

MEXICO. 



3T5 



grades supported by the federal and state govern- 

 ments in 1897, and 1,953 maintained by munici- 

 palities; total number of teachers, 10,327; total 

 average attendance, 391,657; cost of maintenance, 

 .$4,425,512. Besides these the clergy and private 

 teachers taught 71,337 pupils on the average in 

 2,204 schools, making the total number of schools 

 10,298, with 402,994 pupils, out of 669,500 on the 

 rolls, in average attendance, 293,732 of whom were 

 boys and 169,262 girls. The higher schools have 

 about 21,000 students. 



Finances. The receipts of the Federal treas- 

 ury for the year ending June 30, 1898, were $60,- 

 139,212; expenditure, $53,499,541. The receipts in- 

 clude sums borrowed to pay railroad subsidies 

 ind temporary advances in addition to the ordi- 

 aary revenue. The ordinary revenue for 1900 was 

 estimated at $54,913,000, and expenditure at $54,- 

 386,756; revenue for 1901 at $58,234,000, and ex- 

 enditure at $58,009,082. About 40 per cent, 

 if the revenue is derived from customs, and 45 

 per cent, from internal revenue taxes. Of the ex- 

 penditure over 46 per cent, has been required to 

 pay the interest and sinking fund of the debt, and 

 10 per cent, for railroad subsidies, leaving 44 per 

 ent. for the expenses of government and the 

 irmy. The 6-per-cent. gold loans of the Mexican 

 irovernment and the 5-per-cent. bonds of the 

 Tehuantepec Railroad were consolidated in 1899, 

 md converted into a new loan of 22,700,000, 

 aaying 5 per cent, interest. The 6-per-cent. sil- 

 rer bonds were all redeemed except $162,000. The 

 J-per-cent. internal consolidated debt amounted to' 

 50,669,125, the 5-per-cent. redeemable internal 

 iebt to $42,874,900, and railroad bonds to $9,574,- 

 25 at the beginning of 1899, and there was a 

 loating debt of $1,401,808. The national wealth 

 Mexico is estimated at $945,000,000. The rev- 

 lue of the state governments in 1897 amounted 

 $13,382,711, and their expenditure to $13,441,- 

 36; the revenue of the municipalities to $10,380,- 

 23, and expenditure to $10,092,662. 

 Mexico has 4 mints, the principal business of 

 ?hich is to coin standard Mexican silver dollars, 

 weighing 27.073 grammes 0.9028 fine, containing 

 "lerefore 24.440 grammes of pure silver, 0.3936 

 ramme more than the United States standard 

 lollar. The bulk of this coinage is shipped 

 ibroad, and finds its way to China, Farther India, 

 id the islands of the Indian Ocean, where it is 

 tie common medium of exchange. Silver is the 

 tandard of value in Mexico, although gold is 

 lined to the amount of about $500,000 a year. 

 The coinage of silver dollars in 1898 was $21,427,- 

 57; in 1897, $19,296,009; in 1896, $22,634,788; in 

 1895, $27,628,981; in 1894, $30,185,591; in 1893, 

 27,169,876; in 1892, $25,526,717; in 1891, $24,237,- 

 49; in 1890, $24,323,728. There is a small circula- 

 tion of the credit notes of some of the banks, but 

 silver is the main currency of the country. In 

 1900 the drain of silver to the East was unusually 

 irge, owing to the hostilities in China, and this 

 produced a serious scarcity of money in Mexico. 

 Bailroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 length of railroads in operation in 1899 was 8,040 

 liles, besides 127 miles of tramways. There were 

 00 miles of railroad under construction. 

 The telegraphs had a length of 41,532 miles in 

 1899, of which 27,608 miles belonged to the Fed- 

 eral Government, the rest to the state govern- 

 nents or to railroad and telegraph companies. 

 The number of dispatches in 1898 was 2,178,181. 

 The telephone lines had a length of 7,459 miles. 

 The number of letters and postal cards that 

 passed through the post office during the fiscal 

 rear 1899 was 122,620,216. The postal receipts 

 rere $1,595,818; expenses, $1,991,921. 



The Army and Navy. The strength of the 

 regular army is 22,605 infantry, 7,249 cavalry, 

 and 2,289 artillery; total, 32,143 men of all ranks. 

 The number of officers is 2,068. In the cavalry 

 are included 261 rural guards and 118 gendarmes. 

 The war strength of Mexico is estimated at 123,- 

 500 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, and 8,000 artillery. 

 All able-bodied citizens from the age of twenty 

 to that of fifty are liable to military service. 

 The army has had practice of late in subduing 

 the Yaqui Indians of northern Mexico, who will 

 not submit to the rule and jurisdiction of the 

 Mexicans, and have been encouraged in their re- 

 bellion by some of the Americans residing in the 

 state of Sonora. The Mayas of Yucatan in 1900 

 also rose against the Government and, having 

 secured modern weapons, held Gen. Bravo with 

 3,000 soldiers at bay. 



The fleet consists only of two old dispatch ves- 

 sels, two small unarmored gun vessels, and a steel 

 training ship, the Zaragoza, of 1,200 tons, built 

 in France in 1891. There are four gunboats and 

 five first-class torpedo boats under construction. 

 The officers number about 90, and about 500 men 

 are in the crews. 



Commerce and. Production. Agriculture in 

 Mexico is generally in a backward state. The 

 soil is exceedingly fertile in many districts, and 

 the climate varies with altitude, so that tropical 

 and subtropical vegetation flourish in some 

 places, and the grains and fruits of the temperate 

 zone in others not far distant. The public lands, 

 which are of great extent, are being surveyed by 

 companies which receive a third of the land that 

 they demarcate, while the other two thirds are 

 offered for sale to colonization companies or to 

 private individuals. Down to 1896 the companies 

 had surveyed 59,397,952 hectares, receiving as 

 their share 19,612,866 hectares. Of the remainder 

 the Government disposed of 1,812,517 hectares. 

 There are 32 agricultural settlements, 13 of which, 

 containing 3,926 colonists, were established by the 

 Government and 19, with 4,036 colonists, by com- 

 panies and individuals by authority of the Gov- 

 ernment, which has assisted the colonists by pro- 

 viding vines, olive trees, fruit trees, vegetable 

 seeds, and silkworms. Orange cultivation is ex- 

 tending, and the fruit finds a ready market in the 

 United States. There were 21,136 tons of rice, 

 42,954,684 hectolitres of com, 263,987 tons of 

 wheat, 65,803 tons of sugar, 61,856 tons of 

 panocha, 44,847 tons of molasses, 5,474,450 hecto- 

 litres of spirits, 50,226 tons of henequen, 32,915 

 tons of cotton, 76,638 tons of logwood, 590 tons 

 of cacao, 21,838 tons of coffee, 8,956 tons of 

 tobacco, and 812,690 hectolitres of rum produced 

 in 1897. There are about 2,900 factories for sugar 

 and aguardiente. In 1896 there were 107 cotton 

 factories, consuming 53,273,397 pounds of cot- 

 ton, about half of it grown in Mexico and half 

 in the United States. 



Mining is being constantly extended. In 1897 

 there were 109 mines operated for gold alone, 254 

 for gold and silver, 49 for gold and other metals, 

 310 for silver alone, 184 for silver and other 

 metals, 18 for copper alone, 8 for copper and 

 lead, 1 for platinum alone. 31 for lead alone, 4 

 for lead and iron, 12 for iron alone, and 9 for 

 antimony, cinnabar, or tin. The value of the 

 ores raised was $66.137,240. The number of 

 miners employed was 98,852. The value of gold 

 presented at the assay offices and mints in 1897 

 was $3,909,782, against $4,247.760 in 1896. $2,674,- 

 278 in 1895, $2,260,865 in 1894, and $1,902,296 in 

 1893; the value of silver in 1897 was $54,946,034, 

 against $53,797,061 in 1896, $38.934.192 in 1895, 

 $34,845,543 in 1894, and $30,383,429 in 1893. 



