Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/335

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CH. XXII.]
TO GUATEMALA.
315

were derived. This statement will be found in the Appendix, but, from evident motives of delicacy and prudence, I have here given only the initial and bout-rimé of their several names.

By this document it should appear that the trading capital in the power of thirty-seven families alone, residing in the city, for they are all of them more or less engaged in trade, amounts to upwards of £1,500,000 sterling:—this, it should be observed, is without taking into consideration the value of the trading capital of the other cities and towns of the republic, in which are some families equal in wealth to those in the metropolis. I had no means of ascertaining the extent of such property, but, assuming that in each of the four other states of the federation the amount of the trading capital may be one quarter of that of the metropolis, there would be applicable directly or indirectly to the purposes of foreign trade upwards of £3,000,000 sterling. This capital merely wants to be