H>isafc\>anta0es ot Goffee-IRaisina in Soconusco, 289 



there will remain, consequently, a net surplus of $250 the first year, 

 which may be employed in starting the coffee plantation. After the 

 first year the yearly profit will be $1000, or even more, if the price of 

 sugar should rise, or if the cane-field is enlarged. If, instead of buying 

 an iron mill with an evaporator, the planter begins with a wooden mill 

 and an iron boiler, the expenses of the first year will not exceed $400. 



With the sum of $1000 a year to employ in the cultivation of coffee 

 it would be an easy matter to have, within a few years, a good coffee 

 plantation which would yield the profits to be shown later. 



2. DISADVANTAGES OF COFFEE-RAISING IN SOCONUSCO. 



Now that we have pointed out the natural and accidental advantages 

 which Soconusco offers for the cultivation of coffee, it will be necessary 

 to point out also the obstacles which are here encountered in every agri- 

 cultural enterprise, and especially in the cultivation of coffee. The prin- 

 cipal of these obstacles is scarcity of hands, as will now be considered. 



In the State of Chiapas, and more particularly in Soconusco, 

 there is a system of labor which has serious disadvantages and which 

 occasions heavy expenses and considerable losses. 



All the laborers owe their employers various sums, which seldom 

 fall below $20, and which frequently exceed $100. To obtain laborers, 

 therefore, it is necessary first to pay these debts, which may be esti- 

 mated at an average of $50 for each laborer. This expenditure is a 

 dead loss, because the money employed in it brings no interest, and 

 because the laborer, instead of applying part of his wages to the paying 

 off of his debt, increases this by fresh loans, which he asks daily, and 

 which represent a larger amount than he earns, so that the original 

 debt, instead of diminishing, continues increasing daily. 



If at any time the laborer is refused the money he asks because his 

 debt is already very large, he considers this as sufficient cause for run- 

 ning away. If he is given what he asks, his debt soon amounts to a 

 large sum, and the laborer, thinking that it will now be difficult for 

 him to pay it off, settles it by running away. Without either of these 

 reasons and on any frivolous pretext, he will escape, also, favored by the 

 proximity of the frontier of Guatemala, where he cannot be pursued, 

 and where, on the contrary, he is received with open arms, because 

 the scarcity of hands is even greater there than in Soconusco. Even 

 without leaving Mexican territory the laborer can find employment 

 where it will not be easy to discover him. It may be said that there is 

 hardly a workman who lets a year pass without running away. This 

 custom also gives rise to many abuses on the part of the employers 

 toward the laborers. 



With this labor system and depending only on the people of the 

 place, it would not be possible to undertake planting on any consider- 



