witb tbe mnitefc States, 171 



Another cause of the discrepancy between the statistics of both 

 countries is that the Statistical Bureau of the United States Treasury 

 Department had not, prior to March 3, 1893, any data of commodities 

 exported to Mexico by way of the frontier, as there was no law 

 which provided for the collection of such data, and a very large 

 portion of the trade between the two countries is carried on by the 

 frontier, especially since the railroads connecting both countries were 

 finished. 1 That deficiency was only in relation to the exports, as the 

 imports were duly declared for the payment of duties, and therefore 

 the statistics of the United States necessarily were deficient and incom- 

 plete about the exports to Mexico of United States commodities, and 

 that accounts in a great measure for the discrepancy between the 

 official data published by both governments, and for the great dis- 

 crepancy between exports and imports which appear in the statistics of 

 the United States for those years. 



From the preceding remarks it will be understood why there is 

 such a great discrepancy between the data of the respective Bureaus. 



It is very difficult to make a correct statement of the trade between 

 the two countries previous to the organization of the Bureau of Statistics 

 of the United States ; but I found in a book published in Washington 

 in 1860 by Mr. Carlos Butterfield, entitled " The United States and 

 Mexican Mail Steamship Line and Statistics of Mexico," a statement 

 of the imports and exports between Mexico and the United States from 

 1826 to 1858, taken as he states from official data of the United States 

 Treasury Reports, which I will use. 



That statement is complemented by two tables furnished to me by 

 Hon. Worthington C. Ford, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of the 

 Treasury Department. The first contains a statement of the trade be- 

 tween the United States and Mexico, during the forty-six years from 

 1851 to 1897, and the second is a full statement of that trade, includ- 

 ing gold and silver during the same period. (Pages 174 and 175.) 



I have prepared besides from the official publications of the Bureau 

 of Statistics of the United States Treasury Department, a detailed 

 statement of the commodities imported into the United States from 

 Mexico, and exported from the United States to Mexico during the 



1 For these reasons the statements of the Statistical Bureau of the United States, 

 previous to the fiscal year ended June 30, 1892, contained the following foot-note : 



" In the absence of law providing for the collection of statistics of exports to ad- 

 jacent foreign territory over railways, the values of exports to Mexico, from 1883 to 

 1893 inclusive, have been considerably under-stated. Since March, 1893, there has 

 been a law in force for the collection of exports by railways. According to official in- 

 formation from Mexican sources, the value of imports into that country from the 

 United States during the year ending June 30, 1888, was $19,264,673, including pre- 

 cious metals valued at $38,362. Prior to 1866 the figures include gold and silver im- 

 ported and exported. For 1866 and subsequent years, merchandise only." 



