114 DEFICIT OF MATERIAL WATER AND STEAM POWER. 



2d. 



Working by day — yearly consumption, as above, 10,597,600 lbs. 

 Add three-fourths for night work, . . . 7,948,200 " 



Total consumption, . 18,545,800 " 

 Deduct Mexican crop as above, . . . 7,000,000 " 



Deficit, . . . 11,545,800 «* 



Cotton varies, as we have seen in price according to demand, at 

 Tepic, Mazatlan, Vera Cruz, Tampico, Puebla, Durango, the val- 

 ley of Mexico, &c, from fifteen dollars, per quintal, to forty-eight. 

 If we rate it, on an average, at twenty-five dollars per quintal, the 

 value of the deficit on day consumption will be $899,400, and on 

 day and night consumption, $2,886,450, all of which must neces- 

 sarily, be made up by importation. 



We have prepared the preceding table in order to attract the at- 

 tention of cotton producing countries, and to demonstrate the fact 

 that Mexico, in all likelihood, may become a manufacturing nation, 

 inasmuch as the surplus population of towns, the women and chil- 

 dren, may be successfully employed in this branch of human in- 

 dustry, when they have no agricultural district from which they 

 may easily derive support with the least labor. There is reason to 

 believe that water power, for the use of factories is abundant all over 

 the republic. The natural drainage of a mountain country will at 

 once prove this fact. Innumerable small streams, falling from the 

 crests and sides of the sierras, pour through the ravines and barran- 

 cas ; but in consequence of the scarcity of wood and the costliness 

 of its transportation, it is not probable that steam power can be ad- 

 vantageously used. Factories of paper near the capital, at Puebla 

 and in Guadalajara are working with success, but they do not pro- 

 duce enough for the consumption of the republic. At Puebla and 

 Mexico there are several factories of the ordinary kinds of glass and 

 tumblers, whilst woollen blankets, baizes, and, at present, fine 

 cloths, are yielded by several establishments erected before and 



1 The cultivation of cotton is a branch of agriculture of almost marvellous in- 

 crease. Mr. Burke, a member of our congress, from South Carolina, in 1789, when 

 speaking of southern agriculture, remarked that "cotton was likewise in contempla- 

 tion.' 1 ' 1 During the last quarter of the eighteenth century, when 7012 bags of the 

 article were imported into Liverpool a perfect panic was produced by so unusual 

 a supply, at present 150,000 bags may reach a single port without, greatly affect- 

 ing the price. In 1791 the whole United States produced only two millions of 

 pounds, whilst in 1848, the Commissioner of Patents calculated the whole crop at 

 1,066,000,000 lbs. 



