M EXICO. 315 Here, too, monopoly exercised its pernicious influence : as soon as the native manufactures became of importance, they fell into the hands of Spanish capitalists, who concentrat- ed them, as much as possible, in the immediate vicinity of the Capital, (at La Puebla and Queretaro,) from which . places the inhabitants of the Interior, (where all rival estar- blishments were discouraged,) were forced to draw their sup- plies of all the articles of ordinary consumption. The effects of this system upon both the foreign and do- mestic trade of the country, were developed, in 1811, by Mr, Ramos Arizpe, (then deputy to the Cortes for the State of Cohahuila,) in a report upon the Eastern Internal Provinces, to which I have already had occasion to allude. (Book I., Section IV.)* He there states, that the cotton and wool produced in these Provinces, were exported, and returned, at the end of the year, from Queretaro and San Luis, rudely made up, indeed, but charged with all the additional costs of double carriage, and of three or four Alcavalas, in proportion to the number of hands, through which they had passed. With regard to European goods, he demonstrates the dis- advantage to be still greater. They were bought in Cadiz of the second hand, (there being but few articles imported into Mexico of bona fide Spanish produce ;) in Veracruz, of the third; in Mexico, Queretaro, or Zacatecas,(the principal inland depots) of the fourth ; at the great fair of Saltillo, (where the retail dealers of the Eastern Provinces purchased their yearly provision,) of the fifth, and in each of these Provinces, of the sixth hand. coloured woollen wrapper, which, at Saltillo, or Queretaro, sells for eighteen, twenty, and even twenty-four doUars, might be made here, sent across the Atlantic, and sold on the Table-land, with freight, car- riage, and profit included, for eight, or, at most, ten dollars.
- The £astern Internal Provinces, under the old territorial division
of the country, comprehended Cohahuila and Texas, New Leon, New Santander„and Tamaulipas.
