Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/502

482 in their two staple articles of indigo and cochineal: of the former they used to export at one time 8,500 tercios, to the value of upwards of 2,000,000 dollars annually, taking in exchange the goods of the Peninsula;—it being so regulated that the import of goods from Spain should not be allowed to exceed the value of the indigo or other articles exported. In the five years previous to the independence, these exports are said to have been reduced to one half, or were at the rate of 1,000,000 dollars annually. They had already, in 1825, regained the maximum to which they had risen in their most flourishing times, previous to the independence, viz. of 2,000,000 of dollars annually, and reasons were urged for supposing that in the course of a short time the annual export of this article would increase to more than 5,000,000.

The report then takes a cursory view of the other staple branches of commerce, affixing in some instances the estimated value of the articles exported, and, in