Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/49

MEXICO. ^ 19 the Western coast of Mexico can acquire any thing Hke the importance of that carried on upon the Eastern side ; for, as there is but little difference between the agricultural produce of the countries with which she can hold intercourse, through the medium of the Pacific, (Guayaquil, Peru and Chile, China and Calcutta,) and her own, all remittances must be made in specie, with the exception of the hides, tallow, and wheat of California, in which an extensive trade is already carried on. I have now traced most of the leading features which cha- racterize Mexico as a country, with the exception of her mineral wealth. Silver may be called one of the staple com- modities of New Spain ; but I shall have occasion to enter into this subject, so fully, in the fourth book of this sketch, which is devoted to an account of the mines, that it would be superfluous to state any thing here but the fact, that the ave- rage annual amount of the silver raised before the Revolution was twenty-four millions of dollars ; a sum sufficient, alone, (without making any allowance for agricultural produce,) to render the country capable of producing it, a valuable market for European manufactures. When added to those sources of wealth, which I have already pointed out, and to which I shall allude more fully in the third section, it places Mexico almost in the first rank of consuming nations, and ought to render her progress to- wards that station, which she is destined to occupy amongst the great communities of the world, an object of the deepest interest to all. Should my present undertaking have the effect of directing to the subject the attention of some one better qualified to do justice to it than myself, all that I ven- ture to hope from this sketch, will be fully accomplished. c 2