raised annually, which the proprietors contract to deliver to the Government agents at three reals per pound.
The Tobacco thus purchased is remitted in leaf, (en rama) to Mexico, where there is an enormous manufactory of segars, in different shapes (puros y cigarros), on the account of the Supreme Government. The States have the option of either purchasing their supply in leaf, and working it up themselves, in which case they pay for their tobacco at eight reals (one dollar) per pound, (deducting all expenses of carriage, &c. which are defrayed by the Federation,) or of taking a stock of segars at once from the manufactory in the Capital, in which case the expense of labour and paper is added to the eight reals originally charged.
The retail price in the States is fixed at eleven reals per pound of wrought tobacco.
The profits of the Supreme Government are sufficiently evident from the preceding statement, as it sells for eight and eleven reals per pound, tobacco (wrought, or unwrought) which it purchases for three. Those of the States, which establish a segar manufactory (fabrica de tabacos) upon their own account, (purchasing tobacco in leaf of the Supreme Government at eight reals the pound,) will appear by the following table of the difference between the retail price of the box of Puros, (made up in the usual shape), and the expense of the labour and materials employed upon it.
