Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/359

MEXICO. 319 That the value of the home manufactures of wool and cotton alone, (without including those of leather, hats, sad- dlery, earthenware, &c. Sec, the consumption of which was very great,) nearly equalled the value of all the imports from any other part of the world. The above is a rough sketch of the state of the trade of Mexico up to 1810. The first material change that occurred was occasioned by the civil war, which broke out in that year, and by which the Government was compelled, as early as 1812, to open the ports of TampTco and Tuspan to the East, and that of San Bias to the West, from the impossibi- lity of introducing an adequate supply of European manufac- tures through Veracruz alone, the communication with that place being sometimes interrupted for months together by the Insurgents. Foreign vessels, however, were still excluded from these ports, the total amount of the direct intercourse with Foreign countries, (as already stated,) not having exceeded four mil- lions and a half of dollars, in the years 1817, 1818, and 1820, on the Eastern side. With regard to the Western coast, nothing certain is known; but, as far as the imperfect returns, which I have been able to obtain, go, it appears that, although the trade of San Bias acquired, at a very early period, considerable impor- tance, from the large remittances of European goods sent there, by Spanish merchants, from our West India Islands, across the Isthmus of Panama, and introduced through Guadalajara, on to the Table-land, means were found to confine this trade, almost entirely, to Spanish vessels ; nor was it until 1821 that a great and decisive change in this respect took place. In the course of that year, the declaration of the Army in favour of Independence occurred, and one of the first effects of political emancipation was, to free the country from that