iz THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sires and interests of the Mexican people. The government or vice- 

 royalty established by Spain, in Mexico, for the practical application 

 of this policy, accordingly seems to have always regarded the attain- 

 ment of three things or results as the object for which it was mainly 

 constituted, and to have allowed nothing of sentiment or of humanita- 

 rian consideration to stand for one moment in the way of their rigorous 

 prosecution and realization. These were, first, to collect and pay into 

 the royal treasury the largest possible amount of annual revenue ; sec- 

 ond, to extend and magnify the authority and work of the established 

 Church ; third, to protect home (i. e., Spanish) industries. 



Starting with the assumption that the country, with all its people and 

 resources, was the absolute property of the crown in virtue of conquest, 

 the accomplishment of t\iQ first result was sought through the practical 

 enslavement of the whole native population, and the appropriation of 

 the largest amount of all production that was compatible with the con- 

 tinued existence of productive industries. With the civil power at 

 the command of the Church, the attainment of the second result was 

 from the outset most successful ; for, with a profession of belief and 

 the acceptance of baptism, on the one hand, and the vigilance of the 

 Inquisition and a menace of the fires of the auto-da-fe on the other, 

 the number of those who wanted to exemplify in themselves the su- 

 premacy of conscience or the freedom of the will, was very soon reduced 

 to a minimum. And, finally, the correctness or expediency of the 

 principle of protection to home (Spanish) industry having been once 

 accepted, it was practically carried out, with such a logical exact- 

 ness and absence of all subterfuge, as to be worthy of admiration, 

 and without parallel in all economic history. For, in the first instance, 

 with a view of laying the axe directly at the root of the tree of com- 

 mercial freedom, all foreign trade or commercial intercourse with 

 any country other than Spain was prohibited under pain of death ; 

 and that ordinance is believed to have been kept in force until within 

 the present century. No schools or educational institutions save 

 those of an ecclesiastical nature were allowed, and in these instruc- 

 tion in almost every branch of useful learning was prohibited. Cer- 

 tain portions of Mexico were admirably adapted, as they yet are, 

 to the cultivation of the vine, the olive, the mulberry, and of fiber- 

 yielding plants, and also for the keeping and breeding of sheep ; 

 but, as a colonial supply of wine, oil, silk, hemp, and wool might 

 interfere with the interests of home producers, the production of any 

 or all of these articles was strictly prohibited ; neither was any manu- 

 facture whatever allowed which could by any possibility interfere 

 with any similar industry of Old Spain. When Hidalgo, a patriotic 

 Catholic priest, about the year 1810, with a desire to diversify the in- 

 dustries of his country and benefit his countrymen, introduced the 

 silk-worm and promoted the planting of vineyards, the authorities de- 

 stroyed the one and uprooted the other ; and through these acts first 



