pursued have been felt, it has often been a matter of surprise to me, that, with some few exceptions,[1] there should not be an English house of respectability established any where but in the Capital, or, as agents, at the ports.
The consequence is, that a very large proportion of the British manufactures at present consumed in Mexico, passes entirely through the hands of North Americans; and, after being landed by American ships at Tămpīcŏ, Sŏtŏ lă Mărīnă, and Rĕfūgĭŏ, is disposed of, by American merchants, at San Luis, Pŏtŏsī, and Săltīllŏ, where they have formed establishments, and are in almost exclusive possession of the trade of the country.
The importance of this branch must not be estimated by its value in former times, for commerce, freed from artificial trammels, has, as usual, opened to itself a thousand new inlets; and one of the first-fruits of this salutary change has been to free the Northern Provinces from those evils, which Mr. Ramos Arizpe so forcibly described in 1811.
They are now rising daily in prosperity, and have every prospect, from their vicinity to New Orleans, and from the facility of their communication with
- ↑ The house of Ritchie, and Co. at Guădălajāră, and that of Mr. Short, at Cūlĭăcān, have, I believe, had every reason to be satisfied with the results of their departure from the general rule; and I have little doubt that a similar experiment in each of the great towns of the Interior, would be eminently successful.
