MEXICO. 345 been retailed under five reals a yard, had the duty upon them been paid, were publicly sold in the Capital, (in 1825,) at three reals, and that in such quantities, that established houses were obliged to dispose of commission cargoes, at a loss of thirty and forty per cent., in order to realise something for their correspondents in England. This evil was corrected a little by the gradual organization of the Custom-house establishments upon the coast : these diminished, in some places, the facility, with which the smug- gling trade had previously been carried on ; but there is reason to believe, that at the present moment, nearly one- third* of the whole of the European manufactures consumed in Mexico, is introduced without the payment of any duty. In 1826, the Congress appeared to be sensible of the in- jury which the Revenue sustained from such a state of things, and seemed inclined to apply the only effectual re- medy, by reducing the duties. A committee of the Chamber of Deputies, after a long investigation of invoice prices, com- piled from them a scale of valuations, in which most of the errors of the old Tariff were corrected ; and proposed, (be- sides) an additional reduction of Fourteen per cent, in the duties payable upon these valuations, so that the total reduc- tion would have amounted to nearly fifty per cent. This project was adopted by the Lower House, but re- jected by the Senate, and the sessions of 1826 terminated without any understanding between the two Chambers having been effected. In the present Congress, nothing has yet been done, but as the Tariff appears to be one of the principal objects of the extraordinary sessions, (November, 1827,) there is reason to suppose, that, early in the ensuing year, some new arrange- ment will take place. In addition to the modification of the Duties, which, for
- It is diflScult to fix the exact proportion. One-third part seems a
great deal, and yet, in the Northern ports, it is thought to exceed this.
