108 



CHARACTER OF FINANCIAL OPERATIONS. 



torn house for $150,000, receivable for all kinds of duties as cash. 

 He disposed of these bonds to the merchants of that port for 

 $100,000 — and, in addition to the bonus of $50,000, allowed 

 them interest on the $100,000, at the rate of three per cent, per 

 month, until they had duties to pay which they could extinguish by 

 the drafts. 



Another transaction, of a singular nature, developes the character 

 of the government's negotiations, and can only be accounted for by 

 the receipt of some advantages which the act itself does not dis- 

 close to the public. 



The mint at Guanajuato, or the right to coin at that place, was 

 contracted for, in 1842, by a most respectable foreign house in 

 Mexico, for $71,000 cash, for the term of fourteen years, at the 

 same time that another offer was before the government, stipulating 

 for the payment of $400,000 for the same period, payable in annual 

 instalments of $25,000 each. The $71,000 in hand, were, how- 

 ever, deemed of more value than the prospective four hundred 

 thousand. This mint yielded a net annual income of $60,000. 



These are a few examples presented in illustration of the spend- 

 thrift abandonment of the real resources of the country ; and the 

 character of the transactions at once discloses the true origin and 

 continuance of national discredit. The demand of the hour was 

 irresistible, and if the minister or the president was unable to com- 

 ply with it, his political fate was sealed, perhaps forever. The 

 isolated good or evil measures adopted by financiers, have only 

 tended to augment the confusion. Each government, of the thirty 

 or more which have swayed Mexico since her independence, has 

 been forced to contend not only with its own errors but with those 

 of its predecessors ; and hence the public has naturally lost faith 

 and hope in politicians as soon as they assumed the helm of state. 

 No matter what the personal character, or what the financial talents 

 of ministers might be, the people believed them to be immediately 

 compromised or paralized by circumstances and political necessity. 



We will present the reader a view of Mexican national expenses, 

 according to ministerial estimates during a series of years between 

 the establishment of the federal constitution in 1824 and the war 

 with the United States. This statement, in regard to a country 

 which has been stationary in population and industry, with an aug- 

 menting outlay of money, is somewhat remarkable : 



1825 the national expenses were . $17,100,000 



1826 " " " . 16,666,463 

 1827 to 1828 " " " . 13,363,098 



