46 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



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, re- 

 ported under date of May, 1884 : " The average laborer and me- 

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

 uncharitable toward him, to get a suit of tanned goatskin, costing 

 him about six dollars, which will last him as many years." Of 

 household goods, the mass of the Mexican people are almost desti- 

 tute. A few untanned hides are used for beds, and dressed goat 

 or sheep skins serve for mattress and covering. 



The food of the masses consists mainly of agricultural prod- 

 ucts — 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 popula- 

 tion buy at the present time any imported article whatever, and 

 that for all purposes of trade in American or European manufac- 

 tures, the consuming population is not much in excess of half a 

 million. Revenue in Mexico from any tariff on imports must 

 therefore be limited, and this limitation is rendered much greater 

 than it need be by absurdly high duties, which (as notably is the 

 case of cheap cotton fabrics) enrich the smuggler and a few mill 

 proprietors to the great detriment of the national exchequer. 



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

 for obtaining revenue through the taxation of articles of domestic 

 consumption, either in the processes of production or through the 

 machinery of distribution, is of necessity very narrow ; and that 

 if the state is to get anything, either directly or indirectly, from 

 this source, there would really seem to be hardly any method 

 open to it other than that of an infinitesimal, inquisitorial sys- 

 tem of assessment and obstruction akin to what is already in 

 existence. 



But the greatest obstacle in the way of tax reform in Mexico 

 is to be found in the fact that a comparatively few people — not 

 six thousand out of a possible ten million — own all the land and 

 constitute in the main the governing class of the country, and the 

 influence of this class has thus far been sufficiently potent practi- 

 cally to exempt land from taxation. So long as this condition of 

 things prevails it is difiicult to see how there is ever going to be a 

 middle class (as there is none now worthy of mention) occupying 

 a position intermediate between the rich and a vast ignorant 

 lower class that take no interest in public affairs, and is only 

 kept from turbulence through military restraint. Such a class in 

 every truly civilized and progressive country is numerically the 

 largest, and comprising the great body of producers, consumers. 



