CORRESP ONDENCE. 



411 



CORRESPONDENCE 



"AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO." 



Messrs. Editors : 



I HAVE read with interest the article 

 under the above title published by Mr. 

 David A. Wells in the April " Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly," and, while I admire in it the 

 author's smoothness and facility of style, I 

 can not afford, as a Mexican, to let it pass 

 without at least pointing out some of its 

 many inaccuracies in regard to history and 

 current facts. 



It does not require great acuteness of 

 mind to perceive, prima facie, that, in pre- 

 paring his article, Mr. Wells has been mere 

 careful to pick out the best way of showing 

 his predisposition against Mexico, than to 

 make an accurate representation of things 

 as they really are, and as they have been 

 narrated by more competent and judicious 

 persons. I am far from affirming that all 

 the assertions of Mr. Wells are equally de- 

 ficient in justice and truth, but I do hold 

 that in no instance do we see him disposed 

 to point out our good Hangs among the 

 cowitless bad ones he so eagerly mentions. 



If I were to review Mr. Wells's " Eco- 

 nomic Study of Mexico," I should begin by 

 saying that while he thinks that " the ma- 

 jority of those who in recent years have j 

 visited that country would seem to have 1 

 brought to their eyes the power of seeing i 

 little else than the picturesque side of ! 

 things," I believe that he has exerted his i 

 powers of vision to see nothing else than 

 the gloomy side of them, for so it must 

 appear to everybody conversant with our 

 modern history who may peruse the " Eco- 

 nomic Study of Mexico." 



According to Mr. Wells's notions, Mexi- 

 co is one of the most stupid, the most in- 

 secure, the poorest, the most arid, the most 

 miserable countries of our planet, and all 

 candid readers who may be pleased to read 

 his thrilling descriptions might think that 

 they are the product of long, careful study 

 and extensive travels, and not of a rapid 

 pleasure trip along the Mexican Central 

 and National Railroads. But to the thought- 

 ful and intelligent reader it will rather 

 appear a ridiculous pretension to try to 

 demolish, with such an imperfect and un- 

 qualified knowledge, all that thoroughly 

 competent men have written in regard to 

 the immense natural resources of this coun- 

 try.^ It may be admitted that Mexico, as a 

 nation, is poor, but as a country it may be 

 classed among the richest in the world, de- 

 spite the efforts of Mr. Wells to establish 

 the contrary. Has Mr. Wells ever read the 

 writings of Humboldt, Burckhardt, Egloff- 

 stein, and many others, about the wonderful 



natural richness of this country ? Has he 

 ever consulted the official statistics and re- 

 ports ? I think not, or else he enforces with 

 his example the truth of that old saying that 

 " the most blind is the one who does not want 

 to see " ; or perhaps Mr. Wells, considering 

 himself the ne plus ultra in matters of au- 

 thority, will emphatically assert that the 

 writings of those great men are mere sto- 

 ries, destitute of all value, or, as he say8 

 of the historic writings of Mr. Prescott, are 

 nothing more than " charming romances." 

 It is very easy to dispose of authorities in 

 this peculiar way of Mr. Wells, but the real 

 damage inflicted by so doing is scarcely 

 greater than that which would result if I 

 were to try to stop the course of the sun 

 with my hand. 



It is very striking to see Mr. Wells com- 

 pletely disregarding our natural resources, 

 especially our mines. In a period of one 

 hundred and ten years (1690-1800) of the 

 colonial epoch the mines of Mexico pro- 

 duced, in gold and silver, the sum of $1 - 

 499,435,898.* The pure mines of Guana- 

 juato produced in a period of forty years 

 (1766-1808) the respectable amount of 

 $165,002,145 ;f and the Valenciana mine 

 alone yielded from H66 to 1826, in round 

 numbers, the sum of $226,000,0004 Next 

 in importance is the Zacatccas district, 

 which, according to respectable authorities, 

 produced, from 1548 to 1883, the astonish- 

 ing sum of $1, 000,000,000. But it would 

 be an endless task to pursue our investiga- 

 tions about the many other mining districts 

 of our country which also have yielded im- 

 mense quantities of silver and gold; and 

 what we have said of Guanajuato and Za- 

 catccas surely will be sufficient to give an 

 idea of the importance of our mines. 



Our agriculture, it is true, has not been 

 rightly developed, partly on account of the 

 many revolutions we have had in past years, 

 and partly on account of the fact that our 

 attention is chiefly directed to the mining 

 industries; yet we produce enough wheat, 

 maize, beans, coffee, sugar, etc., for our 

 consumption, and have a regular surplus 

 for exportation. But even if we did not 

 produce a single grain, on account of the 

 imperfect development of our agriculture 

 the argument would be a very poor one to 

 brr.ndish against the fact that our soil is 

 rich and exuberant. 



On account of the same revolutionary 

 state of the country from the epoch of in- 



* Humboldt, ''Political Essay on New Spain " 

 vol. ii. p 91. v ' 



t Ibid. 



% Dablgren, "Historic Mines of Mexico," p. 38. 

 Ibid. 



