AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 729 



rarely used where stone, tiles, and iron are possible applications. Con- 

 sequently, and, in view of the scarcity of water, most fortunately, there 

 are few fires in Mexico ; no fire departments, and but little opportunity 

 for insurance companies or the business of insurance agents. As a 

 general rule, the buildings of Mexico, exclusive of the huts, in which 

 the masses of the people live, are not over one story in height, flat- 

 roofed, and have neither cellars nor garrets ; and in buildings of more 

 than one story the upper floor is always preferred as a dwelling, and 

 thus in the cities commands the highest rents. There do not, more- 

 over, seem to be any aristocratic streets or quarters in the cities of 

 Mexico ; but rich and poor distribute themselves indiscriminately, and 

 not unfrequently live under the same roof. 



The popular opinion concerning Mexico is that it is a country of 

 marvelous and unbounded natural resources. Every geography invites 

 attention to the admirable location of its territory, between and in 

 close proximity to the two great oceans ; to the great variety, abun- 

 dance, and richness of its tropical products — sugar, coffee, tobacco, dye 

 and ornamental woods, vanilla, indigo, cacao, cochineal, fruits, fibers, 

 and the like ; and to the number of its mines, which for more than 

 two centuries have furnished the world with its chief supply of silver, 

 and are still productive. The result is, that with a majority of well- 

 informed people, and more especially with those who have read about 

 Mexico in those charming romances of Prescott, and who, in flying vis- 

 its to its capital, have found so much to interest them in the way of 

 the picturesque, and have brought to their eyes little capacity for see- 

 ing anything else, the tendency has been to confound the possible 

 with the actual, and to encourage the idea that Mexico is a rich prize, 

 unappreciated by its present possessors, and only waiting for the en- 

 terprising and audacious Yankees to possess and make much of, by 

 simply coming down and appropriating. 



Now, with these current beliefs and impressions the writer has 

 little sympathy ; but, on the contrary, his study and observations lead 

 him to the conclusion that the Mexico of to-day, through conjoined 

 natural and artificial (or human) influences, is one of the very poorest 

 and most wretched of all countries ; and, while undoubtedly capable 

 of very great improvement over her present condition, is not speedily 

 or even ultimately likely, under any circumstances, to develop into a 

 great (in the sense of highly civilized), rich, and powerful nation. And 

 in warrant and vindication of opinions so antagonistic to popular senti- 

 ment, it is proposed to ask attention to a bi'ief review of the condi- 

 tion of Mexico ; first, from its geographical or natural stand-point, and 

 secondly, from the stand-point of its historical, social, and political ex- 

 perience. 



Considered geographically, Mexico is, in the main, an immense 

 table-land or plateau, which seems to be a flattening out of the Rocky 



