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316 MEXICO. Before they arrived there, they paid a duty on entering Cadiz, and another on leaving it made up for the American market ; a duty on entering Veracruz ; Alcavala, on the sale there ; Alcavala, on the second transfer at Mexico^ or Quere- taro, where the Saltillo trader made his purchases ; Alcavala, at Saltillo, and Alcavala again in each of the Provincial towns, where the goods were ultimately retailed. The ori- ginal manufacturer had his profit ; the Cadiz merchant his ; the merchants of Veracruz, and Mexico, or Queretaro, theirs ; the Saltillo trader his ; the retail dealers theirs again ; while the whole of these accumulated duties, and profits, to- gether with the charges of a land carriage from the coast, by the most circuitous route, fell upon the unfortunate inha- bitants of a portion of the country, which, under a more judi- cious system, might have seen its wants supplied through the ports of San Bernardo, (in Texas ;) Refugio, (at the mouth of the Rio Bravo ;) and Altamira, (all of which are within sixty leagues of some of the principal towns,) at a moderate price, and without there being a single natural difficulty to be overcome. But any change in this respect, required (as stated by the Regency, in 1810, on the repeal of the first concessions in favour of a free trade,) a previous revision of the code of prohibitive laws ; and this was a subject of too much delicacy for the monopolists of Cadiz, and Veracruz, to allow of any interference with it, which their money or influence could avert. As long as these lasted, the ports to the North of Veracruz remained closed, and the inhabitants of the Frontier pro- vinces of Mexico were compelled to lay in their whole stock of necessaries for the year, at the great fair of Saltillo. Even there, they laboured under peculiar disadvantages. So little of the money coined in the Capital found its way back to the North, that the farmers were often obliged to make their pay- ments in kind, and this was done at such a loss, that the pro-