Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/121

Rh piastres; and, in favour of that of Cuzco, two hundred and fifty-eight thousand nine hundred and seventy-five piastres. By this intercourse, more than a million of piastres, coined in the mint of Potosi, are annually introduced, in aid of the circulating specie, into the viceroyalty of Lima.

As the provinces of La Sierra annexed to Buenos Ayres, are the most abundant in mines, and on that account the most populous and steril, it is necessary that the consumers, whose numbers are very considerable, should be supplied with the natural productions of the coast, the only part of the territory of Peru where the lands can be profitably cultivated. Arequipa is, by its proximity, the source of these supplies; and Cuzco administers, by its manufactories, the baizes, and other articles of clothing which the population demands. It ought, however, to be observed, that the augmented introduction of the manufadtures of Europe, by the river of La Plata, has latterly occasioned this branch of commerce to decline in a sensible manner, the camlets, fustians, second cloths, &c. imported by this channel, having been sold at little more than their prime cost, so as to have ruined, by their competition, the baizes and stuffs of the manufacture of the country.

With the other governments the commerce is maritime, and is carried on from the port of Callao, in vessels of different classes, chiefly belonging to inhabitants of Lima. The above port is the rendezvous of from sixteen to seventeen thousand tons of shipping, five thousand tons of which are reserved for 850;