Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/166

152 Dŭrāngŏ: and Bătŏpīlăs gave to the Marquis of Bŭstămānte, both the means of purchasing his title, for which he paid by a loan of 300,000 dollars, (60,000l.) to the Royal Treasury, during the Revotion, and the affluence which he is now enjoying in the Peninsula.

The above is a most imperfect sketch of the origin of the fortunes of the leading families in Mexico. With some few exceptions, such as the Conde de Āgrĕdă, whose fortune was made by trade, the descendants of Cortes, who received a Royal grant of the Valley of Ŏăxācă, (the value of which is now much reduced by the abolition of the Indian Capitation tax,) and the families of some of the Spanish merchants established at Jălāpă and Vĕrăcrūz, it will be found that almost the whole landed property of the country is in the hands of Mining families, and has, in a great measure, been brought into cultivation by the mines. They furnished the means of building the vast Presas de Agua, or Reservoirs, without which agriculture can so seldom be carried on successfully upon the Table-land; and thus rendered productive districts, the fertility of which, had nature not been assisted by art, would never have been developed; while the constant demand, in the Mining towns, for every article of agricultural produce, rendered this mode of investing capital preferable to any other then open to a Native. The Civil War has, indeed, reduced almost to nothing the value of these possessions, and there is little, at