Complete Works of Edmund Burke

by Edmund Burke

  What I had to say of gold and silver, as both are had, and the latter in vast quantities, in Mexico, I thought it proper, for the sake of avoiding repetitions, to bring them under that head, though all the rest of the Spanish territories produce largely of both.

  Of the plenty of gold and silver, which the mines of Mexico afford, great things have been said, and with justice; as this, with the other Spanish colonies in America, in a manner furnish the whole world with silver; and bear a great proportion in gold to the whole of what the world produces. A late very judicious collector of voyages says, that the revenues of Mexico can hardly fall short of twenty-four millions of our money. He founds this upon a return made by the bishops of their tenths, which, without doubt, were not over-rated; and that these amounted to one million and a half sterling; that these are about a fourth of the revenues of the clergy; and that the estates of the clergy are about the fourth part of the whole revenues of the kingdom, which at this rate amount to twenty-four millions English. He takes another method of computing the wealth of this province, which is, by the fifth paid to the king of the gold and silver dug out of their mines. This he observes in the year 1730 amounted to one million of marks in silver, each mark equivalent to eight ounces; so that if we compute this silver at five shillings per ounce, then the inhabitants receive from their mines ten millions in money. For my part, I neither distrust the candor or good sense of this writer; but I can hardly avoid thinking he must be misinformed in the accounts upon which he has built his calculation. If New Spain draws from her silver and gold mines ten millions annually; Peru, even since the decline of the mines of Potosi, has scarce ever been thought less rich in silver than Mexico, and must therefore be rated at the same proportion, and allowed to yield ten millions more annually. New Mexico abounds likewise in very rich silver mines; but that we may not exceed, we will allow for this province but two millions, which, allowing for the large produce of New Spain, is certainly not above the proportion. Chili has, indeed, no considerable mines of silver, but then those of gold are by far the richest in the world; and taking the comparative wealth of this province with the others, it cannot be less than two millions, if we add to it what is produced in Terra Firma; so that the gold and silver raised in the Spanish colonies cannot be estimated at less than twenty-four millions yearly. Uztariz, in his celebrated discourse on the Spanish commerce, an author who was undoubtedly well informed, and in an argument where it answered his purpose to make the most of this importation, does not allow that more than fifteen millions of dollars are brought into Spain annually in gold and silver. This is considerably less than four millions sterling; but because we ought to allow for concealments, which to be sure are considerable, we will state it at four millions. The Acapulco trade, we will admit, carries off one million more, though this is rather over. There is another vent too, the contraband trade with the English, French, and Dutch, which draws away largely; but I suppose two millions will be thought largely allowed. Now the whole of this does not exceed seven millions annually carried out of the country; and there remains a clear sum of seventeen millions, after all deductions. If this be the case, must not the wealth of Spanish America in a little time accumulate to a degree far exceeding the bounds of all probability? Since 1730, when this observation was made, twenty-six years are now passed, and we have no reason to believe the mines are at all exhausted in that time; and if in any year since 1724, when Uztariz wrote, more plate has passed into Europe than was brought at that time, it is reasonable to believe it is because the mines have produced more largely. Now if we multiply the annual sum remaining, coined and uncoined in Spanish America, which is seventeen millions, by twenty-six, the number of years since the calculation was made, it will produce four hundred and forty-two millions, accumulated in twenty-six years. But looking a little backward at this rate of annual saving, see what the produce must have been since the beginning of the last century, when the mines yielded as plentifully as they do now, in general, and some much more plentifully. It must be from the year 1600 to this day, not less than two thousand six hundred and fifty-two millions English money, amassed and hoarded up within the Spanish colonies; besides the savings of the foregoing century, which must be far from inconsiderable. Make almost any abatements in this; allow that the churches are enriched to a degree of profuseness, as they are; allow that the private houses have the meanest utensils of gold and silver, as it is said in some places they have; allow for the wear, which even in these metals is not little; allow all this; and yet after all, it must very far exceed belief, that any riches like these, or bearing any proportion to these, are to be found in Spanish America, where the majority of the people are slaves, or Indians in a state next to slavery, and even where the Spaniards have comparatively but few rich amongst them, most who make their fortunes hastening to Europe to enjoy them. After all, we have, I fear, no certain way of estimating the immense treasures, of which this country is an inexhaustible fountain; great they are undoubtedly, though by no means so great as is represented.

  CHAP. IV.

  COCHINEAL, the next commodity for value which they export, is used in dying all the several kinds of the finest scarlet, crimson, and purple. After much dispute about the nature of this curious drug, it seems at last agreed, that it is of the animal kind; an insect of the species of the gall insects. This animal is found adhering to various plants, but there is only one which communicates to it the qualities which make it valuable in medicine and manufactures. This plant is called opuntia by the botanists. It consists wholly of thick succulent oval leaves, joined end to end, and spreading out on the sides in various ramifications. The flower is large, and the fruit in shape resembling a fig; this is full of a crimson juice, and to this juice it is that the cochineal insect owes it’s colour.

  When the rainy seasons come on, they who cultivate this plant, cut off those heads which abound most with such insects, as are not yet at their full growth; and preserve them very carefully from the weather and all other injuries. These branches, though separated from their parent stocks, preserve their freshness and juices a long time; and this enables the insect not only to live out the rains, but to grow to its full size, and be in readiness to bring forth it’s young, as soon as the inclemency of the season is over. When this time comes on, they are brought out, and placed upon the proper plants, disposed in little nests of some mossy substance. As soon as they feel the enlivening influence of the fresh air, they bring forth in three or four days from their exposure at farthest. The young scarce bigger than a mite, runs about with a wonderful celerity, and the whole plantation is immediately peopled; yet what is somewhat singular, this animal, so lively in it’s infancy, quickly loses all it’s activity, and attaching itself to some of the least exposed, and most succulent part of the leaf, it clings there for life, without ever moving, not wounding the leaf for it’s sustenance, but sucking with a proboscis, with which it is furnished for this purpose.

  What is not less remarkable than the way of life of this animal, is the nature of the male, which has no appearance of belonging to the same species; far from being fixed to a spot, he has wings, and is, like the butterfly, continually in motion; they are smaller than the cochineal, and constantly seen amongst them, and walking over them without being suspected by those who take care of the insect, of being a creature of the same kind, though they believe that the cochineals are impregnated by them. But it is the female cochineal only which is gathered for use.

  They make four gatherings a year, which are so many generations of this animal. When they are sufficiently careful, they brush off the insects one by one with a sort of hair pencils, and take them as they fall; but they often brush the whole plant in a careless manner, so that fragments of it are mixed with the cochineals, and themselves mixed, the old and young together, which carelessness abates much of the value; but what chiefly makes the goodness of this commodity, is the manner of killing and drying the cochineals, which is performed three ways; the first is by dipping t
he basket in which it is gathered into boiling water, and afterwards drying them in the sun, this the Spaniards call renegrida. The second method is by drying them in ovens made for the purpose; this, from it’s grey colour, veined with purple, is called jaspeade. The third manner is, when the Indians dry them on their cakes of maize, which are baked upon flat stones; this last is the worst kind, as it is generally overbaked, and something burned. They call it negra.

  This drug has a very uncommon good quality, and the more extraordinary as it belongs to the animal kingdom, and to the most perishable of that kind, that it never decays. Without any other care than having been put by in a box, some have been known to keep sixty, some even upwards of a hundred years, and as fit for the purposes of medicine, or manufacture, as it ever was. It is used in medicine as a cordial and sudorific, in which intentions few things answer better. And indeed as it answers such good purposes in medicine, is so essential in trade, and produced only in this country, it may be considered in all markets as equivalent to gold or silver, by the certainty and quickness of the sale. It is computed they annually export no less than nine hundred thousand pound weight of this commodity.

  The cocao, or cacao of which chocolate is made, is a considerable article in the natural history and commerce of New Spain. It grows upon a tree of a middling size; the wood is spungy and porous, the bark smooth, and of a cinamon colour: the flower grows in bunches between the stalk and the wood, of the form of roses, but small, and without any scent. The fruit is a sort of pod, which contains the cacao, much about the size and shape of a cucumber. Within there is a pulp of a most refreshing acid taste, which fills up the interstices between the nuts before they are ripe; but when they fully ripen, these nuts are packed up wonderfully close, and in a most regular and elegant order; they have a pretty tough shell, and within is the oily rich substance, of which chocolate is made. This fruit grows differently from our European fruits, which always hang upon the small branches; but this grows along the body of the great ones, principally at the joints. None are found upon the small, which, though it is a manner of vegetation unknown here, prevails in several other plants within the tropicks. This cacao is a very tender tree, equally impatient of the wind, heat or cold, and will flourish only in the shade; for which reason in the cacao walks, they always plant a palm-tree for every one of cacao. I need say little of the use of this fruit; it is general amongst ourselves, and it’s virtues well known; but however great the external call for it may be, the internal consumption is much greater; so that in Mexico and Terra Firma, in some provinces of which latter it is found in the greatest perfection, their foreign and domestic commerce in this article is immense, and the profits so great, that a small garden of the cacaos is said to produce twenty thousand crowns a year. Tho’ I believe this to be exaggerated, it shews, however, in what a light of profit this comodity is considered. At home it makes the principal part of their diet, and is found wholsome, nutritious, and suitable to the climate. This fruit is often confounded with the cocoa nut, which is a species wholly different.

  CHAP. V.

  THE trade of Mexico may be considered as consisting of three great branches, by which it communicates with the whole world; the trade with Europe by La Vera Cruz; the trade with the East-Indies by Acapulco; and the commerce of the South-Sea by the same port. The places in New Spain, which can interest a stranger, are therefore three only, La Vera Cruz, Acapulco, and Mexico.

  Mexico, the capital of the kingdom, the residence of the viceroy, the seat of the first audience or chamber of justice, and an archbishopric, is certainly one of the richest and most splendid cities, not only in America, but in the whole world. Though no sea-port town, nor communicating with the sea by any navigable river, it has a prodigious commerce, and is itself the center of all that is carried on between America and Europe on one hand, and between America and the East-Indies on the other; for here the principal merchants reside, the greatest part of the business is negociated, and the goods that pass from Acapulco to La Vera Cruz, or from La Vera Cruz to Acapulco, for the use of the Philippines, and in a great measure for the use of Peru and Lima, all pass through this city, and employ an incredible number of horses and mules in the carriage. Hither all the gold and silver comes to be coined, here the king’s fifth is deposited, and here is wrought all that immense quantity of utensils and ornaments in plate, which is every year sent into Europe. Every thing here has the greatest air of magnificence and wealth; the shops glitter upon all sides with the exposure of gold, silver, and jewels, and surprize yet more by the work of the imagination upon the treasures which fill great chests piled up to the ceilings, whilst they wait the time of being sent to Old Spain. It is said that the negro wenches, who run by the coaches of the ladies there, wear bracelets of gold, pearl necklaces, and jewels in their ears, whilst the black foot-boys are all over covered with lace and embroidery. It cannot exactly be ascertained what number of people are in this city. It is certainly very considerable, by many not made less than seventy or eighty thousand. This city itself is well and regularly built, though the houses are not lofty; the monasteries are numerous, and richly endowed, and the churches extravagantly rich in their ornaments, though comparatively poor in the taste of their architecture.

  The port nearest to this city is Acapulco, upon the South-Sea, upwards of two hundred miles distant from the capital. Acapulco itself has one of the deepest, securest, and most commodious harbours in the South-Sea, and indeed almost the only one which is good upon the Western coast of New Spain. The entrance of the harbour is defended by a castle of tolerable strength; the town itself is but ill built, and makes every way a miserable figure, except at the time of the fairs, when it intirely changes it’s appearance, and becomes one of the most considerable marts in the world. About the month of December, the great galleon, which makes the whole communication that is between America and the Philippines, after a voyage of five months, and sailing three thousand leagues without seeing any other land than the little Ladrones, arrives here loaded with all the rich commodities of the East; cloves, pepper, cinnamon, nutmegs, mace, china, japan wares, callicoes plain and painted, chints, muslins of every sort, silks, precious stones, rich drugs, and gold dust. At the same time the annual ship from Lima comes in, and is not computed to bring less than two millions of pieces of eight in silver, besides quicksilver, cacao, drugs, and other valuable commodities, to be laid out in the purchase of the commodities of the East-Indies. Several other ships from different parts of Chili and Peru meet upon the same occasion; and besides the traffic for the Philippine commodities, this causes a very large dealing for every thing those countries have to exchange with one another, as well as for the purchase of all sorts of European goods. The fair lasts sometimes for thirty days. As soon as the goods are disposed of, the galleon prepares to set out on her voyage to the Philippines with her returns, chiefly in silver, but with some European goods too, and some other commodities of America. I speak here, as though there were but one vessel on the trade with the Philippines; and in fact there is only nominally one trading vessel, the galleon itself, of about twelve hundred tuns; but another attends her commonly as a sort of convoy, which generally carries such a quantity of goods as pretty much disables her from performing that office. The galleon has often above a thousand people on board, either interested in the cargo, or merely passengers; and there is no trade in which so large profits are made; the captain of the vessel, the pilots, their mates, and even the common sailors, making in one voyage, what in their several ranks may be considered as easy fortunes. It is said by the writer of lord Anson’s voyage, that the jesuits have the profits of this ship to support their missions; and if so, their gains must be extremely great, and must add much to the consequence of a society which has as great a reputation for it’s riches as it’s wisdom.

  This commerce to so vast a value, though carried on directly between the king of Spain’s own dominions, enriches them in proportion but very little; the far greater part of every thing
that comes from the Philippines, being the produce, or the fabric of other countries; the Spaniards add none of the artificial value of labour to any thing. The Chinese are largely interested in this cargo, and it is to them they are indebted for the manufacturing such of their plate, as is wrought into any better fashion than rude ingots, or inelegant coins. When this fair is over, the town is comparatively deserted; however, it remains for the whole year the most considerable port in Mexico for the trade with Peru and Chili, which is not very great. The East-India goods brought here are carried on mules to Mexico, from whence what exceeds their own consumption is sent by land carriage to La Vera Cruz, to pass over to Terra Firma, to the islands, and some even to Old Spain, though in no great quantity.