THE TRADE AND PROSPECTS OF MEXICO. WHEN Senor Lerdo de Tejada was appointed Mexican Minister of Finance in 1856 he ordered the annual publication of the trade and navi gation statistics of the port of Vera Cruz on better considered and more extensive plans than previously. These have been completed for the three years 1856-8, and have just been received. Subjoined is a digest of their contents, the general character and particular features of which will be of considerable interest not only to the Mexican bondholders, but also to the Chambers of Commerce of Manchester, Leeds, Belfast, and Coventry. They present a sad picture of decay in the midst of the commercial progress of the rest of the world, but also show that whenever Mexico shall be permitted to return to order, the means assigned for the payment of the interest on her debt will prove ample. The amount of annual interest due to the bondholders is about £300,000, and in 1856 the import duties, of which one-fourth belongs to the bondholders, and, like all other descriptions of English property, is entitled to the protection of the British Government, amounted at the port of Vera Cruz alone to little short of £1,000,000. In 1858 this sum had dwindled to about £300,000, and during last year and the present it has, of course, suffered further diminution. The great fact, however, remains, that, bad as was the condition of the country four years back, the Customs' receipts, estimating those at Tampico and all the other ports, as well as those at Vera Cruz, must have considerably exceeded the point at which the claims of the bondholders can be satisfied, and that if the republic had made the ordinary advance attained by other nations in that period the pressure of its debt would have become altogether insignificant. That the subsequent decay has been consequent solely on political anarchy is rendered certain by the fact, that all the recent changes in the commerce of the world have been of a character especially to assist the development of the natural resources of Mexico, particularly as regards three most important points-her mining industry, the traffic at her ports, and the transit through her territory:IMPORTS AND EXPORTS (EXCLUSIVE OF COASTING Trade) of the Port of VERA CRUZ.-OFFICIAL STATEMENT FOR THE THREE YEARS 1856-58. ⚫ of the import duties 25 per cent. are assigned to the British bondholders, and 16 per cent. to the (so-called) British convention creditors. Of the export duties 5 per cent. are assigned to the British bondholders. Details.-The imports are classified under four heads. 1.- Viveres consumptabilia solid and liquid; consisting of wine, spirits, cacao (which three articles constitute about one-half of the whole amount of this class, spices, fruit, £bar, provisions, an ifsa. The imports under this head amounted In 1858 to $1.567.-99 ... 1857 $1,157.532 ... 1858 $1.482.872. 2. "Manufacturos” in fact, texte fabrics only consisting of the following items By a further analysis it will be seen that the falling off in this class of imports in 1858, compared with 1856, from England, amounted to nearly 58 per cent., while on those of all other countries it was only 361 per cent. 3. Metals.-Imported in 1857 $139,967 (including silver plate for $1,892); in 1858, $120,803; in 1856, $156,853 (including $27,972 gold coin from New Orleans). More than one-half of these trifling amounts is for iron and steel. 4. This class includes everything which could not be ranged under the three preceding heads. Some of its numerous items are worth noting, viz. : According to our own Custom-house statistics, the exports of British produce and manufactures to the whole of the Mexican Republic amounted in 1856 to £887,862, 1857 to £567,311, 1858 to £411,831, showing a falling off of about 55 per cent. The produce exported consisted of the following items: THE annexed statistics of the bullion movements of the year have been arranged by Messrs. Pixley, Abel, and Langley. The first statement shows the import of bullion into London from the undermentioned places during six months ending December 31st, 1860: |