other material for paper making which are to be found. Sugar is made in some states, but only in quantities required for home consumption. There are distilleries, but they are old-fashioned. Grapes flourish in the northern states, where good wine and brandy are made. Beer and ale are brewed; but a large quantity is imported annually from the United States and Europe. Tobacco is extensively grown and manufactured in the country; that of Vera Cruz is fully as good as the best Cuban weed. There are quite a number of flour mills. Iron foundries are numerous. The Government has recently established an arsenal and a gun foundry at the capital, where excellent work has been done. There are two type-foundries doing good work in the city of Mexico. Pottery and crockery are manufactured all over the country; the best is made in Guadalajara, Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Puebla. The crockery for table use is made generally in different colors. There are two factories in the federal district, where aca, in a southeasterly direction, and comprises the most important mining districts in the country. They contain gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, mercury, coal, zinc, antimony, arsenic, cinnabar, and silica; although the gold, silver, and copper produced from 1521 to 1884 is estimated at $3,847,340,420, it is considered a very small yield compared with the boundless wealth which is yet hidden in the bowels of the earth. Of this sum $3,332,271, 447.50 were coined since the establishment of the mints, in 1537, till December 31, 1888. The annual production of silver is now over $30,000,000; that of the other minerals is $5,000,000; and the total metal production is calculated at more than $60,000,ooo; it gives employment to over 200, 000 men. muceno paid the Spanish government $18,000,000 in taxes; while that of Santa Gertrudis, near Pachuca, yielded in four years, not long ago, about $2,300,000. Improved mining machinery has recently been introduced from the United States and Europe. The Cerro del Mercado, near Durango, is an enormous mass of magnetic iron, which has given upon analysis 66 per cent of pure metal; it is estimated to contain 60,000,000 cubic yards of iron ore, weighing 500,000,000,000 lbs. The famous onyx deposits are found in Puebla. Extensive quarries of onyx and marble of the most beautiful colors have recently been discovered in Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon. Opals are obtained in Queretaro, and Guanajuato. There are also topazes, emeralds, agates, amethysts, and garnets. The ruling of the Treasury Department in regard to silver-lead ores which were formerly treated in this country, and the act of congress levying a heavy duty on them, has led to the establishment in Mexico of large smelting plants, one of which, that of San Luis Potosi, represents a capital of $4,000,000. Coal deposits of good quality have recently been discovered in Coahuila, one of which exported last year 200,000 tons. In Sonora excellent anthracite coal has been found, one hundred miles from the mouth of the Yaqui River, containing 90 per cent of carbon. In Oaxaca plentiful coal beds have been discovered in Justlahuaca, also in Puebla, Jalisco, Tlaxcala, Vera Cruz, Hidalgo Tamaulipas, and Nuevo Leon. Petroleum and asphaltum are also found in Mexico, but the scarcity of the population and the difficulty of communication have been a great drawback to the development of this great natural resource. Land in Mexico is comparatively cheap. The public lands are mostly in parts of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Sinaloa, Sonora, etc. The best land is located in the temperate and hot regions. The inhabitants can denounce 6,177 acres; foreigners and naturalized citizens of bordering countries are not allowed to own real estate within twenty leagues of the boundary line or five leagues of the coast, except by express authority of the executive. They can acquire land in any other part of the country, but they become subject to the laws. Mexico has recently made great efforts to promote immigration, offering liberal inducements to foreigners, although with very poor success, so far, as shown by the number of colonists introduced in 1890, which amounts to only six thousand five hundred. The principal buildings in the city of Mexico are the Cathedral, which cost more than $2,000,000, - it was built in ninety-four years, and dedicated in December, 1667; the National Palace; the School of Mines; a fine building put up by the Spaniards; and the Municipal Palace, which contains a complete collection of portraits of the viceroys since Hernan Cortes. There are eight hospitals, a poor-house, an orphan industrial school, a reformatory school, a woman's school of arts, a blind and orphan asylum, a deaf and dumb asylum, a preparatory school, law, medical, engineering, commercial, agricultural, and arts colleges, and a conservatory of music. There is, also, an academy of arts, containing a very good collection of valuable paintings, sculptures, and engravings; a national museum interesting for the relics and Mexican antiquities it has ; a national library containing 150,000 volumes, some of them of great historical value; a mint, established since 1535; several markets; 20 hotels; 5 principal theatres; 5 banks ; 5 cemeteries; 77 newspapers, 20 of which are daily, 35, weekly, 8, fortnightly, 6, monthly, and 7, the time of issue of which is not stated. In the whole country there are 318 periodical publications, of which 3, are in English, 2, in French, and 1, in German, and 51 public libraries, with about half a million volumes. Up to April 1, 1890, the date of the latest data at hand, there were in operation in Mexico 8,850 kilometers of railway, most of which are owned by American companies. Until 1880, the only railroad of any importance was the Vera Cruz line, running to the capital, with a branch to Puebla. It was built by an English company, under a concession, which, although granted since 1857 and renewed several times, the work thereon did not really begin until November, 1868. It was opened to traffic in January, 1873, it is of standard gauge and measures 263 miles, not including the branch to Puebla. In September, 1880, a concession was made to some Boston gentlemen for the construction of a line from the capital to El Paso del Norte, passing through Leon, Aguscalientes, Zacatecas, and Chihuahua, with a branch to Guadalajara, to be ultimately extended to some Pacific port. The one to Tamico, on the Gulf of Mexico, was built under a concession from the state of San Luis Potosi. This road, called the Mexican Central (broad gauge), was inaugurated, thanks to Boston pluck and energy, in the summer of 1884, four years before the time fixed upon in the concession; the other two branches to Guadalajara and Tampico were opened some time later, and they have a total extension of 1,832 miles. A second concession was granted, about the same time, to a Boston corporation for a line from Nogales, Arizona, to Guaymas, Mexico, which was concluded some years ago, and is called the Sonora Railway; it is broad gauge and has 265 miles. A third concession, was made a few days later to the Mexican National Railroad Company for a line from the capital to Laredo, Texas, by the way of Toluca, San Luis Potosi, Saltillo, and Monterey, with a branch to Manzanillo, and was finished about four or five years ago. It is narrow gauge, and measures 1,069 miles. pec railroad, across the isthmus, where work has recently been resumed under a new contract; the Yucatan lines and the tramways in the principal cities where there are altogether about 235 kilometers. Almost all these roads were built with government subsidies, which some people did not believe would be paid. They were paid at first with a percentage of the import duties, and last year most of them were paid off by means of a loan contracted by the republic for that purpose. There were, in 1889, 48,000 kilometers of telegraph lines and about 8,000 kilometers of telephone lines, more than half of which belong to the government. Education has received great impetus within the last few years, both from the federal and state governments. Primary instruction is obligatory throughout the country. There were in 1888 about 9,ooo primary schools, attended by over half a million pupils, at a cost of $4,000,ooo per annum, and 136 preparatory and professional colleges, giving instruction to about 17,000 students, at an annual expense of $1,500,000. Trade between Mexico and the United States has been rapidly increasing within the last few years, notwithstanding the ruling of the U. S. Treasury Department in regard to silver-lead ores and the high duties imposed by the McKinley tariff bill. In 1874-75, for instance, the imports into Mexico amounted to $22,493,493 (Mexican money), the share therein of the United States being $5,028,635, while that of England was $8,657,163. In 1889-90, the latest date at hand, the imports went up to $40,024,894, the United States contributing, first on the The other roads which have also been list, with $22,669,421, and England, secbuilt within the last few years are: The ond, with $6,337,980. The exports from Mexican International (American, broad Mexico for 1874-75 footed up to $27,gauge, 409 miles), from Eagle Pass, 318,788, of which this country received Texas, to Torreon, a station on the Mex- $10,358,167; while in 1890-91 they inican Central, now being extended to Du- creased to $63,276,395, of which $44,rango, has been constructed without any 983,086 (or 71-09 per cent) were sent to subsidy; the Monterey and Tampico the United States. (American, broad gauge, 400 miles); the Interoceanic (English), from Vera Cruz to Mexico, via Jalapa, to be extended to Acapulco; the Mexican Southern (English), from Puebla to Oaxaca, now finished to Tecomaca, 140 miles; the Tehuante The following table shows the enlargement of trade since 1885-86, when the four railway lines, built by American companies, which are really continuations of and feeders of the trunk roads of this country, were opened to traffic: பட Exports from Mexico to the United States: In 1885-86, they were $25,429,594.56, or 58.26 per cent; in 1886-87, $21,728,714.79, or 56.37 per cent; in 1887-88, $31,059,626.66, or 63.54 per cent; in 1888-89, $40,853,362.74, or 67.91 per cent; in 1889-90, $43,022,440.67, or 68.84 per cent; and in 189091, $44,983,086.37, or 71.09 per cent; of this latter amount, $23,400,832.94 (or 64.54 per cent), were in precious metals, and $21,582,253.43 (or 79.88 per cent) in other commodities. The total exports from Mexico in 1890-91 are made up as follows: In precious metals, $36,256,372.16; hennequen, $7,048,556.76; coffee, $6,150,358.72; hides and skins, $1,804,828.69; woods, $1,726,527.08; lead, $1,125,468.64; tobacco, $1,105,446.73, and sundries, $8,058,836.56. There is no reason in the world why the trade between our two countries, which are only separated by a narrow river and an imaginary line, should not attain much larger figures than at present. We need in Mexico your machinery to work our mines, on the most important sources of wealth, your agricultural implements for the development and culti vation, on a large scale, of our rich and fertile lands, your manufactured goods; while in exchange, you need our mineral ores, our textile fibres, our coffee, hides and skins, tobacco, precious woods, and other raw material, to feed your manufactories. The Mexican government has shown a willingness to establish closer commercial relations with the United States, acting upon the conviction that such a policy is beneficial to both countries and cannot but strengthen and cement upon firmer basis the good relations which now happily exist between the two republics. In proof of this she concluded, in 1883, the Grant-Romero reciprocity treaty, which, although ratified by the two contracting parties, failed unfortunately, because the U. S. House of Representatives did not act within the time prescribed by the treaty on the bill presented thereto, providing for the necessary legislation to carry it into effect; this bill was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and an adverse majority report was rendered thereon, couched in very uncomplimentary terms to Mexico. It is to be hoped that further efforts in this direction may have better success in the future. |