change for goods received from thence, they would only take our indigo in return, this production being equivalent to all the goods we received. The harvest sometimes reached 1,200,000 pounds, but during the five years previous to the revolution it did not exceed 600,000 pounds, which at the low price of eight rials per pound, only amounted to 600,000 dollars, so that a million of dollars was the greatest sum our indigo ever produced in Cadiz. For this we received in return, goods to the same value, which was the utmost amount of business transacted in the kingdom of Guatimala; for although it be true, that we carried on some trade in the markets of Havanna and of Peru, yet these were in articles that cost little, and do not materially vary the general statement.
From the time that we pronounced ourselves independent, and the light of liberty shone upon our nation, as our ports were opened to all the world, our resources began to unfold themselves; agriculture received a new impulse, and commerce was greatly advanced. Since then the harvest of indigo, according to the calculation of intelligent merchants, has doubled, that of cochineal has improved in an equal degree, and the prices of each have risen in nearly the same proportion. An equal increase has taken place in the amount of goods introduced for internal consumption, so
28
