of Mexico, cannot have averaged less than Eleven millions of dollars.
The immense amount of the Exports on private account; and the necessity of balancing, with the produce of the Mines, nearly the whole of the Imports of Foreign manufactures, (a part of which was covered, before the Revolution, by the Agricultural produce,) will explain the fact of the country having been reduced to a state of extreme penury, in the midst of this apparent wealth; the Minimum of the produce of Mexico being nearly double the Maximum of the average produce of any of the other Colonies of Spain, before the Revolution. [1]
It now remains for me to trace the effects of the Revolution upon the circulating medium of the country, by comparing, in as far as such a comparison is possible, the amount of the Exports of Specie, during the last fifteen years, with that of the Produce, in conjunction with the Specie, which may be supposed to have accumulated, during the fifteen years of prosperity, by which the Revolution was preceded.
The whole circulating medium of Mexico was estimated by Humboldt, in 1803, at fifty-five, or sixty millions of dollars.[2]
