In 1841 an association under the style of the "Michoacan Company," was organized, in the capital of Michoacan, for the encouragement of silk culture. The members of this body labored diligently to introduce the Chinese tree, and spread it far and wide through the states of Vera Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, Queretaro, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Michoacan. These labors were performed by thirty-six Juntas de fomento, or committees of encouragement, and although the trees have most generally grown well, it is to be feared that the enterprise resembled the wild speculations in that species of mulberry which, about the same period, both made and lost so many fortunes in the United States. The cultivation of silk has been warmly urged by Don Lucas Alaman, as exceedingly suitable for the state of Oajaca, where, in the course of time, it may replace the cochineal whose product it is said is beginning to fail in that district.
Fruits.
The finest fruits of Mexico are commonly found in the tierra caliente. The orange, lemon, lime, pine apple, banana, chirimoya, sapote, ahuacate, tuna, granadita, are produced in great perfection. The apples, peaches, cherries, grapes and gooseberries do not possess the high flavor, nor are they found in the same varieties, as in the United States; but the pears, especially those known as Gamboa pears, are exceedingly delicious. Nearly all these fruits are consumed in their natural state, yet immense quantities are preserved and form the extraordinary varieties of dulces without which no Mexican table is considered properly set forth. It is very probable that if horticulture and agriculture were scientifically studied by Mexicans, or if North American and European gardeners were to emigrate to the country, even the fruits which are now inferior to ours, would improve in quality, size and flavor under their skilful management.
Agricultural Prospects.
From all that we have already stated in regard to the Indian or laboring population of Mexico, the nature of the seasons, and the want of irrigation in many districts, except by artificial means, it will be perceived that the agricultural progress of the country is extremely doubtful. In addition to this, the land belongs to a few proprietors, many of whom own estates of twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and even a hundred leagues square, which are chiefly devoted to herds instead of agriculture. Mexico is thus rather in the pastoral than the commercial age, and must pass through the transition state of independent sub-divided labor before she can stand, naturally, upon the same platform with northern and European nations.
The early Spanish settlers were eager monopolists of mines and land. Their object was to realize fortunes speedily; and by a liberal repartimiento of Indians they were enabled to found large estates upon which those Indians either toiled as husbandmen or tended uncounted herds. The prolific soil soon yielded, with little labor, the required quantity of vegetables and cereal products; domestic markets were wanted for the sale of the surplus, and the Spanish government did not open its harbors for exportation. Agriculture was thus early limited to the mere animal wants of the glebœ adscripti and emigrant Spaniards, and as the Indian never labors except when compelled by force or necessity, he soon preferred the idle and wandering life of a herdsman to that of a farmer. Many of these estates now number from ten to twenty thousand head of cattle. Besides this the Spanish laws presented the Indian no prospects of independent agricultural rights. The foreign landholder enjoyed the exclusive ownership of the vast freehold. There was no encouragement or hope given to small farmers who might emerge from the servile race, and the consequence is that Mexico, until she becomes an exporting country, receives an augmented population by immigration, and sub-divides her immense territorial manors, under the demands of trade, will, in all likelihood remain stationary in every thing pertaining to agriculture. It is the multiplication of freeholders under the stimulus of commerce, that promotes freedom, industry, and personal independence. Competition is continually excited by the wants of a numerous nation, or by the prospect of selling the results of our labor to others abroad who are not so well supplied or do not produce the articles we cultivate and manufacture. But Mexico, as at present constituted, is an exceedingly small white civilized nation, if we exclude her four and a half millions of Indians. She is not increased annually by immigration from the crowded countries of the Old World, nor does she encourage the advent of strangers. Her population therefore is substantially confined within the narrow limits of natural increase by birth alone. These singular facts exhibit the anomalous condition of all the Spanish settlements upon the virgin and inviting soil of America; and until the Chinese exclusiveness of these various western nations is abandoned as an absurdity in the nineteenth century, we do not believe that the Arab plough will be replaced by the civilized implements of North American agriculture, or that the Mexican shepherd will turn into an enlightened farmer. We have seen that even the stimulus of domestic demand for cotton, has been unable to produce a new agricultural class among those who were devoted to other traditionary toils. What hope, then, can there be of an improvement in cereal cultivation, when the country is already supplied, and owns neither a navy nor merchantmen?
CHAPTER VI.
REFLECTIONS ON EMIGRATION—ADVANTAGES OF AMERICA—LAND AND LABOR.—MINES WROUGHT BY AZTECS—MINING DISTRICTS AND EXTENT IN MEXICO.—ERRORS AS TO EARLY SUPPLY OF METALS FROM AMERICA—TRUE PERIOD OF ABUNDANCE—MINES NOT EXHAUSTED—CONDITION—FAMILIES ENRICHED.—EFFECT OF MINING ON AGRICULTURE.—RELATIVE PRODUCT OF SILVER FOR TEN YEARS—TABLE OF PRODUCT—YIELD OF THE MINES SINCE THE CONQUEST.—COINAGE 1844—TOTAL COINAGE 1535 to 1850.
Mexican Mines, Mineral Wealth and Coinage.
It is generally supposed that the mineral wealth of America was one of the most powerful stimulants of the Spanish conquest and subsequent emigration; nor is the idea erroneous if we recollect the manner in which the Castilian power was founded on this continent and the colonial policy it originated. It will be seen by the tables annexed to this section, that the results have largely fulfilled the hopes of the European adventurers, and that the wealth of the world has been immensely augmented and sustained, by the discovery of our Continent. In the order of the earth's gradual development, under the intellectual enterprise or bodily labor of man, we find the most beautiful system of accommodation to the growing wants or capacities of our race. Space is required for the crowded population of the Old World, and a new continent is suddenly opened, into which the cramped and burdened millions may find room for industry and independent existence. The political institutions of Europe decay in consequence of the encroachments of power, the social degradation of large masses by unjust or unwise systems, or the enforced operation of oppressive laws, and a virgin country is forthwith assigned to man in which the principle of self government may be tried without the necessity of casting off by violence the old fetters of feudalism. The increasing industry or invention of the largely augmented populations of the earth, exacts either a larger amount or a new standard of value for the precious metals, and regions are discovered among the frosts and forests of a far off continent, in which the fable of the golden sands of Pactolus is realized. The labor of men and the flight of time strip commercial countries of their trees, yet, in order to support the required supply of fuel, not only for the comfort and preservation but also for the industry of the race, the heart of the earth beneath the soil which is required for cultivation, is found to be veined with inexhaustible supplies of mineral coal.