AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 161 



Imported articles of food are exceedingly high at retail at the city of 

 Mexico. American hams, in canvas, forty to fifty cents per pound ; 

 American salmon, cans of one pound, one dollar ; mackerel, eighteen 

 to twenty-five cents each ; codfish, twenty-five cents per pound ; 

 cheese, fifty to seventy-five cents. The industry of Mexican pottery, 

 a handicraft exclusively, employs a great many laborers, but has no 

 organization every community, and almost every family, in the dis- 

 tricts where the conditions for production are favorable, making its 

 own wares, as iron, tin, and copper cooking utensils are almost un- 

 known in the domestic life of the masses of the Mexican people. The 

 Indian manufacturer packs his pottery into wicker crates, about two 

 feet square and from five to six feet long, and starts to different por- 

 tions of the country, on foot, with the crate. on his back. Consul 

 Lambert, of San Bias, states that he has known one " to travel more 

 than two hundred and fifty miles to find a market, and dispose of his 

 articles at prices varying from one and a half to twelve, and, in the 

 case of large pieces, as high as eighteen cents ; receiving, in the ag- 

 gregate, for the sale of his cargo, from twelve to fifteen dollars." 



The manufacture of leather is also one of the great industries of 

 Mexico ; but, with the exception of the sewing-machine, which has 

 been largely introduced in this and other occupations, the product 

 is exclusively one of handicraft. In a country where everybody rides 

 who can, the saddlery business is especially important ; and by gen- 

 eral acknowledgment there are no better saddles made anywhere in the 

 world than in Mexico ; and yet the United States has for many years 

 exported from twenty to thirty thousand dollars' worth of saddles an- 

 nually to Mexico. The explanation is, that the mechanical appliances 

 used in the United. States for making the " trees," and for stamping, 

 cutting, sewing, and ornamental stitching, enable the American manu- 

 facturers to pay an import duty of fifty-five per cent, and undersell 

 the hand-product of the low price (but dear cost) Mexican artisan. 

 Consul-General Sutton, of Matamoros, reports to the State Depart- 

 ment, under date of July, 1885, that Mexican dealers send to the 

 United States model saddle-trees and designs for trappings, and find 

 it more profitable to have the major part of the work of saddle-making 

 done there, than to do it all by the low-wage hand-labor of their own 

 country. 



In short, this condition of affairs in Mexico, in respect to wages 

 and the cost of production, is in strict accord with what has been de- 

 duced within recent years from the experience of other countries ; 

 namely, that the only form of labor to which the term "pauper" has 

 any significant or truthful application, is labor engaged in handicrafts 

 as contradistinguished from machinery production ; and that, where 

 such handicraft or ignorant labor is employed in manufacturing, the 

 final cost of its product, as represented by the amount of time re- 

 quired, or the number of persons called for in any given department, 

 VOL. xxix. 11 



