Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/207

Rh last 70 years, which probably reflects a rise in the value of the commerce. Precious metal shipments from Mexico increased. There are lists of the goods carried by some of the later fleets. The last fleet under the old monopoly system, which arrived in 1776 and returned in 1778, carried to Mexico a cargo in which the chief elements were quicksilver, iron, and iron manufactures. The exports from Mexico in this year were—first of all—silver, to the amount of over 1,680,000 pesos on the king's account and 9,800,000 pesos for individuals. There were sent 232 tons of copper and some gold, tin, sulphur, red ochre, indigo, wood, cotton, wool, and hides. Two and a half centuries of Spanish rule had developed in Mexico only one important resource—metals—among which silver, which has been even up to our own day the connotation of Mexican commerce, easily held first rank. Other raw materials played an unimportant part, and local manufactures then, as in all the previous history of the country, were conspicuous by their absence.

The legal position of Mexican commerce in the closing years of the colonial period was much more favorable than before. To be sure, free commerce did not mean what the words mean to us, but the trade was opened during these years to more than a dozen cities of Spain; Vera Cruz ceased to be the only port of entry; and the restrictions on coastwise trade were relaxed. Trade, however, followed much in the old channels. Local society had not been leavened by the conquerors. The coastwise trade did not develop; trade with the world at large was not yet free; and Vera Cruz, that "unwholesome town" with its "disagreeable anchorage among