Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/44

30, who took this mode of making remittances to Europe, amounted in five years, (from 1821 to 1825) to 7,451,992 dollars; and as this bears a fair proportion to the Produce, (Vide Book I. Sect. III.) it is not to be presumed that the illicit extraction can have been very great.

My object in thus comparing the Exports of specie with the Imports of European Manufactures, (which may appear, at first, to have no immediate connexion with the question now under consideration,) is, to show that no part of the Spanish property withdrawn from the country since the commencement of the Revolution, can be comprehended in the registered Exportation from Veracruz, since the total amount of the Exports does not cover the total amount of the registered Imports, but leaves a balance of 11,095,042 dollars, to be paid by some other channel.

In the other ports it will be impossible for me to attempt a similar comparison, as I have not been able to obtain returns of Imports of any kind. I must, therefore, confine myself to a statement of the amount of the entries of the precious metals shipped in each port; and even these are but little to be depended upon, as the gentleman, to whom I am indebted for the extracts from the Registers of Săn Blās and Măzătlān, informed me that, in the opinion of the oldest merchants upon the Western coast, the registered Exports did not amount to above one half of the real amount of the Silver exported; in which