Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/664

644 in Mexico by decree of the viceroy, and not only were private individuals solicited to purchase shares, but even the municipalities of Indian towns and villages. The consequence was that a large number of shares was sold, the people and municipalities in different parts of New Spain alone purchasing nearly one hundred and fifteen thousand pesos' worth of the scrip. It turned out to be only a commercial bubble, however, which floated for a time, when Anally there came a crash which brought ruin to thousands.

Nevertheless, in spite of occasional disastrous speculations the commerce of New Spain expanded actively and surely under the more liberal system. Statistics of the earlier trading operations are wanting, but a fair estimate of the impulse given to commerce by the so-called free trading laws may be gathered from documents which supply us with the tonnage of the fleets which arrived at Vera Cruz during the eighteenth century. During the period from 1706 to 1776 this varied from 1,202 to 8,492 tons, and the value of return cargoes from ten million pesos to more than twenty-seven million in bullion and productions. Again between 1728 and 1739 not more than one hundred and sixty-four vessels, besides fifty-eight which composed the three fleets that visited New, Spain during those twelve years, entered the port of Vera Cruz, whereas during the period from 1784 to 1795 no less than 1,142 ships arrived from the different ports opened in the Peninsula and the colonies. According to the calculations of Humboldt, the total amount of bullion exported during the