Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/107

Rh imitation, and necessity, bestow a greater or less degree of impulsion on every speculation. Several intelligent merchants have, indeed, made this subject their profound study, and have deduced many excellent results; but the nation has hitherto been deprived of the fruits of their investigations. To avoid the obscurity and confusion which the multiplicity of materials would otherwise occasion, they will be treated separately in this dissertation, in the order and method following.

1st, What are the productions and commodities of the vice-royalty of Peru, for its internal circulation, and commerce of exportation.

2dly, Its external commerce, or importation.

3dly, The causes of its decline. And, 4thly, the remedies which may be applied for its re-establishment.

SECTION I.

Peru, one of the principal parts of South America, comprehends the wide space which extends along the whole of the southern coast, from the river of Guayaquil to the port of Atacama, by a territory of from four to five hundred leagues in length, and fifty in breadth. It has the sea in front, and, at the back, the great Cordillera, and unexplored countries. Its communication is closed to the north, and at the confines of Guayaquil, by forests and inaccessible mountains, which extend to the isthmus of Panama; and, to the south, it is separated from the kingdom of Chile by a desert of a hundred leagues in extent. At the same extremity, it is disunited from the vinces