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MEXICO IN 1827.
63

still inspires, render any very speedy extension of the cultivation of the sugar-cane improbable.

Enough is hardly grown, at present, for the home consumption of the country, which is enormous. In 1802 it was estimated at 1,400,000 Arrobas, (35,000,000 of pounds;) the value of which, at the market price of two dollars and a half per Arroba, was 3,500,000 dollars, or nearly 700,000 l. sterling. In addition to this, in the years 1802, 1803, and 1804, sugar to the amount of nearly one million and a half of dollars was exported, and although the exportation s afterwards diminished, the quantity raised up to 1810 was not supposed to have materially decreased.[1]

At the present day, the amount of the total produce is not exactly known, but it must be considerably less than that of the best years before the Revolution, as the sugar estates are confined almost entirely to the valleys of Cūāūtlă and Cuĕrnăvācă.

  1. Extract from "Balanza General del Comercio de Veracruz:
    Value of Sugar Exported.
    1802 1,454,240
    1803 1,495,056
    1804 1,097,505
    1809 482,492
    1810 269,383
    1813 19,412
    From 1814
    to 1820