Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/331

MEXICO. 291 Porter, and the reinforcements sent to Texas, can have left but little room in the present year. It is, therefore, strongly to be presumed, that if the Re- ceipts have been /ess, the Expenses of the present twelve- month have been considerably more, than was foreseen at its commencement ; and if to this circumstance we add the amount of bills drawn upon the loan account, and protested here, which it was necessary to provide for in Mexico, although they were not included in the Estimates of either 1826 or 1827, and the total loss of 1,458,496 dollars, which still re- main of the second loan, but of which the late embarrass- ments of the house of Barclay, have deprived the Mexican Government, — it will become evident, that a temporary em- barrassment may have occurred, without there being any reason to consider it as likely, seriously, to affect the credit, or resources of the country. As the amount of the assistance which Mexico has received from foreign capitalists, is of some importance in considering the capability of the country to cover its own expenses, I shall conclude this Section with a short account of the Loans contracted in England, with the houses of Goldschmidt and Barclay, and a statement of their nominal value, and real produce. The first Loan concluded with the house of Goldschmidt in 1823, for the sum of 3,200,000/. sterling, produced at 50, (at which price it was disposed of, though brought out at 58,) i?l, 600,000 or Eight millions of dollars, of which the Firm reserved for commission, payment of interest, &c. &c. 419,936/., thus recducing the net produce of the loan to 1,180,064/. or 5,900,323 dollars ; this being the whole amount received by Mexico^, in return for having pledged her credit for Sixteen millions of dollars, bearing interest at five per cent. The terms, it must be admitted, are usurious enough. The second loan taken by the house of Barclay, Herring, u 2