MANUFACTURES.
TABLE OF COTTON FACTORIES IN
MEXICO--CONSUMPTION--PRODUCTION.--INCREASE OF FACTORIES--DAY AND
NIGHT WORK.--DEFICIT OF MATERIAL--WATER AND STEAM POWER--MEXICAN
MANUFACTURES GENERALLY.
TABULAR STATEMENT OF THE COTTON FACTORIES IN MEXICO, THEIR CONSUMPTION
AND PRODUCTION IN 1844.
KEY:
A: No. of factories.
B: Spindles in operation.
C: Spindles erecting.
D: Total.
E: No. of looms.
F: Quintals of cotton consumed weekly.
G: Weekly product of pounds of cotton twist.
H: Weekly product of pieces of cotton cloth.
I: Weekly expenses.
-----------+---+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-------+-------+-------
States. | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I
-----------+---+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-------+-------+-------
Durango .. | 5| 5,560| 816| 6,376| 140| 139| 400| 778 |$1,795
Guanajuato | 1| 500| 800| 800| ...| 10| 900| ... | 150
Jalisco... | 4| 8,904| 5,664| 14,568| 220| 228| 16,800| ... | 2,450
Mexico.... | 17| 23,894| 200| 24,094|1,187| 401| 36,000| 3,277 | 8,413
Puebla.... | 21| 37,396| 5,842| 42,874| 530| 691| 61,710| 1,290 | 6,154
Queretaro. | 2| 5,400| 4,200| 9,600| 112| 137| 10,000| 400 | 2,400
Sonora ... | 1| 2,198| ...| 2,198| 54| 71| ...| 57 | 385
Vera Cruz | 8| 22,856| 1,992| 24,848| 366| 361| 35,835| 733 | 5,510
-----------+---+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-------+-------+-------
| 59|106,708| 18,654|125,362|2,609|2,038|161,654| 6,535 |$27,257
-----------+---+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-------+-------+-------
Very few returns are wanting to make this table perfect in every respect.
-----------+---+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-------+-------+-------
From this summary it appears that the total number of spindles in
operation and in course of erection in the republic in the year
1844,--anterior to the war and during a period of comparative
progress,--amounted to 125,362, together with 2609 looms in the
fifty-nine factories of cotton stuffs and twist. These factories
consumed, weekly, 2038 quintals of cotton, and gave, according to the
table, a weekly product of 161,654 lbs. of cotton twist, a portion of
which they converted into 6535 pieces of cotton cloth, the remainder
being sold for the consumption of private and scattered hand looms
throughout the country. An intelligent and experienced manufacturer,
acquainted with Mexican factories, and at present residing in this
country, calculates with apparent justice, that 2038 quintals of
cotton, allowing fairly for waste, will yield, 183,420 lbs. of twist and
filling, and that the weekly product of cotton cloth will be 8479 pieces
of 32 varas each, from 2609 looms, each loom averaging about three and
one quarter pieces per week. But allowing this correction of the above
table of the _Junta de Fomento_, and adhering to its data in other
respects in which it appears to be entirely faithful, we attain some
important results. By comparing the number of spindles actually in
Mexico at that epoch, with the number known to be there in 1842, viz:
131,280, and adding to the number now stated 8050 which are in the
various factories closed in the interval but whose machinery is still in
existence, we show an increase of 2132 according to the most accurate
accessible information. Since the war the number has been no doubt
largely augmented if we may judge by the numerous shipments of machinery
to Mexico from Europe and North America.
* * * * *
In order to show the importance to Mexico of allowing the liberal
importation of cotton from the United States, inasmuch as it is not
likely she will become a cotton growing country in proportion to the
increase of her manufacturing population, we have prepared the following
comparative estimates. In our chapters on the agriculture of the
republic we have endeavored, and we hope successfully, to demonstrate
the impracticability of inducing the Indians to produce sufficient for
present purposes, or to devote themselves to the labor of extensive
cotton plantations for the benefit of the future.
* * * * *
Working _by day_ alone the Mexican factories consume yearly 105,976
quintals, or 10,597,600 lbs. of raw cotton, whilst the whole cotton crop
of the republic according to recent estimates, is not more than 60,000,
or, 70,000 quintals, equal to 7,000,000 lbs.; but if they worked _by day
and night_, they would use 18,545,800 lbs. of the raw material, allowing
three-fourths of the day consumption for night work. From these
calculations we derive the following imtant results, as to deficiency:
1st.
Working _by day only_, the yearly consumption of cotton is 10,597,600 lbs.
Deduct the whole Mexican crop of 70,000 quintals, at 100 lbs.
per quintal, 7,000,000 "
Deficit, 3,597,600 "
2d.
Working by day--yearly consumption, as above, 10,597,600 lbs.
Add three-fourths for night work, 7,948,200 "
__________
Total consumption, 18,545,800 "
Deduct Mexican crop as above, 7,000,000 "
__________
Deficit, 11,545,800 "[25]
Cotton varies, as we have seen in price according to demand, at Tepic,
Mazatlan, Vera Cruz, Tampico, Puebla, Durango, the valley of Mexico,
&c., from fifteen dollars, per quintal, to forty-eight. If we rate it,
on an average, at twenty-five dollars per quintal, the value of the
deficit on _day_ consumption will be $899,400, and on _day and night_
consumption, $2,886,450, all of which must necessarily, be made up by
importation.
We have prepared the preceding table in order to attract the attention
of cotton _producing_ countries, and to demonstrate the fact that
Mexico, in all likelihood, may become a _manufacturing_ nation, inasmuch
as the surplus population of towns, the women and children, may be
successfully employed in this branch of human industry, when they have
no agricultural district from which they may easily derive support with
the least labor. There is reason to believe that water power, for the
use of factories is abundant all over the republic. The natural drainage
of a mountain country will at once prove this fact. Innumerable small
streams, falling from the crests and sides of the _sierras_, pour
through the ravines and barrancas; but in consequence of the scarcity of
wood and the costliness of its transportation, it is not probable that
steam power can be advantageously used. Factories of paper near the
capital, at Puebla and in Guadalajara are working with success, but they
do not produce enough for the consumption of the republic. At Puebla and
Mexico there are several factories of the ordinary kinds of glass and
tumblers, whilst woollen blankets, baizes, and, at present, _fine_
cloths, are yielded by several establishments erected before and since
the war. The well known Mexican _serape_, or _poncho_,--an oblong
garment, pierced in the centre to allow the passage of the head, and
which falls in graceful folds from the shoulders of a horseman over his
person--is one of the most generally demanded fabrics from native looms.
These blankets are often of beautiful texture, composed of the richest
materials and colors, and, according to the fineness of their wool and
weaving, vary in cost from twenty-five to five hundred dollars. The
_serape_ is an indispensable article, both for use and luxury, for the
_lepero_ as well as the _caballero_, and being as much needed by men as
the _reboso_, or long cotton shawl, is by the women, it may readily be
conceived how great is the consumption of these two articles of domestic
manufacture alone. There are between five and six thousand hand looms
throughout the several states, and these are continually engaged in the
fabrication of _rebosos_ and _serapes_, the latter of which are most
exquisitely dyed and woven in tasteful patterns in the neighborhood of
Saltillo.[26]
[Illustration: INDIAN HUT IN THE TIERRA CALIENTE.]