f Quito freed the Indian inhabitants from
mining labour, a form of industry which, under Spanish rule, depopulated
so many native centres. In consequence of this Quito was reputed to be
the most thickly populated province of South America. Various
manufactures were pursued, and there were several towns with populations
of over 10,000. The products of the land were exchanged for wine, oil,
and other extraneous products, but so inefficient was the colonial
administration that in 1790 Quito was one of the poorest of South
American cities.

The article of chief value--for rubber had not then come into
prominence--was the _quinquina_, or cinchona bark, at first considered
peculiar to the territory of Loxa, but subsequently found to exist at
Bogota, Riobamba, and many other parts of New Granada. It was first
introduced to Europe by the Jesuits in 1639, and after its use had been
established at the Spanish Court in 1640, it commanded a price of 100
crowns a pound. In these circumstances _quinquina_ was, as a matter of
course, subject to adulteration and substitution--practices which
brought their own reward, since the quinine of Loxa, at one time
considered of the highest quality, fell into disrepute when the
gatherers in that province mixed with the real article the bark of other
trees. Perpetually increasing demand led to more careful search for
supplies, and the New Granada of the colonial era owed almost all its
prosperity to the exports of the famed bark, for the output of minerals
dwindled almost to vanishing point.

The Captain-Generalship of Venezuela was chiefly noteworthy for the
Spanish settlements on the Orinoco, where over 4,000 Spaniards were
contained in a dozen or so of villages rather indolently engaged in
cattle raising. Together with tributary Indians, the settlers made up a
total population of nearly 17,000, with over 70,000 head of cattle among
them. Their trade was with the Dutch of Curacoa, who supplied goods in
exchange for cattle, hides, and tobacco.

Caracas was then, as it is now, the head-quarters of the colony, which
was separated from the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1731. Three years
previously--in 1728--some merchants of Guipiscoa obtained exclusive
trading rights with Caracas, conditionally on their putting an end to
the trade with Curacoa, and landing all cargoes at Cadiz. So
successfully did they fulfil these conditions, and to such an extent did
they increase the development of the colon