Remarkably Fertile Soil.--Valuable Native Woods.--Mexican Flora.--Coffee
and Tobacco.--Mineral Products.--Silver Mines.--Sugar Lands.--
Manufactories.--Cortez's Presents to Charles V.--Water Power.--Coal
Measures.--Railroads.--Historic Locality.--Social Characteristics.--
People divided into Castes.--Peonage.--Radical Progress.--Education
and the Priesthood.--A Threshing Machine.--Social Etiquette.--
Political Organization of the Government.--Mexico the Synonym of
Barbarism.--Production and Business Handicapped by an Excessive
Tariff.
Mexico is remarkable for the fertility and peculiar productiveness of
her soil, both of a vegetable and mineral character, though the former
is very largely dependent upon irrigation, and almost everywhere suffers
for want of intelligent treatment. As a striking proof of the fertility
of the soil, an able writer upon the subject tells us, among other
statistical facts, that while wheat cultivated in France and some other
countries averages but six grains for one planted, Mexican soil gives an
average product of twenty-two times the amount of seed which is sown.
Humboldt was surprised at this when it was reported to him, and took
pains to verify the fact, finding the statement to be absolutely
correct. Being situated partly in the tropics and partly in the
temperate zone, its vegetable products partake of both regions, and are
varied in the extreme. In the hot lands are dense forests of rosewood,
mahogany, and ebony, together with dyewoods of great commercial value,
while in the temperate and cooler districts the oak and pine are
reasonably abundant. It must be admitted, however, that those districts
situated near populous neighborhoods have been nearly denuded of their
growth during centuries of waste and destruction by the conquering
Spaniards. From this scarcity of commercial wood arises the absence of
framed houses, and the universal use of stone and clay, or adobe, for
building purposes. There is valuable wood enough in certain districts,
which is still being wasted. The sleepers of the Monterey and Mexican
Gulf railway are nearly all of ebony. Attention having been called to
the fact, orders have been issued to save this wood for shipment to our
Northern furniture manufacturers. Iron ties and sleepers are being
substituted on the trunk lines of the railways as fast as the wooden
ones decay, being found so much more durable. Those used on the Vera
Cruz line are imported from England; on the Mexican Central, from the
United States. There is a low, scrubby growth of wood on the table-lands
and mountain sides, which is converted by the peons into charcoal and
transported on the backs of the burros (jackasses) long distances for
economical use in the cities and villages. All the delicious fruits of
the West Indies are abundantly produced in the southern section, and all
the substantial favorites of our Northern and Western States thrive
luxuriantly in her middle and northern divisions. Some of the cultivated
berries are remarkably developed; the strawberry, for instance, thrives
beyond all precedent in central Mexico, and while larger, it is no less
delicately flavored than our own choice varieties. The flora throughout
Mexico is exceedingly rich and varied, botanists having recognized over
ten thousand families of plants indigenous to the soil. It appeared to
the writer, however, that while the color of the flowers was intensified
above that of our Northern States, their fragrance was not so well
defined. Even the soft green mosses threw out a star-like blossom of
tiny proportions, which seemed almost as full of expression as human
eyes, while they emitted a subdued fragrance. The best-grown coffee of
the country is in our estimation equal to the best grades of Mocha or
Java, while the tobacco produced in several of the states compares
favorably with the much-lauded brands of Cuba. The most fertile regions
of Mexico lie on the east and west, where the districts decline abruptly
from the great plateau, or table-land, towards the coast.
The Monterey and Mexican Gulf railway has lately opened access to most
excellent land, suitable for sugar plantations, equal to the best in
Louisiana devoted to this purpose, and which can be bought for a mere
song, as the saying is. These lands are better adapted to sugar raising
than those of the State just named, because frost is here unknown. In
the opening of these tropical districts by railroad, connected with our
Southern system, we have offered us the opportunity to secure all the
products which we now get from Cuba. These staples are equal in quality,
and can be landed at our principal commercial centres at a much less
cost than is paid for shipments from that island. Such is the arbitrary
rule of Spain in Cuba, and the miserable political condition of her
people, that all business transacted in her ports is handicapped by
regulations calculated to drive commerce away from her shores. The fact
should also be recalled that while Mexico produces every article which
we import from Cuba, she has over five times the population to consume
our manufactures and products, rendering her commercial intercourse with
us just so much more important. At present, or rather heretofore, she
has sought to exchange her native products almost wholly with Europe,
through the port of Vera Cruz; but on account of the excellent
facilities afforded by the Mexican Central Railroad the volume of trade
has already begun to set towards the United States. While upon the
subject it may be mentioned incidentally that the way business of this
railroad has exceeded all calculations, and yet it is but partially
developed, the rolling stock being quite inadequate to the demand for
freight transportation.
In minerals it would seem as though the list of products was unequaled.
At present the silver mines are undoubtedly the greatest source of
wealth to the country, though under proper conditions the agricultural
capacity of the land would doubtless exceed all other interests in
pecuniary value, as indeed is the case in most other gold and silver
producing countries. The principal mineral products of Mexico are iron,
tin, cinnabar, silver, gold, alum, sulphur, and lead. In the state of
Durango, large masses of the best magnetic iron ore are found, which at
some future day will supply the material for a great and useful
industry. Other iron mines exist, and some have been utilized to a
limited extent. Coal is found in abundance, notably in the states of
Oaxaca, Sonora, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila. These coal measures are
particularly valuable in a country many parts of which are treeless and
without economical fuel. The total coinage of silver ore in the mints of
Mexico to this date, we were intelligently informed, amount to the
enormous aggregate of three thousand millions of dollars, to which may
be added, in arriving at the total product of the mines, the amount
exported in bars and the total value consumed in manufactures. This last
item amounts to a much larger figure than one who has not given the
subject careful thought would be prepared to admit.
Mexico can hardly be spoken of as a manufacturing country, in the usual
acceptation of the term, though the Spaniards found that cotton cloth
had been made here long before their advent. It is also a fact that such
domestic goods as the masses of her population absolutely require she
produces within her own limits by native industry, such as cotton cloth,
blankets, woollen cloth, cotton shawls, leather goods, saddlery, boots,
shoes, hats, and other articles of personal wear. There are over twenty
large woollen mills in the country, several for the production of
carpeting, and many cotton mills, the product of the latter being almost
wholly the unbleached article, which is universally worn by the masses.
The cotton mills are many of them large, and worthy of special
commendation for the healthful and beneficent system adopted in them, as
well as for the excellence of their output. The number of factories of
all sorts in the country is estimated at about one hundred. There is
nearly enough sugar produced on the plantations to satisfy the home
demand, an industry which might be indefinitely extended. Climate, soil,
and the rate of wages all favor such an idea. The Sandwich Islands,
which have been so largely resorted to for the establishment of sugar
plantations, cannot show one half the advantages which lie unimproved on
the new lines of the Mexican railways. If a capitalist were considering
the purpose of establishing a large sugar plantation, the fact of cheap
and easy transportation to market being here close at hand should alone
settle the question as between the islands referred to and this
locality. Hardware and cutlery, of excellent quality and in large
quantities, are manufactured. The paper, household furniture, pottery,
crockery, and even glass generally in use, are of home production, which
will give the reader an idea of the present native resources of the
country, developed not by fortuitous aid, but under the most depressing
circumstances.
It will be remembered that Cortez, soon after he landed in Mexico, sent
to Charles V. specimens of native cotton fabrics, so that probably
cotton was not only grown but manufactured here as early as in any other
country. The historians tell us that the Aztecs made as large and as
delicate webs as those of Holland. Besides working in textile fabrics,
this ancient people wrought metals, hewed stone, and manufactured
pottery of delicate forms and artistic finish. The misfortune of one
country is the gain of another. The paucity of fuel wherewith to obtain
steam power, and the lack of rivers capable of giving water power, must
always prevent Mexico from being a competing country, as to
manufactures, with the United States, where these essentials abound. She
has, however, only to turn her attention to the export of fruits, and
other products which are indigenous to her sunny land, to acquire ample
means wherewith to purchase from this country whatever she may desire in
the line of luxuries or necessities.
That a portion of Mexico is utterly sterile and unavailable is just as
much a fact as that we have such regions in the western part of the
United States. There are large sections here which suffer from annual
droughts, but which might be redeemed by irrigation, the facilities for
which in most cases are near enough at hand, only requiring to be
properly engineered. It is not correct to paint everything of rose-color
in the republic; it has its serious drawbacks, like all other lands
under the sun. The want of water is the prevailing trouble, but, like
Australia, this country has enough of the precious liquid if properly
conserved and adapted. The Rio Grande produces more water in a
twelvemonth than the great Murray River of Australia, which is flooded
at certain seasons and is a "dry run" at others. As we have intimated,
the absence of available wood and coal will prevent the growth of
manufactures in Mexico, at least, until the coal deposits are opened up
by railroads. The coal measures are not yet fully surveyed, or
developed, but sufficient has been shown to demonstrate their great
extent and valuable qualities. When these coal deposits shall be brought
by means of railroads, already projected or in course of construction,
within the reach of the business centres, and deliverable to consumers
at reasonable prices, a great impetus to manufactures will be realized
through this article of prime necessity. A company has lately been
formed in England to explore and develop these coal fields, for which
purpose a liberal concession has been obtained from the Mexican
government. This is only one more evidence of the fact that foreign
capital and foreign enterprise are flowing towards the country. It will
be observed also that these new companies are mostly English; some are
German; but there are comparatively few Americans engaged in these
enterprises. We have seen it in print that Mexico was fast becoming
Americanized, but this is a mistake; there are many more Europeans than
Americans in Mexico, as we use the word Americans, that is, people of
the United States.
Where water power is to be obtained, it is improved to the utmost, as at
Queretaro, where a small river is made to turn the largest overshot
wheel which has ever been constructed, furnishing power in the famous
Hercules Cotton Factory of that city, which gives regular employment to
many hundred native men and women.
An improved and stable system of government and increased railroad
facilities are doing wonders for our neighbors across the Rio Grande.
The iron horse and steel rail are great promoters of civilization. It
would be impossible to overestimate the importance of this branch of
progress in the interests of both Mexico and the United States, by which
means we are constantly becoming more and more intimately united. The
Mexican Central Railroad has lately completed its connection with
Tampico on the Gulf by a branch road running almost due east from its
main trunk, starting near or at Aguas Calientes; another, running about
due west towards the port of San Blas on the Pacific, has already been
completed as far as Guadalajara, starting from the main trunk at
Irapuato. The former city being the present terminus of the road, is
considered the second in importance in Mexico. When the narrow space
still remaining is opened by rail, the continent will be crossed by
railway trains between the Atlantic and Pacific at a narrow and most
available point. The increase of way passengers and freight upon this
road during the past two years is a source of surprise and of
gratification to the company. The rolling stock is being monthly
increased, having proved to be inadequate to the business.
The Tampico branch of this road passes through scenery which experienced
travelers pronounce to be equal in grandeur to any on this continent.
Indeed, had the appalling engineering difficulties to be encountered
been fully realized before the road was begun, it is doubtful if it
would have been built. The cost has slightly exceeded ten million
dollars. That which seemed easy enough, as designed upon paper, proved
to be a herculean task in the consummation. It was a portion of the
original plan, when the Mexican Central Railroad was surveyed, to build
this branch, and six years after the completion of the main trunk the
Tampico road was duly opened. The distance from this harbor on the Gulf
of Mexico to Aguas Calientes is a trifle over four hundred miles. With
the improvements already under way, it will be rendered the best seaport
on the Gulf, infinitely superior, especially in point of safe anchorage,
to the open roadstead of Vera Cruz. Every ton of freight is now landed
at the latter port by lighters, and must continue to be so from the
nature of the coast; while in a couple of years at farthest Tampico will
have a most excellent harbor, perfectly sheltered, where the largest
steamships can lie at the wharf and discharge their cargoes. We are
sorry to say that San Blas, on the Pacific side, does not promise to
make so desirable a port. It is even suggested that Mazatalan, further
north, should be made the terminus of this branch road. American
enterprise and progressive ideas are peacefully but surely
revolutionizing a country where all previous change has been
accomplished by the sword, and all advance has been from scaffold to
scaffold. It would seem as though political convulsions formed one of
the conditions of national progress. In our own instance, through what
seas of blood had we to wade in abolishing that long standing curse of
this land, negro slavery. The Czar of Russia freed the millions of
serfs in his empire by a bold and manly ukase; but the nobility, who
counted their wealth by the number of human beings whom they held in
thralldom, have not yet forgiven the Czar for doing so. Revenge for that
philanthropic act is still the motive of the conspiracies which
occasionally come to the surface in that country. "Every age has its
problem," says Heinrich Heine, "by solving which humanity is helped
forward."
The federal capital of Mexico is in the centre of a country of
surpassing richness and beauty, but from the day of its foundation,
between seven and eight hundred years ago, it has been the theatre of
constant revolutions and bitter warfare, where hecatombs of human beings
have been sacrificed upon idolatrous altars, where a foreign religion
has been established at the spear's point, through torture by fire and
the rack, and where rivers of blood have been ruthlessly spilled in
battle, sometimes in repelling a foreign foe, but only too often in
still more cruel civil wars. Some idea of the chronic political
upheavals of the country may be had from the brief statement that there
have been fifty-four presidents, one regency, and one emperor in the
last sixty-two years, and nearly every change of government has been
effected by violence. Between 1821 and 1868, the form of government was
changed ten times.
Politeness and courtesy are as a rule characteristics of the intelligent
and middle classes of the people of Mexico, and are also observable in
intercourse with the humbler ranks of the masses. They have heretofore
looked upon Americans as being hardly more than semi-civilized. Those
with whom they have been most brought in contact have been reckless and
adventurous frontiersmen, drovers, Texans, cow boys, often individuals
who have left their homes in the Northern or Middle States with the
stigma of crime upon them. The inference they have drawn from contact
with such representatives of our population has been but natural. If
Mexicans travel abroad, they generally do so in Europe, sailing from
Vera Cruz, and they know comparatively little of us socially. It is
equally true that we have been in the habit of regarding the Mexicans in
much the same light. This mutual feeling is born of ignorance, and the
nearer relation into which the two countries are now brought by means of
the excellent system of railroads is rapidly dispelling the
misconception on both sides of the Rio Grande. The masses, especially
the peons, are far more illiterate than in this country, and are easily
led by the higher intelligence of the few; nor have the Mexicans yet
shown much real progress in the purpose of promoting general education,
though incipient steps have been taken in that direction in most of
their cities, affording substantial proof of the progressive tendencies
of the nation. We heard in the city of Mexico of free night schools
being organized, designed for the improvement of adults.
A division of the populace into castes rules here almost as imperiously
as it does in India, and it will require generations of close contact
with a more cultured and democratic people before these servile ideas
can be obliterated. Though we hear little or nothing said about this
matter, yet to an observant eye it has daily and hourly demonstration.
The native Indians of Mexico are of a different race from their
employers. Originally conquered and enslaved by the Spaniards, though
they have since been emancipated by law, they are still kept in a quasi
condition of peonage by superior wit and finesse. The proprietor of a
large hacienda, who owns land, say ten miles square, manages, by
advancing money to them, to keep the neighboring people in his debt.
They are compelled by necessity to purchase their domestic articles of
consumption from the nearest available supply, which is the storehouse
of the hacienda. Here they must pay the price which is demanded, let it
be never so unreasonable. This arrangement is all against the peon, and
all in favor of the employer. The lesser party to such a system is
pretty sure to be cheated right and left, especially as the estate is
nearly always administered by an agent and not by the owner himself.
There are some notable exceptions to this, but these only prove the
rule. So long as the employes owe the proprietor money, they are bound
by law to remain in his service. Wages are so low--say from twenty-five
to thirty-five cents per day--that were the natives of a thrifty,
ambitious, and provident disposition, which is by no means the case,
they could not save a dollar towards their pecuniary emancipation. The
laboring classes seem to have no idea of economy or of providing for the
morrow. Food, coarse food, and amusement for the present hour, that is
all they desire, and is all about which they seriously concern
themselves. The next score of years, while they will probably do much
for the country as regards commercial and intellectual improvement, will
prove fatal in a degree to the picturesqueness which now renders Mexico
so attractive. Radical progress in one direction must needs be
destructive in another, and while some of the allurements of her strong
individuality will disappear, her moral and physical status will be
greatly improved. Her ragged, half-naked people will don proper attire,
sacrificing the gaudy colors which now make every out-door scene
kaleidoscopic; a modern grain thresher will take the place of weary
animals plodding in a circle, treading out the grain; half-clad women at
the fountains will disappear, and iron pipes will convey water for
domestic use to the place of consumption. The awkward branch of crooked
wood now used to turn the soil will be replaced by the modern plough,
and reaping machines will relieve the weary backs of men, women, and
children, who slowly grub beneath a burning sun through the broad grain
fields. Irrigating streams will be made to flow by their own
gravitation, while the wooden bucket and well-sweep will become idle and
useless. Still, we are not among those who see only a bright side for
the future of the republic, nor do we believe so confidently as some
writers in her great natural resources. They are abundant, but not so
very exceptional as enthusiasts would have us believe. Aside from the
production of silver, which all must admit to be inexhaustible, she has
very little to boast of. It is doubtful if any other equal area in the
world possesses larger deposits of the precious metals, or has already
yielded to man more bountifully of them. We have seen it asserted by
careful and experienced writers, that one half of all the silver now in
use among the nations originally came from Mexico. Her real and
permanent progress is inevitable; but it will be very gradual, coming
not through her rich mines of gold and silver, but by the growth of her
agricultural and manufacturing interests; and if in a score of years she
can assume a position of respect and importance in the line of nations,
it is all that can reasonably be expected. If Mexico can but advance in
progressive ideas as rapidly during the next ten years as she has done
during the decade just past, the period we have named will be
abbreviated, and her condition will amount to a moral revolution.
Our sister republic has yet to accomplish two special and important
objects: first, the suppression of the secret and malign influence of
the Roman Catholic priesthood; and, secondly, the promotion of education
among the masses. Since the separation of church and state, in 1857,
education has made slow but steady advances. Most of the states have
adopted the system of compulsory education, penalties being affixed to
non-compliance with the law, and rewards decreed for those who
voluntarily observe the same. Though shorn of so large a degree of its
temporal powers, the church is still secretly active in its machinations
for evil. The vast army of non-producing, indolent priests is active in
one direction, namely, that for the suppression of all intelligent
progress, and the complete subjugation of the common people through
superstition and ignorance. A realization of the condition of affairs
may be had from the following circumstance related to us by a
responsible American resident. It must be remembered that the wheat,
which in some well-irrigated districts is the principal product, is
threshed by means of piling it up on the hard clay soil, and driving
goats, sheep, and burros over it. These animals trudge round and round,
with weary limbs, knee deep in the straw, for hours together, urged
forward by whips in the hands of men and boys, and thus the grain is
separated from the stalks. Of course the product threshed out in this
manner is contaminated with animal filth of all sorts. An enterprising
American witnessed this primitive process not long since, and on
returning to his northern home resolved to take back with him to Mexico
a modern threshing machine; and being more desirous to introduce it for
the benefit of the people than to make any money out of the operation,
he offered the machine at cost price. A native farmer was induced to put
one on trial, when it was at once found that it not only took the place
of a dozen men and boys, but also of twice that number of animals. This
was not all; the machine performed the work in less than one quarter of
the time required to do the same amount of work by the old method,
besides rendering the grain in a perfectly clear condition. This would
seem to be entirely satisfactory, and was so until it got to the ears of
the priests. They came upon the ground to see the machine work, and
were amazed. This would not answer, according to their ideas; from their
standpoint it was a dangerous innovation. What might it not lead to!
They therefore declared that the devil was in the machine, and
absolutely forbade the peons to work with it! Their threats and warnings
frightened their ignorant, servile parishioners out of their wits. The
machine was accordingly shipped north of the Rio Grande, whence it came,
to prevent the natives from destroying it, and cattle still tread out
the grain, which they render dirty and unfit for food, except in the
most populous centres, where modern machinery is being gradually
introduced.
"The clogging influence of the Romish Church," says Hon. John H. Rice,
"upon civilization and progress are seen in its opposition to the
education and elevation of the common people; in its intolerant warfare
against freedom of conscience, and all other forms of religious worship,
frequently displayed in persecutions, and sometimes in personal
injuries; and in its stolid opposition to the onward march of
development and improvement, unless directed to its own advantage."
The stranger who comes to Mexico with the expectation of enjoying his
visit must bring with him a liberal and tolerant spirit. He must be
prepared to encounter a marked difference of race, of social and
business life, together with the absence of many of such domestic
comforts as habit has rendered almost necessities. The exercise of a
little philosophy will reconcile him to the exigencies of the case, and
render endurable here what would be inadmissible at home. A coarse,
ill-cooked dinner, untidy service, and an unappeased appetite must be
compensated by active interest in grand and peculiar scenery; a hard bed
and a sleepless night, by the intelligent enjoyment of famous places
clothed with historic interest; foul smells and rank odors, by the
charming study of a unique people, extraordinarily interesting in their
wretched squalor and nakedness. Though the stranger is brought but
little in contact therewith, owing to the briefness of his visit to the
country, quite enough is casually seen and experienced to show that
there is no lack of culture and refinement, no absence of warmth of
heart and gracious hospitality, among the more favored classes of
Mexico, both in the northern and southern sections of the country.
Underneath the exaggerated expressions so common to Spanish etiquette,
there is yet a real cordiality which the discriminating visitor will not
fail to recognize. If, on a first introduction and visit, he is told
that the house and all it contains is his own, and that the proprietor
is entirely at his service, he will neither take this literally nor as a
burlesque, but will receive the assurance for what it really signifies,
that is, as conveying a spirit of cordiality. These expressions are as
purely conventional as though the host asked simply and pleasantly after
his guest's health, and mean no more.
If progress is and has been slow in Mexico, it must be remembered that
every advance has been consummated under most discouraging
circumstances, and yet that the charitable, educational, artistic, and
technological institutions already firmly established, are quietly
revolutionizing the people through the most peaceful but effective
agencies.
As to government organization, the several states are represented in
congress by two senators each, with one representative to the lower
house from each section comprising a population of forty thousand. The
federal district is under the exclusive jurisdiction of congress. The
division of power as accorded to the several states is almost precisely
like that of our own government. The federal authority is administered
by a president, aided by six cabinet ministers at the head of the
several departments of state, such as the minister of foreign affairs,
of the treasury, secretary of war, and so on. Thus it will be seen that
the republic of Mexico has adopted our own constitution as her model
throughout.
As long as heavy and almost prohibitory duties exist in Mexico, and are
exacted on nearly everything except the production of the precious
metals, the development of her other resources must be circumscribed.
With a rich soil and plenty of cheap labor, she ought to be able to
export many staples which would command our markets, especially as
regards coffee, cotton, and wool. If the custom-houses on each side of
the boundary between this country and Mexico could be abolished, both
would reap an immense pecuniary benefit, while the sister republic would
realize an impetus in every desirable respect which nothing else could
so quickly bring about. Wealth and population would rapidly flow into
this southern land, whose agriculture would thrive as it has never yet
done, and its manufactories would double in number as well as in
pecuniary gain. It requires no argument to show that our neighbors could
not be thus largely benefited without our own country also reaping an
equivalent advantage.
The very name of Mexico has been for years the synonym of barbarism; but
the traveled and reading public have gradually come to realize that it
is a country embracing many large and populous cities, where the
amenities of modern civilization abound, where elegance and culture are
freely manifested, and where great wealth has been accumulated in the
pursuit of legitimate business by the leading citizens. The national
capital will ere-long contain a population of half a million, while the
many new and costly edifices now erecting in the immediate environs are
of a spacious and elegant character, adapted, of course, to the climate,
but yet combining many European and American elements of advanced
domestic architecture.