CHAPTER XXI.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

LIFE is extremely hard in Mexico. The absence of fuel and water places her industries at a great disadvantage, and to foster her crude industries she is compelled to put a prohibitory tariff on imports, which falls heavily upon the consumer. A reciprocity treaty with the United States would solve the problem, but who ever heard of the American Congress agreeing upon subjects of great importance. When I first went to Mexico each state collected its own custom duties independent of the national government, and custom officials met the train at every state line. I knew a lady who moved from Kansas to Nueva Leon, the second state across the border, and on a silver water-pitcher valued at $35, she paid an ad valorem duty of $17.15. The custom regulations have changed now, and duty is no longer collected by individual states, but it is bad enough as it is. American ham in Mexico costs fifty cents a pound, cheese seventy-five cents, canned salmon one dollar a can, and mackerel twenty-five cents each.

Through the kindness of D. Appleton & Co., I am permitted to use some figures below, taken from that very excellent work by David A. Welles, “A Study of Mexico.”

“In 1885, an American living in the City of Mexico induced the landlady to order an American cooking-stove. In due time the stove arrived, and this is a copy of the bill presented and paid upon delivery:

ORIGINAL INVOICE:

1 stoveweight282pounds
1 box pipe“69“
1 box stove furniture“86“
Total 437pounds or 199.3 kilos.
Cost in St. Louis, U.S. currency $26 50
Exchange at 20 per cent5 30
Total$31 80
Freight from St. Louis to City of Mexico (rail) at $3 15 per 100 pounds $15 75
Mexican consular fee at El Paso4 85
Stamps at El Paso45
$52 85
Cartage and labor on boxes examined by customhouse at El Paso$ 50
Forwarding commission, El Paso2 00
Exchange 16⅔ per cent. on $7 64 freight advanced by Mexican Central Railroad1 25
$56 60