Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2 / A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of that Country from the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.

by Brantz Mayer

In consequence of the high price of imported goods, owing to restrictive tariffs as well as to the costliness of transportation a number of intelligent persons began some years ago to establish factories for cottons and woollens. The stimulus of domestic factories it was supposed would naturally increase the culture of the raw materials, and, accordingly, the national industry was aided from the beginning by prohibitions or excessive duties, which either excluded the foreign raw material altogether, or fostered the contraband introduction of cotton twist and woollen thread.

Cotton was among the indigenous products of Mexico at the time of the conquest; and the early adventurers not only found it to constitute the common vesture of the masses of the people, but also that the most delicate and luxurious articles of dress were made of it. The Aztecs possessed the art of spinning it to an extreme degree of fineness and of imparting to it the beautiful and brilliant dyes for which they were celebrated; but both these mysteries were entirely lost in the general destruction of aboriginal arts and records by the Spaniards. Notwithstanding the natural anxiety of Spain to furnish her colonists with her manufactures, she could never prevent the people from weaving and wearing this spontaneous product of their soil. And, although the cultivation of the raw material was neglected or not pursued with the ingenious industry that would have made it a great staple product, it is nevertheless estimated that the annual value of the domestic manufacture in Mexico amounted to about $5,000,000. After the consummation of national independence, foreign nations hastened to seize the trade of Mexico and to fill the markets with an abundant but costly supply of European and American stuffs. The drain of the precious metals which this caused from a country that possessed no other article of export to pay for the imported merchandize by exchanges, soon alarmed the financiers of Mexico, and accordingly a higher scale of duties was adopted for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. This, for a long time, served only to augment the cost of apparel to the Mexican consumer, whilst it had no other material effect upon the fabrics of the country except to seduce a number of wealthy landholders into the erection of factories, which have cost them, at least, ten if not twelve millions of dollars. Unluckily, however, this amounted merely to the creation of vast establishments which could not rely upon the resources of the country for their supply, for the factories were built before the farms were opened by which they were to be furnished with the staple!

It is a fact, therefore, not very generally known, that Mexico has become a manufacturing country. The water power which is abundant in many parts of a mountainous region like that of Mexico, affords great facilities for such establishments.

In 1843 there were 53 cotton factories in the republic with a total of 131,280 spindles, and it was estimated that,—looking to Mexico alone for the supply,—there would be an annual deficiency of a large quantity of the raw material. This calculation, it must be remembered, does not include the consumption of cotton by hand looms, an immense number of which are in constant use through the republic.

In consequence of this evident deficiency, and the prospect of the firm establishment of a manufacturing system, many persons were induced to commence the cultivation of cotton. But their failure was signal. It is true that in Mexico the proportion of small farmers and rural tenants is small, and that the great majority of the owners of the soil are large landholders who might sometimes change the character of their cultivation. But these men belong to the pastoral rather than the agricultural age, and delight in the easier tending of their flocks and herds. In addition to this we must take into consideration the well known characteristics of the southern races enervated still more by the genial climate of Mexico. Those races are governed by traditions. As their fathers wrought—so they work. Their antipathy to change is proverbial, and it is by no means uncommon to see the spirit of an anecdote related by Bazil Montague, realized every day in Mexico.

"In a particular district of Italy," says he, "the peasants loaded their panniers with vegetables on one side, and balanced the opposite pannier by filling it with stones, and when a traveller pointed out the advantages to be gained by loading both panniers with vegetables, he was answered that their forefathers, from time immemorial, had so carried their produce to market; that they were wise and good men, and that a stranger showed very little understanding or decency who interfered in the established customs of a country." Such are the difficulties to be encountered in the habits and prejudices of all old nations, and the embarrassment, in the present instance, would not be so much in creating a body of gentlemen planters, as in finding laborers to work the plantations when they had been acquired.

Brought up as most of the Indians are, on small pieces of land, or in little villages among the mountains, they find that the fruitful soil produces, almost spontaneously, enough for their frugal support. A skin or two, together with a few yards of cotton or woollen cloth, suffice, every few years, for their requisite covering. The broad leaves of a plantain, or, a palm with its matted vines, afford them shelter during the day, whilst a kennel on the ground, keeps off the rains or night dews. And thus, a servile contentment with traditionary occupations or idleness, roots them to the soil where they were born, and makes them, in fact though not in name, the hereditary slaves of the estates on which their ancestors have worked for centuries. These men are, of course, not to be suddenly diverted from their tastes; and the worthy persons who have commenced the cultivation of cotton in suitable districts of the country where the Indians are numerous and unemployed, have been obliged to abandon their enterprises from the fact that their laborers speedily deserted under the plea that they were not used to such occupations, and, with less toil, had ample food and raiment in their goats and gardens at home. The reasoning of the Indians is quite natural and even wise under the peculiar circumstances of their actual life. Money is no object to them, for they have no object upon which to expend it, and their isolated existence affords them no comparative scale of society in which they might advance to a higher degree of civilization by the possession of wealth. Why then should they toil to acquire that which to them has not even the value of a counter? Possessing without labor all that is needed for mere existence, their toil can only be beneficial to their employers. In this, they perceive by their native sagacity, that there is no recompense and no equality of interests.

Whilst such are the reasons why a new agricultural population cannot be created in Mexico, the reverse is precisely the case with regard to a new manufacturing population. Factories are generally erected in the neighborhood of large towns, or in populous districts where the surplus of females is continually in the greatest indigence. These people have neither pieces of land, nor gardens, nor goats, nor means of livelihood except beggary or the prison, and consequently they flock with eagerness to every factory that affords the hope of employment and support. Thus, whilst the tendency of the agriculture of Mexico is to produce servitude, that of its manufactures is to create a feeling of honest independence.

These speculations seem to indicate clearly, first, that the fixed policy of Mexico is to establish a national system of manufactures; and, secondly, that the cultivation of the staple which is to supply these factories will not be largely increased; or if it be increased at all, its augmentation will not be proportionate to the number and demand of the factories.

The connexion between the production of cotton and its use is so close that we have been unable in the preceding passages to avoid anticipating some statements which will be more amply set forth in our section on Mexican manufactures. We shall now turn our attention to the cultivation and annual production in the republic.