Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/515

MEXICO. never rise to any importance in the scale of nations. The markets of the Table-land must be Aome-markets, and these the mines alone can supply. On the Coasts, indeed, the productions of the Tropics, which we term Colonial Produce, might serve as an object of barter ; but these, supposing their cultivatioi^ to be carried to the greatest possible extent, could never cover the demand upon European industry, which the wants of a population of eight millions will, under more favourable circumstances, occasion, as their value must decrease in proportion to the superabundance of the supply, until they reach the point, at which their price, when raised, would cease to repay the cost of raising them. Thus the trade of Mexico would be confined to her Vanilla, and Cochi- neal, (of which she has a natural monopoly ;) while the num- ber of those who consume European manufactures in the In- terior, (which does not yet include one-half of the popula- tion,) would be reduced, probably, to one-tenth. Fortunately, there is no reason whatever to apprehend the approach of that scarcity of mineral productions, with which many seem to think that New Spain is menaced. Hitherto, at least, every step that has been taken in exploring the country, has led to fresh indications of wealth, which, in the North, ap- pears to be really inexhaustible. To the European manu- facturer, it is a matter of indifference whether the silver, transmitted to him in return for the produce of his labour, proceeds from Guanajuato, or Diirango, from the centre of the Table-land, or the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre. The capability of the country to produce it in sufficient quantities to ensure a constant market, and an equally constant return^ is the only point which it can be of importance for him to ascertain ; and of this, from the moment that a sufficient capital is invested in mining operations, I have no scruple in stating that there can be no doubt. Mining in Mexico has, hitherto, been confined to a com- paratively narrow circle : the immense mass of silver which