Mexico in 1827 (Volume 1)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1828. Excerpt: ... SECTION IV. REVENUE OF MEXICO -- ITS SOURCES AND AMOUNT BEFORE THE REVOLUTION -- PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS. My object, throughout the preceding Sections, having been to avoid all theories as much as possible, and to give what has been, as the best criterion of what may again be, I shall not depart from this rule in treating so important a branch of my subject as the revenue of the country; and shall accordingly commence my view of its present state and prospects, by a succinct account of what they were before the Revolution of 1810. For this I must, as usual, recur to Baron Humboldt, who has investigated the subject with his wonted accuracy, in Book VI. of his most valuable work. According to his statements, the revenue of Mexico, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, (1712), did not exceed three millions of dollars: -- Dollars. In 1763 it was 5,705,876 1767 . . ' 6,561,316 1776 . . 12,000,000 Dollars. 1780 . . ... 15,010,974 1784 .... 19,605,574 1802 . . 20,200,000 This extraordinary increase was due, in part, to the establishment of the monopoly of tobacco, which took place in 1764; but infinitely more, to that relaxation in the Colonial Policy of the Mother country, to which I have alluded in the Fourth Section of the First Book, and to the encouragement given to the mining interests by the reduction of the price of quicksilver, from eighty-four to sixty-four dollars the quintal. The revenue rose as the price of this important article fell, and, as an impulse was given to the Colonies, by the removal of some of the earlier restrictions upon their trade. Had Spain profited by the lesson, and extended her concessions, in proportion as she found less reason to regard them as incompatible with her own interests, her position, at the present day, might have been very di...