2 g6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to be given to a trained financier, thoroughly versed in all the principles 

 of taxation and of economic sciences, and conversant with the results 

 of actual experiences, the problem of making things speedily and 

 radically better in this department of the Mexican state is so difficult 

 that he might well shrink from grappling with it. 



In the first place, the great mass of the Mexican people have little 

 or no visible, tangible property which is capable of direct assessment. 



Again, in any permanent system of taxation, taxes in every country 

 or community, in common with all the elements of the cost of produc- 

 tion and subsistence wages, profits, interest, depreciation, and mate- 

 rials must be substantially drawn from each year's product. Now, 

 the annual product of Mexico is comparatively very small. Thus, for 

 example, Mr. Sutton, United States consul-general at Matamoros, as 

 before noticed, has shown that the annual product of the single State 

 of South Carolina is absolutely two and a half times or, proportion- 

 ally to area, twenty-five times as valuable as the annual product of 

 the entire northern half of Mexico ; and the Argentine Republic of 

 South America, with only one third of the population of Mexico, has 

 a revenue twenty per cent greater, and double the amount of foreign 

 commerce. Product being small, consumption must of necessity be 

 also small. Ex-Consul Strother (report to State Department, United 

 States, 1885) says : " The average cost of living (food and drink) to a 

 laboring-man in the city of Mexico is about twenty-five cents per day ; 

 in the country from twelve and a half to eighteen cents. The average 

 annual cost of a man's dress is probably not over five dollars ; that of 

 a woman double that sum, with an undetermined margin for gewgaws 

 and cheap jewelry." Mr. Lambert, United States consul at San Bias, 

 reports under date of May, 1884 : " The average laborer and mechanic 

 of this country may be fortunate enough, if luck be not too unchari- 

 table toward him, to get a suit of tanned goat-skin, costing about six 

 dollars, which will last him as many years." 



The food of the masses consists mainly of agricultural products 

 corn {tortillas)^ beans (frijoles), and fruits, which are for the most 

 part the direct results of the labor of the consumer, and not obtained 

 through any mechanism of purchase or exchange. 



Persons conversant with the foreign commerce of Mexico are also 

 of the opinion that not more than five per cent of its population buy 

 at the present time any imported article whatever ; or that, for all 

 purposes of trade in American or European manufactures, the popu- 

 lation is much in excess of half a million. Revenue in Mexico from 

 any tariff on imports must, therefore, be also limited ; and this limita- 

 tion is rendered much greater than it need be by absurdly high duties; 

 which (as notably is the case of cheap cotton fabrics) enrich the smug- 

 gler and a few mill-proprietors, to the great detriment of the national 

 exchequer. 



It is clear, therefore, that the basis available to the Government 



