Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/389

 MEXICO. 349 the Tariff, at a valuation, regulated by that of the article most analogous. The extent to which this provision might operate, was not, at first, foreseen ; but, in the course of the last three years, so many articles of European manufacture, formerly unknown in Mexico, have found their way to its shores, that very great room has been left for the exercise of the discretionary powers, with which the Vistas were intrusted. Amongst the articles not included in the old Arancel, were British Plain Cotton* goods, for which no specific valuation was fixed, and which were, consequently, estimated by the valuation of India Cottons, (to which they were supposed most to approximate,) with a reduction in the valuations in proportion to the inferiority of the goods. Thus, India Cottons were estimated at four and five reals per vara, and British, (of the same widths) at two and three reals; on which valuations the duties were calculated, and paid. This arrangement remained in force for upwards of two years, with the implied (though not specific) approbation of the Government ; and was regarded, by the merchants, as equally valid with the other articles of the Tariff, upon the faith of which the trade with Mexico was conducted : Cottons became one of the principal articles of importation, and the sale was so favourable in 1825, that very extensive orders were given for 1826, no less than five vessels with cargoes, by the name of " Long Cloths," being an imitation of those imported from India formerly, and indeed at present to a limited extent. But in this important article of commerce, England is likely to be outdone by the recent manufacturing establishments of the United States. Their coarse, grey, or unbleached long cloths already supersede the British in the markets of the Brazils and Mexico. A considerable trade in this article is now carried on with the Indian Archipelago ; such has been the extraordinary revolution of the cotton trade of the East Indies.
 * The cotton goods here alluded to, are those known in Manchester