Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/230

210 At this period the trade ot Vera Cruz probably exceeded thirty million pesos a year. Apart from commerce the city had little to depend upon. So limited was the area of cultivated land in its vicinity that nearly all the leading articles of consumption were brought from a distance. Stock-raising was the chief occupation in the surrounding country, and hides and dried fish the only commodities exported from the province. Much of the prosperity now enjoyed was due to the measures adopted by Cárlos III. in 1778 with a view to facilitate commerce between Spain and her colonies. Many of the restrictions which had aimed at a monopoly of trade, and had served only to divert it into the hands of foreigners, were now removed, and no community was more greatly benefited thereby than that of Vera Cruz, which was still the only port of entry on the northern seaboard of New Spain. In 1795 a tribunal of commerce was established there by royal decree, and its operations were of great benefit both to the city and the province. At the opening of the nineteenth century the city had attained the full growth of her prosperity, and more substantial buildings were erected than during the two preceding centuries. The madrepore stone, called by the natives piedra múcura, and found in abundance on the reefs