Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/423

MEXICO. 383 allowing nearly thirty-six millions and a half for the Spanish capital withdrawn since the commencement of the Civil War. The extreme scarcity of money experienced in Mexico dur- ing the last two years, renders the result given by this calcu- lation by no means improbable. In 1810, with a currency of seventy-two millions, and a clear surplus produce of two mil- lions more, which appears to have been the case during the seven last years before the Revolution, nothing could equal the facility with which advances were obtained for every useful, or even useless, project. In 1826, with a currency reduced to thirty-three millions, and a produce of eight, (the whole of which is required to cover the im'ports alone,) three per cent, per month, has been paid in the capital for specie, and that, too, where security was given for the full amount of the ad- vances, by deposits of goods. As it is to the Mines that we must look for the source of every future improvement in Mexico, I shall endeavour, in the subsequent parts of this book, to point out the manner in which their progress is likely to be affected by the present scarcity, which, operating, as it were, in a vicious circle, checks the produce of that, by which alone it can be itself relieved. Here it will be sufficient to state the conclusions which may be drawn from the facts detailed in the preceding pages, with regard to the point more immediately vmder con- sideration, viz. : the comparative produce and exports of the precious metals in Mexico : — they appear to be, 1st. That the annual average produce of the Mines of Mexico, before the Revolution, amounted to twenty-four mil- lions of dollars, and the average exports to twenty-two millions ; and, 2ndly. That, since the Revolution, the produce has been reduced to eleven millions of dollars, while the exports in specie have averaged 13,587,052 dollars in each year. To this I may add that the produce has decreased latterly, in consequence of the sudden abstraction of that portion of the