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422 World; although there was not, I believe, an article of Mexican manufacture, that might not have been procured from Europe, of a superior quality, and at an infinitely lower price.

Here, too, monopoly exercised its pernicious influence: as soon as the native manufactures became of importance, they fell into the hands of Spanish capitalists, who concentrated them, as much as possible, in the immediate vicinity of the Capital, (at La Puebla and Qŭerētărŏ,) from which places the inhabitants of the Interior, (where all rival establishments were discouraged,) were forced to draw their supplies of all the articles of ordinary consumption.

The effects of this system upon both the foreign and domestic trade of the country, were developed, in 1811, by Mr. Rāmŏs Arīzpĕ, (then deputy to the Cortes for the State of Cŏăhūilă,) in a report upon the Eastern Internal Provinces, to which I have already had occasion to allude. (Book I., Section IV.)