The New Mexico 



2 I 



take the three South American coun- 

 tries which have been the most prosper- 

 ous and have always commanded the 

 highest credit in London and compare 

 them with Mexico, taking recent quota- 

 tions of their foreign loans of the same 

 date, we have this result : 



Loudon 

 quotations. 



Argentine Republic 6 per cent loan . . 93 



Brazil 4 per cent loan 62 



Chile 5 per cent loan 92 



Mexico 5 per cent loan 99 



Iii addition to its foreign loan, Mexico 

 has what is termed an interior debt, pay- 

 able in silver, amounting to a sum which 

 if converted into gold would represent 

 approximately $62,000,000, created by 

 subsidies to railroads, obligations for 

 public improvements, etc. . Thus the en- 

 tire indebtednessof the republic amounts 

 to about $177, 178,000. It may be prof- 

 itable to make a further comparison. 

 This debt is borne by a population of 

 13,570,000. Canada, her more north- 

 erly neighbor, has a debt of $345,160,- 

 000, with a population of only 4,833,000 

 souls. In other words, Mexico's in- 

 debtedness is $13 per inhabitant, while 

 that of Canada is $71 per inhabitant. 



In connection with government fi- 

 nances, it may be well to call attention 

 to the fact that Mexico is upon a silver 

 basis, and that all business transactions 

 are conducted upon that basis. The 

 prevailing opinion is that it is very ad- 

 vantageous to the country; but there 

 are some of its most intelligent people 

 who contend that the system is inju- 

 rious, and that at no very distant period 

 Mexico will adopt the gold standard. 

 But no such change is considered by the 

 government or by the ruling financial 

 interests. 



THE FOREIGN RELATIONS 



It will not be possible in this paper 

 to discuss at any length the political 

 questions which arise in connection with 

 the present state of Mexico, but I must 



make a brief reference to its relations 

 with foreign countries. When Presi- 

 dent Diaz assumed the reins of govern- 

 ment the evil effects of Maximilian's 

 attempt to establish an empire on the 

 ruins of the republic were yet being felt. 

 The country had not recovered from the 

 exhausted condition into which its re- 

 sources had been brought by the long, 

 bloody and expensive war. The pas- 

 sions of the contending parties, which 

 had been so deeply embittered by thatter- 

 rible contest, had not altogether calmed 

 down ; and the foreign nations which 

 had taken part in or sympathized with 

 the intervention — France, Great Britain, 

 Austria, and the other European pow- 

 ers — had not renewed their relations 

 with the restored republican govern- 

 ment. 



It was important for the well-being 

 of the country that the wastes of war 

 should be restored, that the people should 

 bury their partisan rancor, and espe- 

 cially that the two first-named nations 

 should renew their diplomatic inter- 

 course, because from them would come 

 much of the capital and skill to develop 

 the country's great resources. Time 

 and statesmanship were requisite for 

 this task. One of the first acts of Gen- 

 eral Diaz toward the accomplishment 

 of these ends, after he became well seated 

 in power and when the step could not 

 be interpreted • as a sign of weakness, 

 was to call into his counsel two of the 

 most prominent and able men in the 

 government of his predecessor, Presi- 

 dent Derdo, whom he had driven from 

 power — Manuel Romero Rubio and Ig- 

 nacio Mariscal — the former the head of 

 the Derdo cabinet, and the latter for so 

 many years the accomplished Mexican 

 Minister in Washington. The fact of 

 the acceptance by these two men of 

 office under the Diaz government was 

 evidence of the consolidation of all par- 

 ties and all interests in working for the 

 future peace and prosperity of the Re- 

 public. 



