The contraband trade of New Spain is very exten sive, and is carried on principally by the ports of Cam peachy and Vera Cruz. In time of war, when the com munication with Spain is interrupted, and the govern ment obliged to admit occasional commerce with neu trals, this trade is pursued with great facility, and often amounts to one-third of the whole regular commerce in time of peace.
Previous to the year 1778, the whole commerce of Spanish America was monopolized by the cities of Ca diz and Seville ; but, at this period, fourteen other ports were opened to the productions of the colonies ; and this arrangement has been attended by a regular in crease of the public revenue. The state of commerce in New Spain has again been greatly changed since the year 1794 ; and the foreign goods required in that country arc those of the greatest value, the finest cloths, muslins, silks, wines, and other liquors. The produce of its own mines has also considerably increased dur ing the same period; and more specie is ready to pay for these higher pica commodities. About the com mencement of the nineteenth century, the importation into Mexico, including the contraband trade of both coasts, amounted to 20 millions of piastres ; and the exportations of its agriculture and manufacturing pro duce to 6 millions; but the mines produce annually 23 millions, of which 8 or 9 millions are exported on account of the king, leaving 15 millions to liquidate the excess of the import over the export trade ; from which will remain about one million for the increase of specie in the country. 4' But, by allowing a free course to the national industry," says M. Humboldt, << by encouraging agriculture and manufactures, the importation will diminish of itself, and it will then be easy for the Mexicans to pay the value of foreign commodities with the productions of their own soil. The free cultivation of the vine and the olive on the table land of Ncw Spain ; the free-distillation of spirits from sugar, rice, and the grape ; the exportation of flour, favoured by the making of new roads ; the increase of plantations of sugar-cane, cotton, and tobacco; the working of the iron and mercury mines ; and the manufacture of steel, will perhaps one day become more inexhaustible sources of wealth, than all the veins of gold and silver united. Under more favourable external circumstances, the ba lance of trade may be favourable to New Spain, with out paying the account which has been opened for cen turies between the two continents entirely with Mexi can piastres." The revenue of New Spain, which has increased in an extraordinary degree in the course of the 18th cen tury, was estimated, about the beginning of the 19th century, at twenty millions of piastres, or 4,200,0001. sterling. Of this sum, five millions and a half arise from the produce of the gold and silver mines ; four millions from the government monopoly of tobacco ; three millions from the alcaoalas or customs; one mil lion and a half from the Indian capitation tax ; and the remainder, from the duty on the fermented liquor pulque, from the duty on imports and exports, from the sale of Papal indulgences, from the post-office pro fits, from the sale of gunpowder, from clerical bene fices, from the sale of cards, from stamp duties, from the farming of cock-fighting, from duty on the sale of snow, &c. About one half of the whole revenue is consumed by the expenses of the administration ; and of the other half, about one-third is remitted to other Spanish colonies ; and two•thirds to the mother country.
Nearly one-fourth of the whole revenue is expended on the military defence of the country, in which about 30,000 troops are employed. Of these, only 10,000 are regulars: of which, about 4,000 cavalry, stationed in the presidios, or military posts, to check the incur sions of the Indians, are remarkably active and hardy soldiers, and incessantly exposed to severe service. The greater part of the military establishment is composed of provincial militia, raised more for show than use ; and chiefly originating in the love of military titles and rank, among a few Spanish families and Wealthy creole s. The situation and physical aspect of the coun try, render it easily defensible against the attack of an external enemy.
The accounts of the population of Mexico, at the period of its subjugation to the Spaniards, are founded on very vague conjectures, and have been, in some cases, obviously exaggerated. Around the capital of Mexico, and probably in the whole kingdom of Mon tezuma, (which, however, did not equal in surface the eighth part of the present kingdom of New Spain,) there is good reason to conclude, from the extensive ruins of towns and villages, that the population was formerly much greater than at present ; but this great body of people were concentrated within a very small space ; and it is now well ascertained, that the whole of the vast region, denominated New Spain, is much better inhabited than it was before the arrival of the Eutopeans. The augmentation of tithes, of the Indian capitation tax, and of all the ditties on con sumption ; the progress of agriculture and civilization, and the appearance of the country covered with constructed houses, all give evidence of a rapid increase in every part of the kingdom. In those districts where the climate is hot and humid, there is so great morta lity, chiefly among the children and young people, by tertian fevers, (which is greatly aggravated by the practice among the native tribes of abandoning the in fected,) that the population makes no sensible pro gress; but, in the colder regions, which compose the greatest part of the kingdom, the proportion of births to deaths is as 190, or even as 200, to 100 ; and the average over the whole country as 170 to 100. From a variety of data, Humboldt estimates the whole popu lation in Mexico, in 1808, at more than 6,500,000. The most destructive checks to the population arc the small-pox, which used to produce dreadful ravages among the Indians, whose constitution seems to be ill adapted for cutaneous diseases ; a kind of plague called marlazahuatl, which appears at intervals of 100 years, and spreads its ravages over the coldest and driest regions, but never affects the white inhabitants or their descen dants; scarcity of provisions, sometimes approaching to famine, when any great drought or local cause has damaged the crop of maize or potatoes, and which is always attended by epidemical diseases ; and formerly the compulsory labours in the mines. But by the in troduction of the cow-pox, the progress of agriculture, and the abolition of the mita, or compulsion of miners, these checks are greatly abated, and the general popula tion greatly on the increase. The addition made to the number of inhabitants in New Spain, by the arrival of new colonists from Europe, does not exceed, says M. Humboldt, 800 individuals annually.