Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/366

m MEXICO. fell to about one-fourth of their amount during the preceding year, being only 480,007 dollars ; while the direct Imports from foreign ports rose to 2,090,732; without making any allovaiide for the twenty-three vessels from the United States which discharged at Tampico. In 1824, the Imports from Europe direct at Alvarado and Veracruz, were ^,4<3^,S']5 dollars, and those of European productions from Cuba, 3,481,831 dollars; (these last be- longing strictly to the Imports from foreign ports, passing merely through the Havanna from its being a free port,) while no direct importation whatever from Spain took place. At Tampico, the trade was entirely in the hands of the United States ; while at Alvarado, out of 18,730 tons of shipping registered in the year;, 8,320 tons were from Europe direct. These facts sufficiently show how entirely the channels of communication varied between 1821 and 1824. In the first of these years, not one foreign, in the last, not one Spanish vessel cleared at a Mexican port. A change something similar occurred in the na,ture of the importations themselves. Spanish silks, which, in 1821, were imported to the amount of 1,205,219 dollars, fell, in 1822, to 224,288 dollars. In 1823, they only reached 212,778 dollars, and in 1824, not a trace of them is to be found in the importation lists of Alva- rado and A^eracruz. Cottons rose in amount, as the silk importations decreased. In 1821, they only amounted to 888,726 dollars. In 1823, they rose to 1,156,787 dollars, and, although the amount of the importations in 1824 has not been ascertained in any authentic shape, I should conceive, from the tonnage employed in the European trade, (of which cottons formed a most essential part,) that their value must have been, at least, two millions and a half of dollars. Spanish wines and brandies, which, in 1821, were alone