MEXICO. 



513 



making our manufacturers seem to acknowledge some- 

 body else's illegitimate offspring by forging to worth- 

 less articles some well-established name or mark ; and, 

 secondly, by ruining the prices and confidence of the 

 consumers ? who may not nave the means of compari- 

 son and distinguishing the genuine from the talse. 

 When Europeans resort to such dishonorable prac- 

 tices, they acknowledge thereby their own inferiority, 

 and offer a potent admonition to our citizens not to 

 seek to lower in anything the present standard of their 

 excellence. We can not compete with them in worth- 

 less manufactures, and we ought not to exercise our 

 faculties in that direction. Many articles, such as 

 flour, canned groceries of all kinds, potatoes, etc., 

 could find a ready and extensive market here if the 

 tariff were not prohibitory. Eight dollars a barrel on 

 flour makes it impossible to import it into Mexico 

 without loss. These high rates on the staple articles 

 of family consumption render living very expensive in 

 a land where it should be the cheapest. 



Touching the question of extending our com- 

 mercial relations, the following suggestions, ex- 

 tracted from the United States consul's report 

 from Matamoros to the State Department, will 

 doubtless be found useful : 



Nothing can be well done in haste or without labor, 

 and in no country is this more true than in Mexico. 

 In those places where American goods are already 

 sold, the sale can be continued and increased. There 

 are many places which American goods have not yet 

 reached, or where they are not handled with a view 

 to their increased sale. If the American merchant is 

 desirous to enter into the trade, it is necessary that 

 the work shall be carefully studied, and then pushed 

 steadily. The best way is to establish either a Branch 

 house or an agency. All things considered, the first 

 plan may be given the preference. This involves a 

 good capital, long credits, and efficient managers at 

 both ends of the partnership. The manager of the 

 branch house must be able to study the market, the 

 customers, and the import laws with care and pa- 

 tience not needed in the United States. He must be 

 able to use his eyes and ears and control his tongue ; 

 must not only be honest and of good habits, but must 

 have these qualities in a marked degree. It will be 

 found necessary that the local house select or deter- 

 mine the goods to be sent out, and that such be sent 

 exactly. The indifference of some American houses 

 in filling orders for Mexican purchasers has been 

 prejudicial to the interests of the purchaser, and, of 

 course, to an increase of trade. To illustrate : in an 

 order given for prints, or goods of certain width, the 

 American house does not seem to realize, or to care, 

 that a small deviation from the width in the invoice 

 or import declaration will not only make very heavy 

 fines and vexatious delays, but subject the really in- 

 nocent importer to imprisonment. I have been led to 

 believe that at least some few American dealers have 

 spells of enthusiasm and relapses of indifference re- 

 garding the export trade to Mexico. In their time of 

 enthusiasm they send circulars, circular letters, and 

 even individual letters to every consular _ officer or 

 other person whose address they may have in the sec- 

 tion in which they wish to operate. They usually 

 desire immediate and full replies to several queries, 

 hut omit to inclose return stamps. Many private per- 

 sons would hardly feel like taking a great deal of 

 pains to answer all such letters. The replies to these 

 letters come in slowly. Many of the recipients may 

 be busy for two weeks and then use two weeks more 

 to get all the information desired. The two letters 

 may easily use up a month or more en route, and it is 

 thus from two to three months before they are all in 

 and a careful study of them can be made. Long be- 

 fore this the inquiring house has got disgusted at the 

 delays or difficulties in the way. Whoever thinks of 

 the Mexican trade should study it for some time, and 

 in all situations. Having once decided to undertake 

 the work, calculate not only to spend money and time 

 VOL. xx. 33 A 



and talent, but to give infinite care and patience in 

 return for future profits. No one can be guaranteed 

 success, but others ? notably Germans and Spaniards, 

 do succeed, and, without doubt, there is a fair chance 

 of our doing as well as they if we give the same care 

 and have the same amount of capital and credits. 

 Trade journals which reach this office do a good work 

 in the direction of trade increase, and I have thought 

 that they might do good service by showing the weak 

 spots which must be improved to enable our trade to 

 reach its proper development. It is plain that, to study 

 the subject of Mexican trade, statistics, which will 

 show for a series of years the routes, kinds, and values 

 of the imports and exports, are a primary necessity. 

 These statistics have not often been so kept as to make 

 it possible to give reliable reports, and when kept at 

 the various custom-houses have not been published 

 with the regularity that is desirable. Besides this, 

 the Spanish language is almost an unknown tongue 

 in the United States, and anything published in Span- 

 ish is comparatively buried. These causes, added to 

 the ignorance of Mexico which prevails in the United 

 States, have given credence to very exaggerated re- 

 ports as to the wealth and commerce of the country. 

 Mexico is a land of wonderful beauty and natural ad- 

 vantages. Perhaps the loveliest spots on the face of 

 the earth may be found within her borders, and to the 

 beauty of the landscape may be added climate and 

 natural products as fine. Her mines of great known 

 wealth have yet, according to rumor, marvelous un- 

 known riches, and the number yet unworked is fab- 

 ulous. Such has been the effect of this ignorance or 

 this romance, or both together, that the actual facts 

 and figures of the total Mexican commerce have been 

 difficult things to determine. 



The value of the exports to the United States 

 through the now termed free port of Nuevo 

 Laredo, for the five years 1875-'80, was re- 

 ported as follows : 



YEARS. Value. 



1875 $206,125 09 



1876 206,705 52 



1877 400,425 86 



1878 411,85250 



1879 457,45984 



1880 648,160 90 



"My belief," says the United States vice- 

 consul at that place, " is that these figures do 

 not show much over 50 per cent, of what 

 actually crosses into the United States, and I 

 base my conclusions on these facts : It is gen- 

 erally conceded that the growth of late years 

 of these two cities * on the Rio Grande is owing 

 to tbe excellent facilities for smuggling, and 

 that three fourths of the native population is 

 engaged in it, on a larger or smaller scale. 

 The Rio Grande is fordable at scores of places 

 between these two cities, and for miles up and 

 down at near intervals. I personally have seen 

 loads and loads of American prints, muslins, 

 and other goods, leave from stores in Laredo at 

 night, bound for convenient points to smuggle 

 into Mexico. They are generally done up in 

 packages weighing about one hundred and fifty 

 pounds, covered with canvas. When they reach 

 a certain ranch, and the coast is clear, packages 

 are strapped on each side of a mule, and they 

 cross the river and generally reach their desti- 

 nation on this side. As a further proof in 

 many of the interior cities American prints, on 

 which the Mexican duty is twelve cents a vara 



* Nuevo Laredo on the Mexican and Laredo on the Amer- 

 ican side of the river. 



