Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/231

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COMMERCE UNDER THE SPANISH RULE.
207


CHAPTER XXXIX.

Mexican Commerce.—Cotton Manufacture.

Manufactures trader the old Spanish Government.—Amount of exports and imports.—Account and statistics of cotton manufacture.—Mexican cotton crops.—Average prices.—Water power.—Puebla.—Climate and raw material.—Table of Mexican weights and measures.—Table of coinage.

The chief manufactures of Mexico under the Spanish Government up to 1807 were woollens cottons gold and silver lace hats leather soap, and earthenware; but the total value of the goods which they produced did not amount to more than 7,000,000 and 8,000,000 dollars annually. Some trifling fabrics of silk were introduced since that time; and the manufactures increased considerably, in consequence of the war with England and the interruption of foreign commerce. Tobacco and gunpowder were royal manufac-