The fishing vessels ought to be fitted out in America itself, at Guayaquil, Panama, or San Blas. There is constantly on that coast a certain number of English sailors, who have abandoned the fishing vessels, either through discontent or for the purpose of pushing their fortunes in the Spanish colonies. The first expedition might be made by mixing those sailors, who have had long experience in the cachalot fishery, with the zambos of America, who are not afraid of singly attacking a crocodile.

We have thus examined in this chapter the true national wealth of Mexico; for the produce of the earth is in fact the sole basis of permanent opulence. It is consolatory to see that the labour of man for half a century, has been more directed towards this fertile and inexhaustible source, than towards the working of mines, of which the wealth has not so direct an influence on the public prosperity, and merely changes the nominal value of the annual produce of the earth. The territorial impost levied by the clergy, under the name of tenth, or tithe, measures the quantity of that produce, and indicates with precision, the progress of agricultural industry, if we compare the periods, in the intervals of

which the price of commodities has undergone no sensible variation. The following

is a view of the value of these tithes*. Taking for example two series of years, from 1771 to 1780 and from 1780 to 1789.

1771-17804,132,630 | 1781-1790 | 7,082,879

1770-1779 | 2,965,601 | 1780-1789

3,508,884

1770-17792,710,200 | 1780-1789 3,239,400 1771-1780 715,974 1781-1790 863,237 1771-1780 1,889,724 1781-1790 | 2,579,108 1770-1779 913,028 1780-1789 1,080,313

The result of this view is, that the tithes of New Spain, have amounted in these six dioceses,

From 1771 to 1779-to 13,357,157+ Double Piastres 1779 — 1789—18,353,821‡ (or pezzos fuertes.

up

I have extracted this view from a manuscript memoir of M. Maniao, drawn from official papers, and bearing the title of Estado de la Renta de Real Hacienda de Nueva España, en un año commun del quinquenio de 1784 hasta 1789. The numbers in this view differ a little from those published by M. Pinkerton (vol. iii. p. 234) from the work of Estalla, which I have never yet been able to procure.

+ €2,880,441 sterling. Trans.

€4,015,219 sterling. Trans.

Consequently the total augmentation has been, in the last ten years, five millions of piastres, or two fifths of the total produce. The same data also indicate the rapidity of the progress of agriculture, in the intendancies of Mexico, Guadalaxara, Puebla, and Valladolid, compared with the provinces of Oaxaca and New Biscay. The tithes have been nearly doubled in the archbishoprick of Mexico; for those which were levied during the ten years anterior to 1780, were to those levied ten years afterwards, in the proportion of 10 to 17. In the intendancy of Durango or New Biscay, this augmentation has been only in the proportion of 10 to 11.

The celebrated author of the Wealth of Nations*, estimates the territorial produce of Great Britain, from the produce of the land tax. In the political view of New Spain, which I presented to the court of Madrid in 1803, I had hazarded a similar valuation, from the value of the tithes payable to the clergy. The result of this operation was, that the annual produce of the land amounted at least, to 24 millions of piastres. The results, which I came to in drawing up my first view, have been discussed with much sagacity,

Adam Smith, Traduction de M. Garnier, t. iv. Original vol. iiij. p. 250.

p. 264.

in a memoir presented by the municipal body of the town of Valladolid de Mechoacan, to the king, in the month of October 1805, on the occasion of passing an edict, relative to the property of the clergy. According to this memoir, a copy of which I have before me, we must add to these, 24 millions of piastres, three millions for the produce of cochineal, vanilla, jalap, pimento of Tabasco, sarsaparilla, which pay no tithes; and 2 millions for sugar and indigo, which yield only to the clergy a duty of 4 per cent. If we adopt these data, we shall find that the total agricultural produce, amounts annually to 29 millions of piastres, or to more than 145 millions of francs*, which, reducing them to a natural measure, and taking for basis the actual price of wheat in Mexico, 15 francs for 10 myriagrammes of wheatt, are equal to 96 millions of myriagrammes of wheat. The mass of precious metals annually extracted from the mines of the kingdom of New Spain, scarcely represent 74 millions of myriagrammes of wheat, which proves the interesting fact, that the value of the gold and silver of the Mexican mines, is less by almost a fourth, than the value of the territorial produce.

The cultivation of the soil, notwithstanding the fetters with which it is every where shackled, has lately made a more considerable progress, on account of the immense capitals laid out in land, by families enriched either by the commerce of Vera Cruz and Acapulco, or by the working of the mines.. The Mexican clergy, scarcely possess land (bienes raices) to the value of two or three millions of piastres; but the capitals which convents, chapters, religious societies and hospitals have laid out in lands, amount to the sum of 44 millions of piastres, or more than 222 millions of livres tournois. The following is a view of these capitals, called capitales de capellanias y obras de la jurisdiccion ordinaria, extracted from an official paper*:

* Representacion de los vecinos de Valladolid al Excellen- . tissimo Señor Virrey en fecha del 24 Octubre del año 1805. (M.S.)