Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/477

Rh equalled the annual average amount before the Revolution, (Twenty-one millions and a half of dollars) that of 1826 must have very considerably exceeded it.

It is in the Imports that the change principally consists; for the exportable Agricultural Produce of the country has varied but little since 1824. It is composed almost entirely of the Precious Metals, Cochineal, a little Indigo, Vanilla, Logwood, Jalap and Zarzaparilla, Tabascan Cacao, and Pepper, with Cotton, Hides, and Flour, which are beginning to become of some importance in the North.

Sufficient time has not yet elapsed for the average value of these different articles to be ascertained. Indeed, it must, for many years, be subject to continual variations; as, while the impulse recently given to the country continues, the produce will increase with the facility of exchanging it for European productions, and, consequently, no calculation upon the subject can be hazarded.

At present, however, the whole of the Silver raised does not more than cover the difference between the value of the Imports and that of the exportable Agricultural Produce, the Coinage of all the Mints in 1826 having only amounted to 8,451,000 dollars, while the registered exportation of Specie during the same period exceeded Seven millions and a half.

It may, perhaps, be interesting, in the absence of more authentic data, to trace the progress of some of the different Custom-houses established at the ports, which have been opened to Foreign Trade since