"From this point of highest elevation, the route followed, reduces the distance to the city of Mexico to 37 leagues—making the whole distance from Vera Cruz to the capital not more than 73 leagues.
"It must be borne in mind, that in making the following estimate, we have taken into consideration the extreme low rate of wages in the country, as compared with the wages of the journeymen laborers in the United States; and this alone must make an immense difference in cost of works of the kind executed in Mexico, whenever we base our estimates upon the costs of similar works in England or in our own country.
| ESTIMATE OF COST. | |||
| Section. | Leagues. | Dollars. | |
| 1st. | 3 | Grading from Vera Cruz to the foot of the small ridge of the Molino de Ricato, over a sandy soil, easy to excavate and transport superstructure, | 125,000 |
| 2d. | 2 | Whole cost of the two leagues, from the last point to the river San Juan, nearly level ground, including superstructure and a stone bridge across this river, | 95,000 |
| 3d. | 12 | Twelve leagues from the river San Juan to Boca del Monte, | 450,000 |
| 4th. | 6½ | Six and a half leagues from Boca del Monte to the Barranca of Chichiquila—superstructure, | 275,000 |
| 5th. | 6½ | Six and a half leagues across the Barranca of Chichiquila. This section is the most difficult and costly part of the road, and will cost over $300,000 per mile—say, superstructure, | 2,500,000 |
| 6th. | 4 | The next four leagues to the valley of St. Andres, | 245,000 |
| 7th. | 34½ | From the foot of the Sierra Madre, through the northern part of the valley of St. Andres, crossing the road from Perote to Puebla, near the village of Poctarus to San Cristoval, | 1,300,000 |
| 8th. | 4 | Four leagues from San Cristoval to the city of Mexico, | 270,000 |
| Locomotives and cars, | 550,000 | ||
| Whole cost of the road, | 5,810,000 | ||
P. O. HÉBERT,
Lieut. Col. 14th Infantry"
CHAPTER VIII.
MEXICAN FINANCES.
DISORDER OF MEXICAN FINANCES—ENORMOUS USURY.—CHARACTER OF FINANCIAL OPERATIONS.—EXPENSES OF ADMINISTRATIONS.—ANALYSIS OF MEXICAN DEBT—COMPARISON OF INCOME AND OUTLAY—DEFICIT.
THE distracted political condition of Mexico since 1809, has contributed largely to the proverbial impoverishment and financial discredit of a country, which, nevertheless, has during the whole intervening period, been engaged in furnishing an important share of the world's circulating medium. The revolutionary and factious state of parties; the unrestrained ambition of leaders; the violence with which they displaced rivals; their short tenure of office when they attained power and the consequent impossibility of maturing any permanent scheme of finance; the ordinary reliance of statesmen upon a large army, and the immense cost of its support; the continual and habitual recourse to loans at ruinous rates of usury; the comparative ignorance of domestic resources and their failure of development in consequence either of intestine broils or the ignorance and slothfulness of the population, together with the plunder of the treasury by unprincipled demagogues and despots, may all be regarded as the basis of Mexican misrule and pecuniary misfortune. For nearly forty years every minister of finance has been taxed to discover means for daily support. Let us illustrate the system commonly pursued.
On the 20th of September, fifteen days before the treaty of Estansuela, the administration of president Bustamante offered the following terms for a loan of $1,200,000. It proposed to receive the sum of $200,000 in cash, and $1,000,000 represented in the paper or credits of the government. These credits or paper were worth, in the market, nine per cent. About one-half of the loan was taken, and the parties obtained orders on the several maritime custom houses, receivable in payment of duties.
The revenues of the custom house of Matamoros, had been always appropriated to pay the army on the northern frontier of the republic, but during the administration of General Bustamante, the commandant of Matamoros issued bonds or drafts against that custom 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.