Interior,) came down to the coast, and purchased, at Veracruz, the supplies which the retailers, and inland consumers, in the different districts, were thought to require.
This state of things, though bad enough, from the manner in which the importations were confined to one spot, and consequently the value of every article enhanced by the expence of additional land-carriage, was infinitely preferable to the system previously pursued, when, from the total want of competition, "the supplies of a great empire were (to use Humboldt's expression) introduced with as much caution as if it had been a blockaded town."
Monopoly, though not abolished, was, at least, compelled to extend its operations to a less circumscribed circle; and to the beneficial results of this change, a gradual rise in the industry, the produce, and the Revenue of Mexico, may be traced.
The effects of the impulse thus given to the country, Humboldt has recorded in Book VI., chapter XII., of his Essai Politique, by which it appears:—First, that, upon a comparison of two distinct terms of four years, (from 1774 to 1778, and from 1787 to 1790,) there was a difference of 8,928,293 dollars on the amount of the exportations alone, in favour of the new System;[1] and Secondly, that, on
- ↑ The first four years, (which were the last of the Fleets and Register ships,) gave an exportation of only 2,470,022 dollars; while the exportation of the Second term, (when the Decree of
