The internal commerce of Chili has hitherto been of small importance, notwithstanding the many advantages possessed by this fertile country.  Its principal source, industry, or necessity rather, is still wanting.  An extensive commerce requires a large population, and in proportion as the one increases, the other will necessarily advance.  A communication by water, which greatly facilitates the progress of commerce, has already been opened.  In several of the Chilese ports, barks are now employed in the transportation of merchandise, which had formerly to be carried by land on the backs of mules, with great trouble and expence; and this beneficial alteration will probably be followed with others of greater importance.  Several large ships have been already built in the harbour of Conception, and at the mouth of the river Maule, in the port of Huachapure; by which the external commerce of the kingdom is carried on with Peru and Spain.  In the trade with Peru, twenty-three or twenty-four ships are employed, of five or six hundred tons each, part of which belong to Chili and part to Peru.  These usually make three voyages yearly, and carry from Chili wheat, wine, pulse, almonds, nuts, cocoa-nuts, conserves, dried meat, tallow, lard, cheese, bend-leather, timber for building, copper, and a variety of other articles; and bring back return cargoes of silver, sugar, rice, and cotton.  The ships which trade directly from Spain to Chili, receive gold, silver, copper, Vicugna wool, and hides, in exchange for European commodities.  A permission to trade to the East Indies would be very profitable to the Chilese, as their most valuable articles are either scarce or not produced in these wealthy regions of Asia, and the passage across the Pacific Ocean would be easy and expeditious, in consequence of the prevalence of southerly winds.  The only money current in Chili is of gold and silver, which is considerably embarrassing to internal commerce, as the smallest silver coin is the sixteenth of a dollar, or 4-1/4d.  The weights and measures are the same with those of Madrid.

“Of the two great sources of commerce, agriculture and manufacturing industry, the former alone hitherto animates the internal trade of Chili, or even the commercial intercourse between that country and Peru[107].  The working of mines also occupies the attention of many of the colonists, especially in the provinces of Copaipo, Coquimbo, and Quillota.  Manufacturing industry is hitherto so trifling as not to deserve notice.  Notwithstanding the abundance of raw materials for this purpose, such as flax, wool, hemp, skins, and metals, which might give employment to a flourishing manufacturing industry, it is still in a languid condition.  The inhabitants however manufacture ponchos, stockings, carpets, blankets, skin-coats, saddles, hats, and other small articles, chiefly for the use of the poorer people, as those used by the middle and higher ranks are from the manufactures of Europe.