Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/323

MEXICO. 283 times, the mining States having acquired the right of esta- blishing Mints of their own, in which nine-tenths of the sil- ver, formerly transmitted to the Capital, will henceforward be coined. But there are several very important mining districts in a circle around the Capital, (Real del Monte, ChTco, Zi- mapan, Temascaltepec, Tasco, and Tlalpiijahua,) the pro- duce of which will be sent to the Mint of Mexico in prefe- rence to any other ; as will the silver from the mines of daxaca, where there is no Provincial Mint ; so that, as soon as these districts become again productive, the Mint of the Capital may be expected to average from four to five times its present produce. The duties on the exportation of silver (two per cent.) must likewise soon become of considerable importance, unless the most moderate computation of the amount of the pre- cious metals to be raised in, or before, the year 1830, prove entirely unfounded, which I see no reason at present to suppose. The importation duties on foreign goods, (Aduaiias mariti- mas,) large as the amount of their net produce has been, (in January, 1827, they had yielded in ten months 6,855,633, dollars,) may undoubtedly become infinitely more productive. Smuggling is now carried on to an immense extent on the Eastern, and Western coasts. There was hardly a custom.- house ofiicer, in 1826, to the North of TampTco on the one side, or of San Bias on the other ; and the consequence was, that the most valuable cargoes were sent to Refugio, (at the mouth of the Rio Bravo,) or to Mazatlan, and Guaymas, (on the Gulph of California.) Custom-houses are now established at all these places ; but the payment of duties is still easily evaded there, as there is no check upon the conduct of the officers employed. Indeed, the only radical cure appears to me to be the modification of the present Tariff, which alone can enable the established merchant to stand a competition with the illicit trader ; and which, at the same time, by re-