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550 and forwarded their goods directly to the purchasers. Wholesale business at the great commercial fairs between importers and the merchants of the interior gradually ceased, and was supplanted by retail system of trade, carried on by country store-keepers and dealers. Foreigners, however, were excluded from engaging in this trade. An approximate result only of the annual amount of internal commerce about the middle of this century can be arrived at; but Lerdo de Tejada, in his work entitled Cuadro Sinóptico, published in 1856, taking as his basis the produce of agriculture, industries, mines, and cattle, and the value in the interior of foreign merchandise, calculated that it exceeded $100,000,000 annually at the time he wrote.

In 1824 the tribunal del consulado, or commercial, was abolished, the supreme government assuming certain powers. In 1841, mercantile tribunals were established by decree in all capitals of departments, and in those ports which were open to foreign trade. These courts were composed of a president and two colleagues, and before them were tried all suits arising out of commercial transactions, their jurisdiction extending to cases of bankruptcy: When fraud was detected, the case was to be handed over to the