every article; whereas, at present, the sale but too frequently does not cover the freight, duties, and prime cost. Beyond this point, however, I cannot go; nor do I believe that there is any one in Mexico sufficiently acquainted with all the ramifications of the Trade to supply the information required.
I shall, therefore, proceed, at once, to the second point of enquiry; viz. "The probability of an increase or decrease in the amount of the Mexican Trade, (whatever that may be) in the course of the next five years."
This question involves several important considerations; for, in order to determine whether the demand for the products of European industry in Mexico, has already reached its full, or natural extent, it is necessary to ascertain what the state of the country was in 1824, and in how far its resources may be said to have developed themselves in the course of the last two years.
In 1824, Mexico may be said to have commenced its recovery from the effects of a Civil war of fourteen years' duration, in the course of which the country had been not only exhausted, but gradually drained of a very large proportion of its capital. The Old Spaniards, in whose hands this capital had accumulated, began, at a very early period of the struggle for Independence, to provide for a contingency, the probability of which they foresaw, by transferring the great bulk of their convertible property to Europe.
