552 



MEXICO. 



and the Mexican consul-general at New York, 

 Dr. Juan N. Navarro. 



The financial position of the republic for the 

 fiscal year 1872-'73 is set forth in the follow- 

 ing tables : 



Here follow comparative tables of the na- 

 tional revenue for the two years 1871-'72 aud 

 1872-'73 : 



The expenditures were as follows : 



From the foregoing tables it would appear 

 that there was a surplus of $51,629 ; but both 

 revenue and expenditures for the year referred 

 to were from three to four millions below 

 those for the year 1871-'72. The estimated 

 expenditures for 1873 -'74 were $23,956,421. 



In the report of the Minister of Finance the 

 foreign debt of the country is mentioned as 

 follows : 



To Great Britain 



To Convention 4,351.348 



To Spain 7,400,000 



To Padre Moran 800,000 



To American citizens, as per claims adjusted 



by the mixed commission 401,665 



Total $76,452,163 



The foregoing amount of national indebted- 

 ment is, as calculated by Minister F. Mejia, 

 equivalent to $8.48 for each inhabitant of the 

 republic. 



In a list of defaulting states, published in 

 London, in the course of 1874, with the title 

 " Black Sheep," Mexico figured thus : 



Public loans issued in England. . 16,106,450 



Deferred bonds 434,450 



Presumed outstanding amount 

 of British convention debt. . . . 834,856 



The Minister of Finance made, on March 

 6, 1874, the following report to Mr. Foster, 

 United States minister to Mexico, concerning 

 Mexican bonds sold in the United States, and 

 mainly held by American citizens : 1. Of the 

 bonds amounting to $2,950,000, issued in San 

 Carlos de Tamaulipas on July 4, 1865, by Gen- 

 eral Carbajal, there remain unfunded $1,438,- 

 050, in 6,368 bonds, as follows : 



695 bonds, letter L, of $ 50 

 3,583 " " C, of $100 



2,090 " " D, of $500 



each $34,750 



" 358,300 



" 1,045,000 



16,375,756=$81,878,780 



6,368 bonds, of the value of $1,438,050 



2. Of the $10,000,000 in bonds issued by Gen- 

 eral Sanches Ochoa in San Francisco, on July 

 1, 1865, there remain unfunded $500,000 ; and 

 these, according to the memoranda existing in 

 the Treasury, are in the possession of Messrs. Eu- 

 gene Kelly & Co., of New York, who hold them 

 by order of the New York Supreme Court. 

 The numbers of the bonds corresponding to 

 the said $500,000 are not specified, inasmuch 

 as no information can be obtained of the nu- 

 meration of the bonds lost at sea on board the 

 steamer Nevada, in May, 1868, and represent- 

 ing a value of $3,750,000, nor of that of the 

 bonds now in the hands of Kelly & Co., as 

 above mentioned. 



There were in 1873 eleven mints in the re- 

 public : Durango, Guadalajara, Oajaca, Culia- 

 can, Hermosillo, and Alamos, under the super- 

 vision of the central Government, and Mexico, 

 Guanajuato, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, and 

 Chihuahua, rented by private individals. The 

 aggregate coinage at all of them in 1872 was 

 $20,374,554, of which $19,686,434 was silver. 



An interesting item of Mexican statistics is 

 that of the total coinage in the country from 

 the time of the conquest down to 1873 ; it is 

 as follows : 



Colonial period $2,151,581,958 



Period of independence 793,773,655 



Total $2,945,355,613 



The value of the precious metals from the 

 Mexican mines from the conquest to 1826 was : 

 from 1521 to 1802, $2,027,952,000 ; from 1803 

 to 1810, $161,000,000 ; and from 1810 to 1826, 

 $180,000,000 : total, $2,368,952,000. The quan- 

 tity of silver annually extracted is estimated at 

 500 tons, and that of gold at a ton and a half. 

 Almost one-half of the total yield is derived 

 from the great mining-districts of Guanajuato, 

 Zacatecas, and Caterce, which form a group be- 

 twen latitude 21 and 24 north. Guanajuato 

 alone furnishes every year about 130 tons, 

 nearly one-sixth of all the silver annually pro- 

 duced in America. The whole of the gold aud 

 silver extracted from the mines of Mexico up 

 to 1840 is estimated at $4,200,000,000. The 

 seven principal mines of San Luis Potosi alone 

 produced in 1868 silver to the value of $2,- 

 176,899.26. The annual yield during the de- 

 cade of 1858-'67, judging from the coinage in 

 the nine principal mints, averaged $17,500,- 

 000, which would be increased by the probable 



