STATE AND MUNICIPAL FINANCES. The best way in which I can give the state and municipal revenues and expenses in Mexico, is by inserting the detail amounts of the last twelve years of the revenues and expenses of each of the Mexican States, and a similar statement of the revenues and expenses of the municipalities of each State. That statement gives also the revenues and expenses of the City of Mexico, which have increased very considerably of late. In the year 1867, after the restoration of the Republic, they only amounted to about $800,000, while in the year 1895, they had increased to $3,395,638. (These statements are on pp. 150-153.) FOREIGN TRADE. The foreign trade of Mexico was necessarily very small before the railway era, because transportation was exceedingly high on account of the broken condition of the country, and only articles of great value and comparatively small weight could be profitably exported, while the price of foreign commodities became very high, both on account of transportation charges and high import duties. Therefore, only rich people could afford to consume foreign commodities, and the exports of Mexico were practically reduced to silver and gold, and to a few commodities having small bulk and great value. The normal cost of transportation on merchandise from the City of Mexico to Veracruz, a distance of one hundred Mexican leagues or 263 English miles, used to be, before the railroad connecting both. places was built, $68.75 per ton of 2200 pounds, or more than 26 cents per mile and ton; and in extraordinary circumstances, as during the French Intervention in Mexico from 1861 to 1867, the freight was as high as $330 per ton, or over $1.25 per mile and ton. Therefore, no article could be transported unless it was very much needed and it commanded a very high price. The result was that not only the foreign but also the domestic trade was reduced to its smallest proportions, and that the people raised just enough to provide for the wants of themselves and their immediate neighbors. A fact that may seem incredible is, that for the same reasons, among the farmers, a good crop was considered a great misfortune. Since the railways have revolutionized transportation, our products, especially agricultural commodities, have begun to be sent to foreign markets, and their exportation is increasing considerably. As yet the precious metals, especially silver, are the main exports from Mexico, representing during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1896, 61 per cent. of our total annual exports; but other commodities are now exported, and they are in a fair way to exceed, before long, the value of our silver exports. I have no doubt that with the opening of our railroads, if our exports continue to increase in the same proportion as they have recently done, Mexico will be able to supply the United States with most of the tropical products now consumed and not yet produced here, and even with others, that would find a market if they could be cheaply transported. The same difficulties which prevented us from having correct accounts of our public revenues and expenses, and which I have stated in speaking on that subject, made it very difficult for many years to have correct statistics of our imports and exports. Imports. I could not give even a tentative statement, which I could vouchsafe, of our total imports and exports from 1821 to 1867, but the statement of the receipts of our custom-houses from 1823 to 1875, which appears on page 145 gives an approximate idea of our imports, considering that the receipts amount to about from 50 to 60 per cent. of the value of the imports. I append a detailed statement of the imports and exports in Mexico during the years 1826, 1827, and 1828, and the total imports and exports. during the year 1825. From the fiscal year 1872-1873 our Statistical Bureau began to make its reports, and I have concised them in the three annexed statements comprising most of those years, up to the fiscal year ended June 30, 1896. The commodities are divided in their respective classes in accordance with the different schedules of the tariffs then in force. MEXICAN IMPORTS AND EXPORTS FROM 1826 TO 1828. IMPORTS IN MEXICO FROM JULY 1, 1872, TO JUNE 30, 1875, AND IN THE YEAR 1884-1885. 1. Cottons... 2. Linens 1,173,572 41 3. Woollens. 1,306,932 77 $7,036,913 45 $4,992,003 53 $8,814,123 34 $6,002,759 46 $7,379,339 12 $5,826,530 86 1,003,595 70 603,559 96 700,445 22 703,052 21 1,031,378 82 676,339 40 $6,153,559 86 $5,234,420 08 496,896 20 877,078 29 988,292 75 695,216 55 548,191 22 1,376,365 04 469,798 70 1,066,491 36 624,126 96 1,174,004 66 715,661 44 796,762 17 539.745 16 1,281,247 44 1,070,162 56 2,184,375 85 3,334,152 92| 2,058,713 20 2,955,852 55 2,038,344 16 3,761,080 40 2,632,185 86 $20,166,012 85 $11,833,117 52 $23,282,298 56 $12,981,795 42 $18,793,493 61 $11,821,533 49 $23.786,684 90 $14,084,892 28 IMPORTS IN MEXICO FROM THE FISCAL YEAR 1892-1893 TO THE FISCAL YEAR 1895-1896. 1892-1893. 1893-1894. 1894-1895. 1895-1896. 1892-1893. 1893-1894. 1894-1895. 1895-1896. 1892-1893. 1893-1894. 1894-1895. 1895-1896. Total. $6,162 $4,530 $5,263 $6,053 $6,854,297 $6,933,610 $7,783,945 393,123 526,723 596,585 405,922 $9,420,050 $6,860,459 $6,938,140 $7.789,213 $9.426,103 308,095 522,684 606,114 853,691 1,018,461 879,625 798,201 909,000 1,109,109 $34,811,830 $26,891,793 $30,027,736 $37,012,209 $43,413,131 $30,287,483 $34.000,440 $42,016,742 |