largely increased in succeeding years. The number of ports designated for coasting trade underwent similar changes.[1]
The stagnation in trade did not last long, an impulse being presently given to it by the recognition of Mexico as an independent nation, and in 1827 the imports amounted to $14,889,049, and the exports to $12,171,777. From this time, though commerce was subject to periodical depressions,[2] the exports and imports of Mexico have gradually increased.[3] The exportations of Mexico have been and still are almost entirely confined to the precious metals and raw productions, the value of the former far surpassing that of the latter, the principal of which are coffee, sugar, cochineal, hennequen, ixtle, hides and skins, timber, and dye-woods.
During the earlier years of free trade, England supplied Mexico with the largest proportion of manufactured goods, and as late as 1875 was still paramount
- ↑ Arrillaga, Recop., 1837, 86-7; Jan. to April, 1849, app. 120; May 1849 to April 1850, 302, Mex., Legis. Mej., 1850, ill, Jan. to June 1836, 352; Dublan and Lozano, Leg. Mex., x. 217. In 1876, the following were the coasting trade ports: in the gulf of Mexico, Alvarado, Balancan, Nautla, Santecomápan, Soto la Marina, and Tecolutla. On the Pacific, Agiabampo, Altata, Bocoréhuis, Cabo de San Lucas, Chamala, Libertad, Navachiste, Puerto Escondido, San José del Cabo, Tecsanapa, and Zihuatanejo.
- ↑ The years 1840, 1941, and 1857 are instances. Niles' Register, lvii. 353; Otero Obras, MS., i. 111-26, 242; Diario Avis., June 12, 1857, 3.
- ↑ The importations for the year 1881 amounted to $44,991,401, and the exports to $24,879,211; for the nine months ending March 31, 1883, the exports reached $32,298,294, of which $24,032,787 were silver, and for the year ending June 30, 1884, $46,725,496, of which $33,473,283 represented the precious metals. Mex., Mem. Hac., 1884, xliii. xlvii.; Diario Ofic., Jan. 27, 1885; Mex., Financier, Jan. 31, 1885, 285-6; Zaremba, Merchants, 4.
(Tampico), Matamoros, Campeachy, Sisal, and San Juan Bautista de Tabasco; in the Pacific, Acapulco and San Blas; in the gulf of Cal., Guaymas; in Upper Cal., Monterey, Bacalar, Goazacoalco, Alvarado, Matagorda, Galveston, Huatulco, Manzanillo, Natividad, Mazatlan, La Paz, Loreto, San Diego, and San Francisco, heretofore open ports, were to be closed six months after the publication of the decree. A number of others was added to this list in succeeding years down to 1873. Arrillaga, Recop., Jan. to Apr., 1849, app. 4, 120; Dublan and Lozano, Leg. Mex., vi. 168; viii. 650; ix. 172, 217, 317, 548; x. 258; Archivo Mex., Col. Ley., i. 517; Sin., Bol. Ofic., May 31, 1872, 249; Mex., Diar. Ofic., Dec. 25, 1870; Mex., Mem. Hac., 1873, 8; Mex., Diar. Debates, 10th Cong., iii. 916; Tovar, Hist. Parl., iii. 321, 411, 804, 844.
