Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/468

438 1824. In the first of these years, not one foreign, in the last, not one Spanish vessel cleared at a Mexican port.

A change something similar occurred in the nature of the importations themselves.

Spanish silks, which, in 1821, were imported to the amount of 1,205,219 dollars, fell, in 1822, to 224,288 dollars. In 1823, they only reached 212,778 dollars, and in 1824, not a trace of them is to be found in the importation lists of Alvarado and Veracruz. Cottons rose in amount, as the silk importations decreased. In 1821, they only amounted to 888,726 dollars.

In 1823, they rose to 1,156,787 dollars, and, although the amount of the importations in 1824 has not been ascertained in any authentic shape, I should conceive, from the tonnage employed in the European trade, (of which cottons formed a most essential part,) that their value must have been, at least, two millions and a half of dollars.

Spanish wines and brandies, which, in 1821, were alone known in Mexico, have been entirely supplanted by French, which, in 1824, appear to have been imported, through Alvarado and Veracruz alone, to the amount of 927,366 dollars, out of a total importation of 1,062,970 dollars.