Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/327

 M EXICO. 287 Mr. Esteva, who includes in his general statement many eventual items, which I have omitted, {Diezmos, Reintegros, Donativos, ^~c.) makes the net produce amount to Dollars. 11,389,698 To which he adds one jifth, for the two remaining months .... 2,277j939 Thus making the sum total 18,6675687 But, in a country where the duties on foreign goods form so important a part of the revenue, it is a fallacy to take the receipts of all the montlis of the year as equal. Nearly the whole supply of European goods for the Mexican market, is imported during the winter months, on account of the sick- ness that prevails upon the coast from April to October. It is, therefore, a palpable error to suppose that the receipts of July and August, (the two months not included in the state- ment presented to Congress), must be equal to those of two of the winter months; and to add to the sum total of the produce of the custom-houses (7,043,237 dollars) one fifth, (or, 1,173,872 dollars), as a fair equivalent for the omission. This observation does not apply equally to the other branches of the revenue ; nor does it affect my estimate of the probable produce of the custom-houses in the year 1828 ; but it may serve to explain the apparent contradiction of a surplus revenue of 304,538 dollars, as given by Mr. Esteva, in his Report of January 1827, and the difficulty in covering the actual engagements of the country, which certainly has been experienced. To take a fair view of this subject, it will be necessary to consider the expenditure of Mexico, as compared with its receipts, according to the estimates for the present year, to which it seems neither necessary, nor probable, that any great addition will be made.