Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/393

MEXICO. 353 conviction and improvement may be expected ; but time is necessary to bring them to maturity, and on this account I should regard it almost as a desirable event if the present Tariff were allowed to remain a little longer unchanged. The commercial interests of the country will be better understood in 1828 than they are in 1827 ; although, since 1821, great progress has, undoubtedly, been made : and as, when a re- form is effected, it is to be wished that it should be perma- nent, the more time that is allowed for reflecting upon it the better. The revenue of Mexico, however, (of which the Customs form so important a branch,) will never attain its full extent, until the system has received all the ameliorations of which it is susceptible. If changes are judiciously made, and the duties so reduced as to bring the imports more within the reach of the great body of consumers, (who are now either excluded from the market, or forced to purchase their supplies from the illicit trader,) I am inclined to believe that the whole expenses of the Republic may be provided for by the produce of the Customs alone. Under all the disadvantages of the present system, they have yielded, in ten months, 75^43,238 dollars, and I have estimated their produce for the ensuing year at eight millions. Without pretending to fix the ratio of increase afterwards, or to determine the period within which it may be expected to take place, (for both of these depend upon the proceedings of the legislature,) the facts contained in the preceding pages will, I think, demonstrate its possibility. The rest, time, and the gradual influence of experience upon the Mexi- cans themselves, must determine. I must repeat, however, that during the last three years the way has been prepared for the introduction of a better order of things. Communi- cations have been opened between the most distant points ; the post-oflice has been re-organized, (although much room VOL. I. 2 A