Mexico / Its Ancient and Modern Civilisation, History, Political Conditions, Topography, Natural Resources, Industries and General Development

by C. Reginald Enock

The industrial census of 1902 gives a list of more than 5,500 manufactories, including sugar mills, distilleries, potteries, iron and steel works, chemical factories, chocolate factories, ice factories, paper mills, leather workers, and a host of others. Minor industries, performed in cottages and homes, occupy a large number of people, such as the making of hats, pottery, saddlery, linen-drawn work, and so forth. Special franchises and exemption are given by the Government for the establishing of new manufacturing industries, which are encouraged by the Department of Fomento, and the field is not without attraction for foreign capital.

Railways.—In the chapter dealing with the natural resources and conditions of the various states, some details of the railway system have been given. Mexico's railways have been the principal agency for her development, both political and commercial, for, on the one hand, they have rendered possible the swift suppression of revolutionary menace, and, on the other, they have fulfilled their function as means of communication for goods and passengers. No country has ever showed the effects of the steadying influence of railways so markedly as Mexico. The close communication with the United States, so rendered possible, and with the Gulf seaboard, has also contributed to this end, and the railways of Mexico may be looked upon as safeguards for stability in a considerable degree. I will now give a brief résumé of the principal railway lines and their general conditions.

THE MITLAC RAVINE: VIEW ON THE MEXICAN RAILWAY.

The first line to put Mexico in touch with the outside world was the Mexican Railway from Vera Cruz to the capital. This work, having been much aided by the Maximilian régime, was completed under President Lerdo, and inaugurated on January 1, 1873. The line is controlled by an English corporation, and the great engineering difficulties which were overcome, and the solidity of its construction, are such as are scarcely surpassed by any railway in the world, conditions which reflect credit upon its British constructors. The line is almost unique from a scenic point of view, ascending, as it does, from the Gulf Coast, among the stupendous mountain fastnesses of the Sierra Madre, to gain the great elevation of the plateau and the Valley of Mexico. The tropical regions passed through, and the rapid changes of climate encountered, as the train ascends, must be experienced to be understood, but the general character of the regions traversed has been fully set forth in these pages. One of the most remarkable places, from an engineering and scenic point of view, is the Maltrata summit, and only in a few places in the world—on the transandine or transalpine railways, or the Denver line—is it equalled. From the gained altitude the passenger looks down upon the town, spread like a chess-board, thousands of feet below, as the train plunges around dizzy barrancas, over iron bridges spanning profound canyons, or along the curving road-bed cut in the solid rock of the mountain side. The names of many of the points passed en route bring back memories of the Conquest, and of those Homeric men who passed that way nearly four centuries ago, as well as of the Toltec and Aztec periods. From tide-water at Vera Cruz, the line crosses the coastal plain and plunges into a tropical forest, whence it climbs to 2,713 feet at Cordova, 4,028 feet at Orizaba, amid a delightful climate and surroundings, 5,151 feet at Maltrata, 8,000 feet at Esperanza, and reaches its highest point at Acocotla, near San Marcos, an elevation of 8,310 feet above sea-level. This, of course, is not high in comparison with the transandine Oroya railway of Peru,[44] which—the highest in the world—reaches 15,666 feet. The Vera Cruz line descends from the summit of the Sierra Madre to the Valley and City of Mexico, past the plains of Otumba and San Juan Teotihuacan, reaching the capital at an elevation of 7,348 feet above sea-level. The length of the line from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico is 264 miles, and with its branches to Puebla and Pachuca, &c., 321 miles—all of standard gauge. The total share capital for a line of this mileage is heavy, the whole of the stock and shares reaching £7,820,780. The general growth of Mexico's trade and the careful management of the line are causing an improvement in its financial condition. In January, 1902, a dividend of only 2½ per cent. was paid upon the first preference stock, and nothing upon the second nor upon the ordinary shares, whilst an increase in the following years, through 6 per cent. and 8 per cent., accrued to the first, so that for the last half-year of 1907, 8 per cent.—its full rate—was paid upon the first preference stock, 5¾ on the second, and nothing on the ordinary shares. The returns at present are suffering from the results consequent upon the late financial crisis in the United States, which seriously affected Mexico.

44 See my "Peru."

BRIDGES OVER THE ATOYAC RIVER: MEXICAN RAILWAY.

The Mexican Central is the next line in importance. It is a noteworthy feature of Mexico's relations in the middle of last century with its neighbour—the United States, that President Lerdo discouraged the idea of traversing the deserts of the great plateau with a railway, fearful of American political and commercial machinations, as showed by his famous axiom, which I have quoted elsewhere, relating to the intervening desert. To the broader outlook of President Diaz this line owes its being, upon a concession transferred to an Englishman, who was associated with American capitalists. A company was formed, and the railway—which was subsidised by the Government—was opened for traffic from the City of Mexico to the United States frontier at El Paso on March 22, 1884. To-day, with its numerous branches, one of which runs eastwardly to the Gulf Coast at Tampico, and another, westwardly to Guadalajara and beyond, with yet another to Cuernavaca, it is a large system of 3,823 miles. The construction was inferior to that of the Vera Cruz Railway, as it obeyed the cheaper and more rapid American method rather than the more enduring British. It is a standard gauge line. The route traversed by the main line of this railway adown the mesa central, for 1,225 miles, passes through vast areas of dry and treeless plains and among numerous squalid hamlets, and here the unlovely side of Mexican life and travel is laid bare to the traveller. Nevertheless, these conditions alternate with those of the handsome and extensive cities of the plateau and with the great mining regions, all of which—in point of interest and value—compensate for sterility elsewhere. As for the branch line from San Luis Potosi to Tampico, it passes through the same remarkable tropical zone as the Vera Cruz line. The mountain scenery upon this route is impressive, with dense woods and fertile valleys giving place to the great cañon of Tamasopo. The same panoramic character attends it, of luxuriant tropical conditions spread out 1,200 feet below the train, with rushing torrents, towering cliffs, and strange and varied topographic changes. The branch which runs westwardly towards the Pacific Ocean from the main line, passes through Guadalajara and descends the Western Sierra Madre towards Colima at Tuxpan. A short distance only remains to be constructed in order to give a completed route to Manzanillo—the port upon the Pacific coast, which will form the terminus of what will then constitute a new transcontinental route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This is an exceedingly interesting journey, but a disastrous flood in 1906 set back the construction work. The branch line from the Mexican Central, which runs from the City of Mexico westwardly to the Balsas river, is destined ultimately to reach the famous seaport of Acapulco, on the Pacific Ocean. This port, indeed, is the best harbour on the Pacific coast of North America, after San Francisco in California. The line, however, is still far from reaching the coast. Cuernavaca, which is passed by this line, is some 75 miles from the capital, and the route lies through a scenic wonderland, reaching, at the summit of the Sierra Madre, an elevation of 10,000 feet above sea-level, and affording a magnificent view of the City and Valley of Mexico 2,500 feet below. Beautiful and historic, Cuernavaca was a home of Montezuma and a famous prehistoric centre until its capture by Cortes, and every Mexican traveller marks it as one of his objective points. The finances of the Mexican Central Railway have been in recent years often in an unsatisfactory state, and the consolidation of the line with the National Railway, under Government auspices, is expected to bring about a more favourable condition.

The National Railroad similarly traverses the great plateau, from Laredo, upon the United States border, to the City of Mexico. It was a subsidised narrow-gauge line, built under American auspices, and was opened for traffic in November, 1888. The inevitable widening of the gauge to standard size took place, and was completed in November, 1903. The length of the main line is 800 miles; the shortest route from the United States border to the capital. The Interoceanic Railway, a British company, which forms part of the consolidated system now, will give it a line to Vera Cruz, whilst, viâ the International Railway, it has communication westwardly to the important city of Durango. Another branch line runs to Matamoros, upon the Gulf of Mexico. The line also traverses a portion of Texas.