activity. It was executed in 1806, between las Vigas and la Rinconada, for a length of 79,228 varas, or 198,601 feet. As the work was executed by a great number of condemned criminals, an hospita! was established at la Rinconada, capable of receiving 1700 patients. The arches of the bridge of the Rio de la Antigua, begun near the Ventilla, were destroyed by the extraordinrry swell which took place in 1806. The Consulado of Vera Cruz immediately constructed new pillars, more solid than the former and closer to each other. The beautiful giratory light-house (fanal de la Vera Cruz), of which I have spoken, was completed in the month of May 1804. It will require nearly 6507. annually keep it up.

Notwithstanding the rise in the price of iron, the working of the mines has been continued with the same activity as before the commencement of the