Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/357

MEXICO. (luce of an estate was sometimes insufficient to enable the proprietor to furnish his family with the proper supphes. In this case, credit was given upon a mortgage of a part of the property ; and the debt was allowed to increase, from year to year, until the estate itself was swallowed up. It will hardly be believed that this iniquitous scheme formed not the least lucrative part of the speculations of the Mexican and Saltillo trader, and that no inconsiderable por- tion of the landed property in the North, was thrown by it, latterly, into their hands. The Western Internal Provinces, which abounded more in the precious metals, were enabled, by this means, to obtain a more regular supply of European goods ; and thousands of mides were employed, before the year 1810, in the trade be- tween Diirango and the Capital. They came, loaded with bars of silver, hides, tallow, corn, a little wine, chile, and sometimes, wheat ; and returned with mining stores, (quick- silver, steel, and iron,) brandy, and manufactures, both foreign and domestic. During this period, at Puebla alone, 20,000 Mantas, (pieces of cotton of thirty-two yards each,) were often made in the year ; and, at Queretaro, from sixty-three, to sixty-five thou- sand Arrobas of wool were worked up into Panos, Xerge- tillas, Bayetas, and Xergas, under which names the different woollen manufactures, in use amongst the common people, were designated ; the annual average value of which was sup- posed to amount to 600,000 dollars. Soap, leather, hats, and pottery, were likewise made in very large quantities : and, at one time, the earthenware of La Puebla and Guadalajara, formed a considerable article of exportation on the Western coast, where it was shipped at Acapiilco, for Guyaquil and Peru. But the trade on the Pacific side was never of any impor- tance in comparison with that of Veracruz. It consisted, almost exclusively, in Chinese and Indian silks and muslins.