Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/519

MEXICO. advance or retard the moment, at which the extent of the re- sources of Mexico can alone be fully known. I shall now quit a part of my subject, upon which so much uncertainty necessarily prevails, and revert to one that admits of a more accurate investigation, viz. the immediate influence of the mines upon the commercial demand, with a few ob- servations upon which I shall beg leave to close this Book. In an extensive Mining negotiation, one-half of the annual produce may be fairly taken as the amount brought into cir- culation in the country by the expenses of working. This half is distributed, partly amongst the superintendents, and , labourers in the mines, and partly amongst the landed proprie- tors of the surrounding districts, each, and all of whom, it enables to become consumers of something more than maize- cakes, and home-spun cottons, by bringing within their reach a portion of those Imports, with which the American market is supplied by European ingenuity. Of the facility with which a taste for European productions is acquired, the total downfal of the native manufactures of wool and cotton, in the short space of four years, is a sufficient proof. I have not the means of tracing the exact amount of the consumption of British manufactures in each of the Mining districts, but it is certain that, wherever a company has been established, shops have been opened, and regular supplies of goods drawn from the Capital, or the nearest port, not one-fiftieth part of which could have been disposed of, had the mines continued un- worked. The streets of Guanajuato, S5mbrerete, and Zaca- tecas, are full of large magazines ; there is a constant com- munication between Catorce and Refugio ; as there is between the mining towns of Sonora and Cmaloa, and the ports of Mazatlan and Guaymas. At Real del Monte, I was assured that the change which had taken place, in fourteen months, in the appearance of the population, was really wonderful ; and at Tlalpujahua, which,