514 



MEXICO. 



(about thirty-three inches), sell at retail at 

 twelve and a half cents a yard. It is not rea- 

 sonable to believe that men who live by smug- 

 gling and have all these facilities, return from 

 their trips unloaded ; the small number of cus- 

 tom-house officials can not prevent it. The 

 Mexican custom-house requires the following 

 force: One collector, a deputy, who is cash- 

 ier, an examiner, three clerks in office, one 

 commandant, and sixteen mounted inspectors. 

 They have about the same territory to cover 

 as the American officials at Laredo. The cus- 

 toms officials at Laredo are a collector (deputy), 

 one guard at river (no one to relieve him for 

 meals, etc.), and two mounted inspectors, with 

 a territory of sixty miles up the river and 

 thirty miles down the river to patrol. It is no 

 wonder to me that smuggling is so extensively 

 carried on. The United States force is entirely 

 inadequate." 



Of the single article henequen (Sisal hemp), 

 97,351 bales, of the aggregate weight of 39,- 

 501,725 Mexican pounds, and of the value of 

 $1,805,848.18, were shipped through Progreso, 

 the port of Merida, in 1880. The several des- 

 tinations of the same, and the quantities to each, 

 are exhibited in the subjoined table : 



PORTS OF DESTINATION. 

 Havana 



Bremen , 



Marseilles 



Barcelona , 



Falmouth 



Bolbec (France) 411 



Hamburg 900 



Gibraltar 904 



New Orleans ' 1-450 



Havre 1-833 



London 1-928 



Liverpool 5-284 



New York 83-984 



Quantities. 

 10 bales. 

 10 

 DO 



285 

 302 



Total 97-351 bales. 



Interesting details concerning this important 

 industry were given in the " Annual Cyclope- 

 dia " for 1876, page 544. 



The yield of the Progreso Custom-House for 

 the month of April, 1880, amounted to $30,- 

 501.81. 



Eeferring once more to the subject of con- 

 traband trade, it should here be said that the 

 system has become of late so general as to 

 cause material prejudice to legitimate com- 

 merce, and affect the national revenue to an 

 alarming extent. Here follows the translation 

 of a law promulgated in the second half of 

 1879, and the vigorous terms of which it was 

 hoped, but too sanguinely, would have the ef- 

 fect of diminishing, if not altogether eradicat- 

 ing, that illicit traffic. 



The Congress of the United Mexican States 

 decrees : 



ARTICLE I. Besides the penalties established in 

 chapters xx and xxi of the maritime and frontier cus- 

 tom-house tariff of the 1st of January, 1872, the au- 

 thors of contraband or fraud against the rights of the 

 Treasury, their accomplices, the receivers of the goods, 

 and the employees who may be in collusion with any 

 of the persons as before described, shall be punished 

 with the penalties hereafter stated. 



ART. II. In the cases mentioned in the clauses one, 



two, and three of Article CLXXXVI of the said tariff, 

 if the owners, conductors, captains, or any other persons 

 transporting the goods should be apprehended, they 

 will undergo five years' imprisonment, and their names 

 shall be published in the newspapers ; if it be proved 

 that any commercial house established in the republic 

 has carried on or favored contraband after this law 

 shall have gone into force, besides the foregoing pen- 

 alties which shall be applied, according to Sic case, its 

 name shall also be published in the newspapers, its 

 name shall not be recognized in any transactions with 

 the public Treasury, and will not be admitted in any 

 official or commercial transaction by any Government 

 office. 



ART. III. In all the other cases stated in Articles 

 LXXXVI andLXXXVII of the tariff, a corporal pun- 

 ishment of from six months to five years' imprisonment 

 will be imposed, under the following conditions : If the 

 total amount of the duties defrauded passes one hun- 

 dred dollars without exceeding a thousand dollars, an 

 imprisonment of from two to six months will be im- 

 posed ; if it exceeds a thousand dollars without reach- 

 ing two thousand, double the tune ; if it passes two 

 thousand and does not reach three ? triple the time ; 

 and thus successively, without exceeding the maximum 

 of five years. 



ART. IV. Corporal punishment shall not be in- 

 flicted in the cases comprehended in clauses four, five, 

 and six of Article LXXXVI, chapter xx of the said 

 tariff, when the amount of the duties does not exceed 

 two hundred dollars. 



ART. V. When the manifestation of the goods in 

 the consular documents is done in an ambiguous man- 

 ner, without being subject to the nomenclature of the 

 tariff, the penalty of double duties will be imposed on 

 the goods which arrive ambiguously manifested ; in 

 this case every package of the cargo should be ex- 

 amined. 



ART. VI. Accomplices in the offenses of contraband 

 or fraud in which the penalty of imprisonment is im- 

 posed, half of the punishment shall be inflicted on the 

 first named, and a fourth on the second, which should 

 or may be imposed on the principal authors of the 

 contraband or fraud. 



ART. VII. The Government employees who may be 

 proved to be complicated in the aforesaid offenses 

 shall suffer the penalties established in the present 

 law, and those imposed by the tariff in force, and 

 other laws on the subject : but in every case with the 

 understanding that the imprisonment inflicted can 

 never be less than double the time imposed upon the 

 principal delinquent or delinquents of the contraband 

 or fraud. 



The protection of home manufactures has 

 long been an object of earnest solicitude on the 

 part of the Mexican Government ; and, in con- 

 sequence, those articles, particularly the cot- 

 ton and woolen fabrics, have been partially 

 exempted from imposts, while corresponding 

 foreign goods have been subjected to duties 

 exceeding in many cases the cost of the same. 

 For instance, here follow some of these duties 

 in the existing tariff : Unbleached domestics, 

 nine cents per square metre; bleached do- 

 mestics, sixteen cents ; prints or calicoes, four- 

 teen cents ; white cotton thread, sixty cents per 

 kilogramme ; colored thread, ninety-six cents; 

 cassimeres and similar woolen goods, $1.40 

 per square metre. The annexed extract is from 

 the revenue law passed at the spring session 

 of Congress, taxing all this class of goods of 

 domestic manufacture: 



The Congress of the United Mexican States 

 decrees : 



ARTICLE I. The revenues of the Federal Treasury 



