MEXICO. 



463 



The amount of the trade up to the year of 

 the last official publication, was as follows : 



Imports. Export*. 



1S56 .. . ..$17.7-- > i'.r,s-2 18,942,983 



11.2-J-t.415 ll,8S4,7t)5 



1S58 10,033.609 2,915,576 



The number of those who took out their per- 

 mits for residence, or letters of security, from 

 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the year 

 1855, was as follows: 



Old Spaniards 5,141 



French 2.048 



English 615 



Germans. 581 



Americans 444 



Other nations 405 



Total 9,234 



Since the States of Mexico, under Iturbide, 

 threw oif the control of Spain, the country has 

 rarely enjoyed a year of repose. Its industry 

 has therefore languished, and its resources, 

 which are very great, have never been de- 

 veloped. Its principal industry is the mining 

 of silver ; but the disturbed state of the coun- 

 try has prevented its prosecution on a large 

 scale, and the annual production is barely 10 

 per cent, of the yield under the Spanish domin- 

 ion. The yield of silver, as reported at the 

 mint in Mexico, since 1800, and at the ten 

 tributary mints, since their establishment, has 

 been, in value, $781,000,000. This is the 

 amount of money coined and reported in bills 

 of lading for exportation or for exchange from 

 one mint to the other, or from the mints to 

 places of traffic and trade. Those who are at 

 all acquainted with Mexican affairs, must know 

 that the contraband trade of late years has not 

 been on the decrease. The proportion of silver 

 and gold smuggled out of the country may be 

 taken at 20 per cent., which will make $156,- 

 304,012 more. The largest year of coinage at 

 the mint was 1805, when the amount was 

 $27,175,888. The produce of the mines of 

 Mexico, which has been turned into the chan- 

 nels of commerce, to the year 1856, on the re- 

 tirement of Comonfortj will, therefore, stand as 

 follows : 



Booty of the conquerors ...................... ?3?0.000 



Results of Spanish mining to 1799 ............. 1.974.3.'7.'J-5 



Coinage, of the mint of Mexico from 1SOO to 1856. 



Coinage of tributary mints to 1856 ............ 363.2-25.596 



Contraband since 1SOO to 1856 ................. 156,304,012 



Total .................................. $2,912,531,359 



These figures are the nearest possible to the 

 correct point. They are lower, however, than 

 the estimates of many writers who have de- 

 voted much time and labor in trying to give to 

 the world reliable data. 



The enormous amount of money which Mex- 

 ico has given to the world is but a fraction of 

 what she could give, were the country to be 

 for. a period established in peace. There can 

 be no doubt but the richest mineral districts of 

 Mexico are yet to be worked. Sonora, Chihua- 

 hua, and Durango are very rich in gold, silver, 

 and copper. But, rich as they are, there is rea- 

 son to believe that the real El Dorado of Amer- 

 ica is in the State of Chiapas. Guerrero is rich 

 in gold, as also is Oajaca in gold and silver. 

 These parts have been but imperfectly ex- 



plored, and the civil turmoils of the country 

 have entirely discouraged individual enterprise 

 in those quarters. Even the mineral districts 

 worked by the Spaniards are now more than 

 half abandoned. The cause of this is to be 

 found in the general insecurity of every thing 

 in Mexico, owing to the inability of the people 

 to rest in peace. Never before now has the 

 country been so completely prostrated, with so 

 little hope of rising by internal strength. 



Since the independence of the country, the 

 Government of Mexico has exhibited only a 

 constant succession of military rulers, each of 

 whom seized the government to be in his turn 

 deposed by a more successful combination. The 

 continued strife demoralized the people, and 

 gradually undermined all security for life and 

 property. None of the governments, if they 

 had the will, seemed to possess the ability to 

 protect their own citizens, or those foreigners 

 by whom trade and industry were carried on. 

 The table on the following page gives a brief 

 view of the many laws, plans, constitutions, 

 &c., which have formed the pivots upon which 

 the many governments of independent Mexico 

 have turned. 



The constituent Congress of Mexico, which 

 adjourned on the 17th of February, 1857, 

 adopted a constitution and provided for a 

 popular election. This took place in the fol- 

 lowing July, (1857,) and General Comonfort 

 was chosen President almost without oppo- 

 sition. At the same election a new congress 

 was chosen, whose first session commenced 

 on the 16th of September, (1857.) By the 

 Constitution of 1857 the presidential term 

 was to begin on the 1st of December, (1857,) 

 and continue for four years. On that day Gen- 

 eral Comonfort appeared before the assembled 

 congress in the city of Mexico, took the oath 

 to support the new Constitution, and Avas duly 

 inaugurated as President. "Within a month 

 afterwards he was driven from the capital, and 

 a military rebellion had assigned the supreme 

 power of the republic to General Zulonga. The 

 Constitution provided that, in the absence of 

 the President, his office should devolve upon 

 the chief-justice of the Supreme Court; and 

 General Comonfort having left the country, 

 this functionary, General Juarez, proceeded to 

 organize, at Guanajuato, a constitutional govern- 

 ment. Before this was officially known, how- 

 ever, at the capital, the government of Zuloaga 

 had been recognized by the entire diplomatic 

 corps, including the Minister of the United 

 States, as the de facto Government of Mexico. 

 The constitutional President nevertheless main- 

 tained his position with firmness, and was soon 

 established, with his cabinet, at Vera Cruz. 

 Meanwhile, the 'government of Zuloaga was 

 earnestly resisted in many parts of the repub- 

 lic ; and even in the capital, a portion of the 

 army having pronounced against it, its func- 

 tions were declared terminated, and an assem- 

 bly of citizens was invited for the choice of a 

 new President. This assembly elected General 



