Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/322

282 M EX ICO. SO extensive a department in all its branches ; but as the quantity of tobacco in the Government magazines has in- creased enormously during the last three years, and was valued, in January, 1827, at ten millions of dollars, regular remittances to the States may henceforward be made, and re- gular returns expected, until the consumption of the country equals that of 1808, when the net produce was 4,447,486 dollars. Of the revenue to be derived from Gunpowder, Salt, the Post-office, and the Lottery, it is unnecessary to say more, than that all these branches are susceptible of great improve- ment. The progress made by each since 1824, will be sub- sequently shown ; but in 1827, great reforms were still requi- site. For instance, the supply of gunpowder, to my certain knowledge, bore no sort of proportion to the demand, more than half the powder consumed in the Mining districts being contraband. There were only three powder-mills in the whole territory of the Republic ; two in the immediate vici- nity of the Capital, (at Chapoltepec and Santa Fe,) and one at Zacatecas ; which furnished together so precarious a sup- ply, that the registered consumption of Guanajuato, at the time of my visit, did not amount to one half of that of the mine of Valenciana alone, during its more flourishing period. Salt, likewise, produced but Httle, although the demand is universal, and the consumption great. The Post-office, under a different system, might be made to produce at least double what it now yields : as it is, there is so little security, the conveyance of letters is so slow, and the postage so high, that none have recourse to it who can forward their correspondence through any other channel, and yet the awakening activity of the country has given it im- portance. The produce of the Mint of Mexico, (of which alone the Supreme Government has the direction, as belonging to a Federal City,) will never be comparable to that of former