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428 value of all the imports from any other part of the world.

The above is a rough sketch of the state of the trade of Mexico up to 1810. The first material change that occurred was occasioned by the civil war, which broke out in that year, and by which the Government was compelled, as early as 1812, to open the ports of Tămpīcŏ and Tūspăn to the East, and that of San Blas to the West, from the impossibility of introducing an adequate supply of European manufactures through Veracruz alone, the communication with that place being sometimes interrupted for months together by the Insurgents.

Foreign vessels, however, were still excluded from these ports, the total amount of the direct intercourse with Foreign countries, (as already stated,) not having exceeded four millions and a half of dollars, in the years 1817, 1818, and 1820, on the Eastern side.

With regard to the Western Coast, nothing certain is known; but, as far as the imperfect returns, which I have been able to obtain, go, it appears that, although the trade of San Blas acquired, at a very early period, considerable importance, from the large remittances of European goods sent there, by Spanish merchants, from our West India Islands, across the Isthmus of Pănămā, and introduced, through Guădălajāră, on to the Table-land, means