The commercial interests of the community were greatly depressed by these events. When the blockade of the river was raised at the close of 1828 there had been by no means such an influx of foreign goods as might have been expected; and, when civil dissensions shortly afterwards broke out, it was evident that the mercantile houses in Buenos Ayres had suffered too severely from the consequences of the war, and the ruinous depreciation of the currency, to encourage their correspondents in Europe to recommence extensive speculations in a country which, to all appearance, was destined to be sacrificed to the passions of contending factions. Whilst the republic was grievously suffering from these evils, the results also of the newly constituted independence of the Banda Oriental began to develop themselves in a manner very detrimental to the interests of Buenos Ayres. So long as Monte Video was in the hands of the Portuguese, its trade was extremely insignificant; but no sooner was it freed from that yoke than the people began to turn to account their local advantages, and in a way which it soon became manifest would greatly interfere with the trade of their old metropolis. In proportion as the domestic embarrassments of Buenos Ayres increased, and led that government to raise its duties on foreign trade, so the Monte Videans lowered theirs, and offered advantages which were irresistible in the adjoining provinces, where the duties levied by Buenos Ayres on foreign goods had always been considered a grievance, and where there was no national feeling strong enough to induce the petty authorities to forego their own separate interests in order to aid in sustaining the honour and credit of the capital. Monte Video has in consequence become a sort of entrepôt for the supply of those provinces, as well as of a portion of the neighbouring Brazilian population in the Rio Grande; and to such an extent, that the importations of foreign goods there were valued at no less than 3,000,000 in 1835, and had reached 3,500,000 hard dollars in 1836; whilst the exports were nearly equal in amount, and now constitute an important proportion of the returns in the general account of the trade with the River Plate. The amount of the imports into the port of Buenos Ayres has been diminished in proportion. In 1837 they were barely equal to 7,000,000 hard dollars, according to the official valuation, being a falling off of nearly a third from what they were before the war with Brazil. Making allowances for this difference in its course, the foreign trade with the River Plate has varied little in its general amount for the last five years.