Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican/Volume 2/Book 4/Chapter 3

 

CHAPTER III.

Population.

 

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POPULATION — CENSUS — TABLES OF POPULATION — RELATIVE DIVISION OF RACES — RELATIVE INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION — RELATIVE POPULATION IN HOT AND COLD DISTRICTS.

It is to be regretted that no very accurate census of Mexico has ever been made, and that since the year 1831, no effort has been persistently pursued by the government to enumerate its citizens and collect such statistical data as may always be easily gathered by persons engaged in this important task. The irregularity of the central or executive power; the instability of all governments since the establishment of independence; the intestine quarrels, not only in the capital but in the departments or states, have all contributed to, and even partially compelled, this neglect of a great national duty.

In the absence, therefore, of official statistics and reports, we are obliged to rely upon approximate results, founded on the partial enumerations of preceding years and the calculations of experienced statesmen and writers. In the following table we shall exhibit all the most trustworthy statements existing either in Mexican works or in the writings of reliable authors:—

Variances between the different Calculations and
Censuses of the Population of Mexico.

Years.		No. of Inhabitants.
1793—	Census of the Viceroy Revilla-Gigedo, including Vera Cruz and Guadalajara, according to an estimate in 1803,	5,270,029
1803—	Geographico-political tables of New Spain,	5,764,731
1810—	Semanario economico of Mexico,	5,810,005
1820—	Navarro's Memorial on the population of the kingdom of New Spain,	6,122,354
	Calculation of the first Congress,	6,204,000
1831—	Actual census of the Mexican Republic, published by Valdes,	6,382,264
1824—	Hon. J. R. Poinsett,	6,500,000
1825—	Humboldt, about,	7,000,000
1838—	Report of Commissioner of Chamber of Deputies,	7,009,120
1834—	Galvan's Mexican Calendar,	7,734,292
1836—	Notices of the states and territories of the Mexican nation,	7,843,132
1830—	Mr. Burkhardt- a German author,	7,996,000
1842—	An estimate made as the basis for the election of a Congress, (exclusive of Texas,)	7,015,509

In the year 1838, Señor Jose Gomez de la Cortina,—ex-Conde de la Cortina, one of the most enlightened citizens of Mexico, published a carefully prepared essay upon the population of Mexico, in the 1st No. of the Bulletin of the National Institute of Geography and Statistics of the Mexican Republic; and his opinion was that the number of inhabitants greatly exceeded any of the above amounts. By observing the increase of population in different periods of five years, he considered it satisfactorily proved by the Tablas Geographico-politicas, of 1803, that the augmentation, in favorable years, was at the rate 1-4/5 per cent. By applying this ratio to the census of the Tablas, which gave in 1803, 5,764,731 inhabitants, we shall have an increase of about 105,000 yearly; and if we calculate at this rate of augmentation for the 46 intervening years, we find in 1850 an increase of 4,830,000, or a grand total of 10,594,731.

In the year 1842, however, when an estimate was made of a basis of population, upon which to found a call for a Congress to form a new constitution under the plan of Tacubaya, in 23 Departments or States and Territories, exclusive of Texas, the government calculated that there were 7,015,509 inhabitants.

Table or Population in 1842.

Departments.		Population
	Mexico,	1,389,502
	Jalisco,	679,311
	Puebla,	661,902
	Yucatan,	508,948
	Guanajuato,	512,606
	Oajaca,	500,278
	Michoacan,	497,906
	San Luis Potosi,	321,840
	Zacatecas,	273,575
	Vera Cruz,	254,380
	Durango,	162,618
	Chihuahua,	147,600
	Sinaloa,	147,000
	Chiapas,	141,206
	Sonora,	124,000
	Queretaro,	120,560
	Nuevo Leon,	101,108
	Tamaulipas,	100,068
	Coahuila,	75,340
	Aguas Calientes,	69,698
	Tabasco,	63,580
	Nuevo Mexico,	57,026
	Californias,	33,439
		7,015,509

Deduct for	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	New Mexico,	57,026
		Upper California, since	25,000
		added to the United	————
		States	82,026	-82,026
				————
Estimated actual population in 1842,				6,933,483
Add 10 per cent. for the probable increase in 7 years				693,348
				————
Proximate actual population in 1850,				7,626,831

This population may be relatively classed among the races and castes as follows:

4,354,886		Indians.
1,100,000		Whites.
2,165,345		Meztizos, Zambos, Mulattoes, &c.
6,600		Negroes.
————
7,626,831

As Mexico, since the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, possesses 798,402 square miles, this will give nine inhabitants and a fraction, to the square mile.

From these calculations we deduce some very important facts as to the physical and intellectual condition of Mexico, which are very significant in the illustration of history. It appears that the total number of pure whites in the republic, is, in all probability, not more than 1,100,000; while the Indians, Negroes, Zambos, Mulattoes, Meztizos, and all the mixed bloods, amount to 6,526,831. During our residence in Mexico we ascertained from reliable authority that among the Indians and negroes but two per cent, could read and write, while among the whites, and castes, but twenty per cent, were estimated to enjoy those benefits. Thus we have:

87,229		Indians and Negroes able to read and write.
653,069		Whites and mixed castes able to read and write;

or, only seven hundred and forty thousand, two hundred and ninety-eight individuals, either completely educated or instructed in the simplest rudiments, out of a population of more than seven and a half millions. These are startling statistics in regard to the citizens of a nation whose government is theoretically and practically based on the culture of the people or their capacity for self-rule; and, when considered in connexion with the historical details presented in the first volume of this work, they will show that the distracted condition of Mexico is a mingled cause and consequence of her intellectual darkness.^[1]

One of the most interesting investigations in Mexican statistics would be to compare the number of births in the regions called the tierras calientes—or hot country, with those in the tierras frias, or cold region. From calculations made by Cortina in 1838, from data derived from nine departments, he concluded that the excess of births in the warm regions or tierras calientes was 1-510 per 100, over the tierras frias.

He gives the following actual statistics in evidence:

1st. Result of the general census of the department of Zacatecas since the year 1824, and progressive increase of population therein before the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes:—

Years.	Total population.		Increase of population biennially.
1824	247,295			25,606
1826	272,901			1,636
1828	274,537			15,507
1830	290,044			24,077
1832	314,121			24,077
1834	331,781			17,660

 

2d. In 1836, after the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes, this
department had	264,505	inhabitants.
In June, 1838, it had	273,575
	————
Increase in one year and a half,	9,070

 

3d. In the period from 1st of January, 1837 to 30th of June, 1838, there were born in the said department, 21,941

Died in the said department, . . 12,871

Increase of population, . . . . 9,070

4th. In the department of Oajaca in 1834, it was calculated that there were 457,033 inhabitants.

In December, 1838, . . . . 500,278

Increase in four years, . . . . 43,245

RESULTS.

Maximum of annual increase of population in Oajaca,						15,000
Minimum	"	"		"		6,000
Maximum	"	"		Zacatecas		12,000
Minimum	"	"		"		500

Of not less importance are the investigations upon the excess observed in one sex over the other. Before the appearance of Humboldt's work it was the opinion that in the New World nature did not follow the same law of equilibrium in the difference between the sexes as in Europe, and especially that in the tropical regions, the number of females exceeded greatly that of the males. Baron Humboldt combated this notion and demonstrated its error. He presents in his political essay upon New Spain a table of the population of eight Intendencies, in which it appears that out of 1,352,835 inhabitants there were 687,935 males and 664,900 females, which establishes a relative proportion of 100 to 95. In the Tablas Geografico politicas, already cited, it is expressly said that in New Spain, in the Intendencies of the tierras frias, or cold regions, as well as in those of the tierras calientes, or hot regions, the population inclines to a preponderance of males. Don Fernando Navarro y Noriega gives in his tables of population 71,642 more males than females; and, in the account of the taxes made by order of the government in 1781, it appears that the excess is still in favor of males, though in a much less proportion than assigned by Baron Humboldt. We present the following table, prepared in Mexico for the purpose of throwing more light on the subject:

Table of Population in various Departments in different years — Relative exceess — Births and deaths.

 

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^[2] males decreases, until the reverse occurs as the degrees of latitude augment. We must, however, except from this rule the department or state of Tamaulipas, in which the constancy with which nature sustains the excess of males, is somewhat extraordinary. The most ancient document possessed upon the subject, relative to this State, is of the year 1793, and from this we discover that, from that year until 1807, 124 more males than females were born therein, and that 30 more females than men died during the period—

More females than males are born in the following States, in the order in which they are placed:			More males than females are born in the following States, according to the order in which they are placed:
	1. Vera Cruz — greatest number.			1. Alta California — greatest No.
	2. Oajaca.			2. New Mexico.
	3. Puebla.			3. Sonora.
	4. Michoacan.			4. Chihuahua.
	5. Guanajuato.			5. Coahuila.
	6. Jalisco.			6. New Leon.[3]

 

INDIANS OF THE TIERRA CALIENTE.

 

1. It is just to Mexico to state that Cortina, in the article previously referred to, estimates the number of persons able to read and write, to be much larger; but his calculations are doubtless made with the partiality of a native, and are based on a limited observation of city life, the army and municipal prisons.
2. The cholera ravaged México this year, and consequently it owuld be unfair to use the deaths as a basis of calculation at that period.
3. See Boletin No. 1, del Instituto Nacional de Geografia y Estadistica, Mejico, 1839.