Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/321

MEXICO. 281 this opinion. Mexican tobacco, as an article of exportation, would have to contend, in the European market, with that of the Island of Cuba, to which it is undoubtedly inferior, and with that of the United States, with which it may be sup- posed to be much upon a par : it would likewise have to stand a competition with the tobacco of the whole coast of Columbia and Brazil, both of which countries are as well qualified by nature for its production as Mexico ; and as the demand in Europe has never been very great, it is probable, that, by throwing in so large a supply at once, the price would be so much reduced as to leave but little profit to the original cultivator. Mellish states this to be already the case in the United States, since tobacco, which, in 1818, was worth something more than a hundred and seventeen dollars the hogshead, had fallen, in 1821, to eighty-four dollars and a-half. What then would be the effect of offering to the buyers such an enormous additional mass of produce as the New States might collectively yield, and would undoubtedly yield, were the cultivation of tobacco in all of them perfectly free from restraint ? I see no means by which each could derive from its exportations an equivalent to the advantages which Mexico already derives from the monopoly as at pre- sent established ; nor do I know any other branch of national industry, upon which taxation, to an equal amount, could be made to bear with fewer bad effects. The produce of the Tobacco Monopoly will never equal the account of the yearly receipts of the Republic, the amount given by the estimates of the Vice-regal Govern- ment ; because the profits are now divided amongst nineteen States, instead of being concentrated, as before, in one focus : but the effect upon the general interest of the country is the same, as these profits enable the States, in part, to cover their Contingent, and thus tend, though by a more circuitous route, to increase the Public Revenue. Some little time is required for the proper organization of