Mexico and its reconstruction/Chapter 16

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CHAPTER XVI

THE FOREIGN COMMERCE OF MEXICO: THE
DIAZ RÉGIME AND AFTER

From the '70s until 1892 the statistics of Mexican imports are only less fragmentary than those in the years before the Diaz régime. Frequent tariff changes disturbed what would have been the course of development and the tariff classifications are not such as make easy the analysis of the trade as a reflection of changing national economic demands. This latter difficulty, in fact, continues up to the present time.

The textile trade, which was the characteristic feature of Mexican imports in the preceding periods, continued to be the most important factor though less important in comparison with the total imports, and less important when compared to the total consumption, for a local industry was developing, which, through high tariff protection, was gaining ground steadily. In 1872-3, 58 per cent of the total invoice value of imports was made up of textiles, a position maintained as late as 1884. Then conditions changed rapidly. In 1889-90 the value imported had risen but the percentage of the total had fallen to 22 per cent. Local competition was gaining strength and the demands of Mexico on the world's markets were becoming diversified and greater. Textile imports, therefore, took a less prominent place. The decline in their relative importance in the period from the early '90s to 1912-13 was steady. The value doubled in this period but the proportion of the total sank to 13 per cent.

To a very considerable degree the passing of the importance of these goods reflects the decline of the British leadership in Mexican imports. For generations textiles have been one of the characteristic features of British trade and at one time they were not only the chief item of Mexican imports but practically an undisputed British field. By 1912-13 they were neither. Mexican and foreign competition was pressing British manufacturers hard. The cotton thread and handkerchiefs imported were still practically all British. A large share of the lace trade and of that in coarse cottons had been lost. In the better trade in piece-goods British mills still made about seven-eighths of the imports. Wool yarn imports came from Germany, light wool goods chiefly from France; only in the heavier woolens was the wool trade distinctively British. Serious inroads were made on a number of less important branches.

It is impossible to analyze satisfactorily the developments in Mexican imports other than textiles. In the first part of the Diaz régime the classifications are often according to the rate of tariff paid and in the later years on physical characteristics rather than utility. In general, the government followed the policy of favoring the introduction of materials that did not compete with Mexican industry and which, through encouragement of industry, would give a stimulus to the development of the republic. It frequently freed such goods from tariff charges. The tariff of 1872-3 allowed but 12 per cent of the imports to enter free of duty. That of 1884-5 gave similar treatment to 22.9 per cent of the imports.

On the other hand, Mexico sought to have foodstuffs produced within the country. Imports were loaded with increasing tariff rates, with the result that between 1872-3 and 1888-9 the proportion of foodstuff items in the total, and their actual value fell off sharply. The economic advance, which was then under way, however, was so rapid that in the latter part of the Diaz régime foodstuff demands were so great that imports increased in spite of the high tariffs and greater local production.

After 1892 the chief tariff classifications are animal substances, vegetable substances, minerals, textiles, and their manufactures, and machinery and apparatus. It is not possible to trace such groups as foodstuffs through these figures satisfactorily, so comparisons must follow the Mexican classifications. They show a remarkable expansion of Mexican imports reflecting the rapid economic exploitation of the country. Between 1893-4 and 1912-13 imports of animal substances increased four fold in value. Leather goods and preserved meats, lard and wool imports, all indicative of a higher standard of life than the Mexican had formerly enjoyed and of the demand created by the presence and example of the foreigner, constituted more than one-half of the total in the class.

Imports of vegetable substances increased between 1893-4 and 1912-13 over two and a half fold. The growth was general in a large number of lines, the most important of which was cotton. The local cotton production has not been great enough to supply the demand of the Mexican mills and increasing supplies have had to be drawn from the United States.

From the Mexican point of view the two tariff classes, minerals, and machinery and apparatus with the allied class, chemical products, are the ones that show the most interesting development in the national import trade. In the old days quicksilver went into Mexico and metal products went out. Except for quicksilver, imports of mining products were negligible. Machinery was conspicuous in Mexican trade by its unimportance, so also were chemical products. But the Diaz régime brought these unimportant factors to the forefront. They displaced textiles as the outstanding feature of Mexican imports. They were important for the development of the country because they represented the goods drawn from abroad for its economic regeneration. The first two classes together increased almost fourfold between 1893-4 and 1912-13. Chemical and pharmaceutical imports increased six fold. These were figures that reflected the purchases abroad of the iron and steel, tin, copper, coal, coke, electrical goods, agricultural and other machinery, and railway equipment, which were so important a factor in creating the new Mexico.

One of the most interesting features of a country's foreign commerce is brought out by the study of the source of supply of its imports and the destination of its exports.^[1] Since before the beginning of the Diaz régime only four nations have figured prominently in Mexican import trade. Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and France furnished over 90 per cent of the total in 1872-3, 92 per cent in 1892-3, 89.5 per cent in 1902-3, and 87.3 per cent in 1912-13. After the beginning of the World War the United States came to have a practical monopoly of Mexican foreign trade.

Among these nations there has been a long contest for control of the commerce. In 1872-3 Great Britain was in the lead, with about 35 per cent of the total. It would be hard, of course, to maintain such a share as the general exports from the nearby United States developed. This was particularly true with the establishment of railroad connections across the northern border.

At the beginning of the next 20-year period the shipments to Great Britain had sunk to slightly over 13 per cent, which continued to be about her share in 1902-3 and 1912-13. British, French, and German competition for a share in Mexican trade was keen throughout the Diaz régime. France controlled 16 per cent of the total in 1872-3. She had the advantage of dealing in lines that, to a large extent, were composed of distinctively national products, but her trade in many branches was not easily expandable because the public that consumed her products in Mexico was not large nor of rapidly increasing numbers. Germany, on the other hand, soon began to bid for the trade in iron goods and textiles and to come into intimate competition with Great Britain and later with the United States.

By 1892-3 Great Britain had fallen from first place and was clearly outclassed by the United States. She still led France, though by a narrow margin only. Germany and France together then had a trade 40 per cent greater than the British. Relatively Great Britain was losing even in comparison with her European competitors. At the opening of the next 10-year period French and German trade had again gained; it was 60 per cent greater than that of Great Britain. Meanwhile Germany had passed France in 1901, not again to be overtaken, and a close contest for second place in Mexican imports was occurring between her and the former leader. In four years in the decade following 1902-3 German trade was greater than British and in many lines was offering sharp competition to that of the United States.

The rise of German trade was the most striking feature of Mexican imports from European countries. In 1872-3 the total credited to the German states was only 3,890,496 gold pesos. Twenty years later it had fallen to 3,322,700. Then began a steady rise. In the decade ending 1902-3 it almost tripled and in 1902-3 to 1912-13 increased another 30 per cent. Had peace continued it does not seem unlikely that Germany might have established herself in firm control of second place in Mexican imports.

First place, meanwhile, had definitely fallen to the United States. Before the railway era in 1872-3 one-fourth of the imports came from the United States, in spite of the lack of rail routes between the two countries. Twenty years later over 60 per cent did so. In 1902-3 54 per cent of the imports came from the United States; in 1907 almost 63 per cent; and in 1912-13, 51 per cent. Railroads, propinquity, and the rapidly growing manufacturing industries of the northern republic assured it the greater part of Mexican import trade. These advantages were temporarily increased by the World War, which made the United States almost the exclusive market in which Mexico purchased for import. Parallel with that of imports there was in process, meanwhile, a rapid growth in export trade and a contest for its control. The shipments out of Mexico naturally fall into two great classes—the mining products and all others. Historically the characteristic exports of Mexico are the precious metals. As late as 1872-3 they were 81 per cent of the total. But though they continued to rise in yield they fell in relative importance. The total metals export was valued at 20,294,321 pesos in 1874-5. Twenty years later the precious metals sent abroad were worth 52,535,854 pesos, 30 years later 93,885,526 pesos, and in 1912-13, 130,885,339 pesos. But in the same period commodities exports had risen in even greater proportion. In 1874-5 they had been worth 7,024,467 pesos; 20 years later they were worth 38,319,099 pesos; 30 years later in 1904-5, 114,634,924 pesos. At this latter date commodities exports had already passed the precious metals exports in value, and in 1912-13 they rose further to 169,520,212 pesos' worth. In other words, while precious metals exports had increased 650 per cent, those of commodities rose 2,300 per cent. This meant that Mexico was less distinctively a mining country than at any time in her history. Her mining, too, was becoming less characteristically devoted to the precious metals, especially silver. There is no reason to believe that Mexico will cease to be one of the world's great sources of silver supply, but in recent decades other mining products have assumed an increasing importance. The exploitation of the base metals has had an extraordinary development and the oil resources have been developed so rapidly that the total yield of the country is now determined by the conditions under which the product may be marketed, not by the amount the wells are capable of producing.

The growth of this export is a twentieth century development. There was a small sale of local oil products for about a decade preceding the beginning of the export trade. The total production reported was 75,375 barrels in 1903 and 3,634,080 in 1910. The first cargo of crude oil left Tampico May 20, 1911, by an American steamer. Thereafter the growth in production was rapid and all but a small part went directly into the export trade. In 1911 a total of 12,552,798 barrels was produced. By 1913 an increase of over 100 per cent was recorded, the total being 25,696,291 barrels. During the war the production continued to rise and could have been increased still further had it been necessary, for the potential yield of the wells had now outrun the ability to market the product. The total for 1917 was 55,292,770;^[2] for 1918, 53,919,863; for 1919, 87,072,955; and for 1920, 156,062,707 barrels. In spite of the importance of this growth it must not be overlooked that the most significant, and for the republic the most important, developments in her export trade in the last generation have been in other hues. No nation whose prosperity depends on a few products is ever on a sound economic basis. Exhaustion of resources, bad growing seasons, and bad market conditions always have possibilities of national disaster for such a state. A nation is secure only when by the variety of its products it can escape the difficulties that may at any time attend the production of a few of them. Mexico at the beginning of the Diaz régime was in the condition first mentioned. At its end she had progressed far toward the second standard.

To be sure manufactures continue to have but a weak development but agricultural and forest products have become diversified in the last generation and the economic foundation upon which the Mexican national life rests has undoubtedly been broadened thereby. Moreover, the growth of the list of exports represents not only a stabilizing element in national commerce but a development toward a standard that favors a democratic government.

Though Mexico still has many cases that seem to indicate the contrary, agriculture is the small man's business. It is the occupation which, in the development of nations, has given the first great impulse toward respect for the rights of one's fellowman, and toward a desire for order. It is the occupation in which individual initiative and industry first received impetus. Mexico will find it of the highest importance to foster the growth of her classes who live independently upon the land, if the republic is to become what it never has been, a truly democratic government.

The agricultural exports reflect but imperfectly the degree to which this development has already taken place in Mexico, for the reason that many of the lines in which harvests have been greatly increased enter export but slightly and because even some of agricultural products that are exported, such as henequen, are not typically the yield of small holdings. Nevertheless there can be no question that the diversification of agricultural products and of the export of them is indicative of a change in the national life of fundamental importance.

From still another point of view this development is interesting. It reflects, to a degree, a development of hot lands heretofore disliked and neglected by both native and foreigner. Henequen, coffee, rubber, vanilla, and chicle, among the vegetable exports, are names that suggest tropical climates.

The growth of the agricultural exports of Mexico can only be sketched here. Up to the present henequen fiber, or sisal, has come, almost entirely, from Yucatan. It is the material from which the greater part of the binder twine used in the United States is made and it finds almost its exclusive market in that country. The export in 1877-8 was valued at 1,078,076 pesos, that for 1912-13 was worth 31,133,755 pesos.^[3]

The value of exported sisal increased remarkably during the World War but, like the figures of international trade in many other lines, this reflected a development of exceptional character and not one that can be expected to continue in times of peace. With supplies of Manila hemp cut to a minimum by the war, Yucatan producers met an exceptional market for their product. In addition the local government set up a system of market control that forced the prices still higher. As a result sisal fiber, which sold at an average of $.055 United States gold per pound in the five years before the war, rapidly rose in nominal value reaching a peak of $.2125 United States gold per pound at one time during the conflict. Such returns are now a thing of the past. In 1921 sisal was back to its prewar price level. The market was depressed by large stocks, and a production more than sufficient for the decreased peace time demand. However, the advance that had been made in pre-war times will be maintained. It is beyond doubt that Mexico's sisal production will contribute increasingly to her foreign trade. Other vegetable fibers, especially ixtle and broom root, have also been exported in increasing quantities.

Coffee culture was introduced into Mexico from the West Indies. Two areas, one on the Atlantic with the cities Orizaba and Cordova as centers, and the other on the Guatemalan border, have proven especially suited to this crop. The United States has always been the chief buyer. Before 1870 exports were negligible. By 1878 they had risen to a value of 1,242,041 pesos and in 1912-13 to 11,263,701 pesos. Raw tobacco, of which a value of 132,971 pesos was exported in 1872-3, was sent abroad to the amount of 1,002,611 pesos in 1912-13. Chick peas, garbanzos, were apparently first exported in 1882-3, when a value of 28,855 pesos was shipped. In 1912-13 garbanzos worth 4,930,362 pesos left the country. Rubber exports began to be important in 1896-7. They rose rapidly to a value of 21,187,770 pesos in 1910-11, the highest value they ever reached. In the same year guayule was exported to a value of 11,797,910 pesos Mexican currency. Important increases are also to be noted in cabinet and dyewoods, vanilla, chicle, cattle, and hides and skins. The diversification of Mexican exports is illustrated by a comparison of the articles exported to the amount of 1,000,000 pesos at various periods. Besides the precious metals, there were in 1877-8 only three such articles, in 1882-3 only four, in 1891-2 only five. Then came the period of rapid development. There were 12 articles besides mineral products in this class in 1902-3 and in 1912-13 there were 14. The enumeration of the chief items of Mexican export is evidence of the degree to which the republic continues to be, so far as its export trade is concerned, a raw product country. In some lines manufactures have been developed to satisfy a large part of the local market, but even in 1912-13 they constituted only 1.1 per cent of the total exports. The chief factors in exports of manufactures were cheap hats and manufactured tobacco.

The changes in the international shares of Mexican trade already noted in connection with imports were even more marked in the export trade. Precious metals shipments in the middle '80s were about evenly taken by Great Britain and the United States, then the latter took the lead and held it steadily thereafter. Its share rose to about three-fourths of the total in the middle '90s and it stood at a little above that point in 1912-13. Since the outbreak of the World War exports to countries other than the United States have been only a negligible percentage of the total.

In the commodity market in general Mexico has never sold to any one on as good terms as to the United States. That country led even before the Diaz régime, its next competitor, Great Britain, even then, taking only about a value one-fourth as great. As early as 1878, 60 per cent of the commodity exports went to the United States. By the '90s over three-fourths of the total took that direction. In 1912-13, 77.2 per cent went to the northern neighbor of Mexico—about the same per cent of the total as in the case of the precious metals exports.

In spite of Mexican distrust and in the face of the failure of the average American to understand the Mexican point of view, the trade relations between the two great republics of the North American continent have grown increasingly intimate and important. The mutual economic interests are so interrelated and fundamental that they have proven and will continue to prove so powerful that no political propaganda can counteract them. There is no true geographical boundary between the two countries, and communications between them by both land and sea are well developed, better developed indeed than between many regions within Mexico itself. The economic development of the two is highly contrasted but supplemental. The United States is the best market for what Mexico has to sell and the easiest source of supply for what she wishes to buy. In 1912-13 Mexico bought almost four times as much from the United States as from any other country and more than from all other countries combined. In 1912-13 Mexico sold to the United States over seven times as much as to any other country and almost four times as much as to the five nations next in importance in Mexican export trade. The percentages have risen still higher during and since the World War but are not indicative of a condition that will continue in normal times. These latter, however, will not fail to demonstrate the essential commercial unity of interest of the two republics.

That there should be friendly relations between two states bound so closely together by their material interests seems axiomatic. That the international exchange between the two countries is to their mutual advantage is not likely to be disputed; nor is it subject to question that this trade is of very much greater importance to Mexico than to the United States. In Mexico's total trade this commercial interchange with the United States is not only the dominant factor but the greater part of its total foreign commerce, a position which the same trade is far from occupying in the case of the United States.

Those who wish a resumption of orderly development in Mexico cannot overlook the part that foreign commerce played in the old régime in placing the country on its feet, giving work to the people, and resources to the government to carry out the progressive measures it supported. They should not forget to what degree that commerce was made possible through the United States market and the enterprise of Americans who came to the republic with their capital.

The trade of Mexico in the early '70s presents but a sorry contrast to that in the opening decade of the twentieth century. Imports were stationary at about 30,000,000 pesos. Exports were worth about the same amount. Railroads were practically unknown. Only the most valuable products could be imported or exported. Good crops rotted through inability to take them to market and bad crops in the less accessible regions meant famine. Property and life were insecure.

At the end of the period, in 1912-13, imports were reported at 192,292,461 pesos, exports at 300,405,552. Railways reached the more important producing areas. Goods formerly unmarketable went to parts of the country where they were needed and went abroad by thousands and tens of thousands of tons. Property was protected and, at least comparatively, personal liberty was assured.

The change, of course, was not due to any one new element introduced into the national life. It was the product of a complex of influences, which, whatever its shortcomings, was bringing about in Mexico a transformation of the old into something better. Among these influences, on the whole beneficent, that of foreign commerce was constant and important. It operated both as cause and effect.

The growing imports gave greater resources through customs taxes to the government. They stimulated the people to new wants, and brought in the machinery and raw materials for new industries and for the expansion of old ones. They made possible better protection of life and property and encouraged the investment of capital, both foreign and national, in lines that would have been impractical before.

As exports expanded new areas were brought under exploitation, not only for their mineral resources but for the vegetable and animal products. The exports, in turn, made increase of imports possible and gave an aspiration toward a standard of life that was impossible before. Few influences, indeed, worked more clearly for the broadening of the national life of Mexico than did the development of her foreign commerce. Few seemed to carry, to a greater degree, the assurance that the industrial development of the country, which it helped to make possible, would gradually bring about a social as well as an economic reconstruction and assure in the republic the continuance, by less arbitrary means, of the orderly development that had been maintained during the reign of President Diaz.

That commerce would suffer during the widespread disorders brought by the revolution was to be expected. The actual effects of the local conflict are obscured in its later years by the developments of the World War, which, by giving a great stimulus to certain lines of international trade, distorted the trade values and upset the normal conditions in a number of important lines of Mexican production, notably silver, sisal, and petroleum. As a result, the uncertainty as to the amount of the totals of the trade brought by the early years of the war has been succeeded by uncertainty as to what the figures mean, now that some published by the Mexican government again become available.

The most contradictory conclusions are arrived at by different persons. If, for example, the reports of crop production are considered as an indication of commercial conditions, the picture presented even for 1918, the last year for which figures are available, is very gloomy.

These returns seem to show a very serious cutting down of the production of the staples upon which the people of the country depend. The crop decline has affected international trade less than might be expected, since those who use imported goods are not the people at large and the chief cereals do not enter foreign commerce in large amounts.

If the returns of international trade and of customs collections be interpreted as those in control of the government allege they should be, Mexico must be admitted

 

PRODUCTION OF CERTAIN CROPS IN MEXICO ^[4]

	Average yearly production, 1906-1910 (Kilos)	Production for 1918 (Kilos)
Rice	31,033,637	12,520,300
Barley	445,396,850	17,924,260
Corn	3,219,624,240	1,171,750,893
Wheat	306,782,890	187,892,586
Beans	163,397,200	107,465,720
Chick-peas	60,535,620	69,303,650
Camote	22,936,645	72,000
Potatoes	20,069,642	327,795
Green Chile	56,251,716	. . . . . . . . . .
Dry Chile	9,809,031	691,454
Sugar Cane	2,257,144,953	3,077,400
Sugar	105,887,340	16,600,000
Panocha	74,546,666	10,308,968
Honey	85,226,502	. . . . . . . . .
Peanuts	6,628,980	. . . . . . . .
Cotton	40,506,796	79,292,700
Henequen	84,840,287	158,066,682
Cacao	2,906,021	2,500,000
Coffee	35,788,007	47,582,540
Vanilla	188,005	. . . . . . . .
Tobacco	14,395,321	12,608,337

to be about to enter a period of prosperity in its foreign trade such as she has never known.^[5] The exports for the year 1918 were valued at 367,305,451, compared to 300,405,552 pesos, the record for 1912-13. Imports totaled 164,470,035 pesos, still much less than in 1910-11, when they totaled 206,000,000 pesos. Detailed returns for 1918 and subsequent years have not been published. The war had greatly emphasized Mexico's dependence on the United States in her foreign trade. Approximately 95 per cent of all exports in 1918 went thither and about 90 per cent of the imports were purchased there.

President Carranza, reviewing the state of the country in his message to the Congress in the autumn of 1919, pointed out that the customs receipts for 1918 were the greatest in history, the total for 1918 being over 37,700,000 pesos, or six million greater than the record of the best years of the old régime. The striking contrasts between the reports as to production in the country on the one hand and the figures of foreign trade and the income derived therefrom on the other, are due, in large degree, to circumstances quite independent of any action taken by the local government. The fact is that the apparent prosperity of Mexican foreign trade in 1918 and 1919 was due not to what the revolutionary government had or had not done but to the abnormal conditions created by the war in Europe.

The export trade of 1918 was announced as of a value of 367,305,451 pesos, as compared to 300,405,522 pesos in 1912-13; while that of 1919 reached 424,462,471 . pesos.^[6] This is a marked gain and might indicate an encouraging general increase of commodity shipments. A detailed comparison to determine the degree to which such a development did or did not occur is not possible with the statistics at hand. It seems clear from an analysis of certain items, concerning which information is available, that the result is to be attributed more to the general high level of prices in the world's markets and the unusual circumstances surrounding certain lines of production than to a general revival of commerce in the republic. In the case of silver, which is regularly one of the most important of Mexican exports, the actual production was not unusual. The yield of Mexican silver mining from 1907 to 1914 remained practically stable at an average of about 70,000,000 troy ounces per year. The next two years saw a sharp decline, only 22,838,400 ounces being produced in 1916. Thereafter the totals rose, reaching 62,517,000 ounces in 1918 and about 75,000,000 ounces in 1919. Meanwhile, however, the value of silver per ounce had very greatly increased. It averaged $.60835 United States currency in 1912 and $.57791 in 1913 but rose to $.96772 in 1918 and to $1.11122 in 1919. Had silver remained at near its average pre-war level, therefore, or had it been at the levels it has since reached, the value of that portion of Mexican export trade would have shown a decline as compared to 1912-13.

In the case of petroleum a remarkable increase of yield has occurred, but without the cooperation or encouragement of the revolutionary governments. The total production in 1912 was 14,051,643 barrels; in 1918 it was 63,828,327 barrels; and in 1919, 87,072,955 barrels. These items alone, due to the increased value per unit in the one case and to the increased yield in the other, brought about by conditions over which the Mexican government had no control, explain the greater part of the nominal increase in the value of Mexican export trade in 1918 and 1919 as compared with 1912.

The larger customs income also is deceptive since it reflects not so much an increased volume of general trade as higher rates on a number of lines of imports. In fact, as noted above, the actual value of imports was considerably less in 1918 than in 1910-11. The customs returns, moreover, include the yield from the new export taxes on petroleum shipments.

However welcome the greater money values of exports and of the customs income is, they are not to be taken, therefore, as a reflection of a reestablished capacity for production in the country. The degree to which the latter has come about can be better judged by the way in which Mexico will be able to weather the deflation of the values of all her export commodities, which has set in after the war boom. For this period no statistics have yet been published.

1. The comparisons that follow are not exact because transhipment trade is not satisfactorily shown in Mexican statistics.
2. The statistics of production up to and including 1917 are as reported by the Petroleum Bureau, Department of Industry and Labor, Mexico City, as quoted in John D. Northrup, Petroleum in 1917, Washington, 1919, p. 875. The figures for subsequent years are as reported in the New York Times July 2, 1921, quoting W. C. Teagle, President of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. Rafael Alcerraca, chief of the Petroleum Department of the Mexican government, estimates 1920 production at 163,000,000 barrels. New York Times, June 18, 1921.
3. Tables of the exports of henequen are found in Luis Pombo, Mexico: 1876-1892, Mexico, 1893; Matias Romero, Mexico and the United States, New York, 1898; Statistical abstract for the principal and other foreign countries, etc. . . . London, 1907 and 1912; Reports from Her Majesty's diplomatic and consular agents abroad on subjects of commercial and general interest. Commercial No. 36 (1883), Part VII, Report by Mr. Lionel E. G. Garden on the trade and commerce of Mexico, 1883; Anuario de estadistica fiscal, Mexico, 1913 and 1914; and in the Boletín de estadistica fiscal, año fiscal 1910-11, Mexico, 1912. The statistics quoted for other agricultural products in the following paragraphs are from these authorities.
4. Commerce Reports, September 27, 1919.
5. The statistics in the following paragraphs are taken from a summary of the message of President Carranza published in the Statist, London, November 22, 1919, p. 1121, and Commerce Reports, December 3, 1918; June 18, 1919; and October 17, 1919, quoting reports of the Mexican government. The Presidential address of C. Adolfo de la Huerta published in Diario Oficial, September 2, 1920, gives the value of Mexican exports in 1919 as 424,462,471 pesos and that of imports as 265,178,706 pesos.
6. Presidential address of C. Adolfo de la Huerta, Diario Oficial, September 2, 1920, p. 25 et seq.