Mr. Plumb to Mr. Seward.
Sir: In addition to the data relating to the amount and classification of the Mexican customs receipts, transmitted to the department with my dispatch No. 209, of the 20th ultimo, E beg now to transmit herewith a very elaborate and complete statement which appeared in the Diario Oficial of yesterday, showing the amounts collected for the first six months of the present year, at each of the maritime and frontier customhouses of the republic, under each of the different duties now imposed. The different duties upon merchandise and vessels, it apppears, according to the classification made, are thirty in number.
It will also be observed that the total amount of the duties collected at all the frontier custom-houses, including Matamoras, is a little less than four hundred thousand dollars for the first six months of the present year, or at the rate of eight hundred thousand dollars per annum.
Assuming that the average rate of duties now charged by Mexico amounts only to fifty per cent, upon the value of effects imported, the above sum of eight hundred thousand dollars would therefore show a commercial movement of legitimate commerce, of only one million six hundred thousand dollars per annum, for the entire frontier of Mexico, including the port of Matamoras.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.