| Silver: | 1 peso, ·9027 fine, containing 24·438 grammes of pure silver, |
| 50 centavos, ·800 fine, | |
| 20 ,,,, ,, | |
| 10 ,,,, ,, | |
| Nickel: | 5 ,, |
| Bronze: | 1 and 2 centavos, 95 parts copper, 4 tin, 1 zinc. |
Provisions are also made for continuing the coinage of “trade dollars” for export, which have a wide circulation in the Orient but are not current at home. Fractional silver coin is not legal tender above 20 pesos, and bronze and nickel coins not above 1 peso, but the government maintains conversion offices where such coins can be converted into silver pesos without loss. The amount of gold in circulation is small, the bank notes convertible into gold taking its place. Foreign coins are permitted to circulate in the republic.
There were 34 chartered banks in Mexico in 1908, of which 29 enjoyed the privilege of issuing bank notes; the total note circulation on the 31st of December 1906 was 97,787,878 pesos. These note issues are everywhere current at full nominal value, being secured under the provisions of the national banking law of 1896 by metallic reserves. The notes are not legal tender, and it is forbidden to count them as “cash on hand” in bank returns, but ample safeguards both as to issue and redemption inspire full confidence in their employment as a substitute for gold. Restrictions on speculative operations in real estate and on the use of hypothecated and discounted paper as security for other transactions, together with the publication of detailed monthly balance sheets, have kept these banks free from unsound methods, and their record thus far (1909) has been conspicuously good. Mortgage and loan banks have also been established in accordance with the law of 1896, and are subject to official supervision. Private banks are numerous, but foreign banks are not encouraged to open agencies. The use of cheques is very limited because of the stamp tax.
Weights and Measures.—Mexico adopted the metric system in 1862, and it is used in all official transactions, land measurements, railway calculations and public school work. The old Spanish weights and measures, modified in many particulars, continued in private use, however, and in 1895 it became necessary to declare the metric system the only legal system and to make its use compulsory after the 16th of September 1896.
Bibliography.—The historical student will find valuable material in Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Crónica de la conquista de Nueva España (Madrid, 1632, and other dates); Antonio Herrera História generál de los hechos de los Castellános en las islas y tierra firma del mar oceáno (4 vols., Madrid, 1601); F. C. Mac Nutt, Letters of Cortés to Charles V. (London, 1908); W. H. Prescott, Conquest of Mexico (3 vols., London, 1845); and the works of Gomara, Helps, Kingsborough, Las Casas, Sahagun and Justin Winsor.
Among the more popular works on Mexico are Baedeker’s The United States, with Excursions to Mexico, &c. (Leipzig, 1909); H. H. Bancroft, Resources and Development of Mexico (San Francisco, 1893); M. Chevalier, Le Mexique ancien et moderne (Paris, 1886); A. Garcia Cubas, Étude géographique, statistique, descriptive et historique des États-Unis Mexicains (Mexico, 1889; in English, 1893); C. B. Dahlgreen, Minas históricas de la República Mexicana (tr. from Eng., 1887); J. Domenech, Guia general descriptiva de la República Mexicana (vol. i., Mexico, 1899); F. W. Egloffstein, Contributions to the Geology and Physical Geography of Mexico (New York, 1864); C. Reginald Enock, Mexico, its Ancient and Modern Civilization &c. (London 1909); Hans Gadow, Travels in Southern Mexico (London, 1908); Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, Mexico, Land und Leute (Vienna, 1890); W. T. Hornaday, Camp Fires on Desert and Lava (London, 1908); Alex. von Humboldt, Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent (Paris, 1807 sqq.); A. H. Keane, “Mexico” in Stanford’s Compendium of Geography and Travel (London, 1904); H. Kessler, Notizen über Mexico (Berlin, 1898); Carl Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (New York, 1902); C. F. Lummis, The Awakening of a Nation (New York, 1898); P. F. Martin, Mexico of the Twentieth Century (London, 1907); A. H. Noll, Short History of Mexico (Chicago, 1903); Santiago Ramirez, Noticia histórica de la riqueza mineira de Mexico (Mexico, 1884); Friedrich Ratzel, Aus Mexico: Rėiseskizzen aus den Jahren 1874–1876 (Breslau, 1878); Matias Romero, Geographical and Statistical Notes on Mexico (New York, 1898); idem, Mexico and the United States (New York, 1898); E. Seler, Mexico und Guatemala (Berlin, 1896); Justo Serra (editor), Mexico: Its Social Evolution, &c. (2 vols., Mexico, 1904); J. R. Southworth, Mines of Mexico (9 vols., Mexico, 1905); Frederick Starr, Indians of Southern Mexico (Chicago, 1899); Sara V. Stevenson, Maximilian in Mexico (New York, 1899); T. Philip Terry, Mexico (Boston, 1909; an excellent guide); David A. Wells, A Study of Mexico (New York, 1887); W. E. Weyl, Labor Conditions in Mexico (Washington, 1902), Bull. No 38, Bureau of Labor; Nevin O. Winter, Mexico and her People of To-day (Boston, 1907); Marie R. Wright, Picturesque Mexico (Philadelphia, 1898); and Rafael de Zayas Enriquez, Les États-unis mexicains (Mexico, 1899).
Important works of reference are: Anuario estadistico de la República Mexicana (Mexico); Mexican Year-book (London, 1908); Biological and botanical publications of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Washington); Statesman’s Year-book (London); Handbook of Mexico (Washington), published by the Bureau of American Republics; Monthly Bulletin of the Bureau of American Republics (Washington); British Foreign Office Diplomatic and Consular Reports (London); and the U.S. Consular Reports (Washington). (A. J. L.)
History
I.—Ancient Mexico.
The name Mexico is connected with the name of the group of American tribes calling themselves Mexica (sing. Mexicatl) or Azteca. The word is related to or derived from the name of the Mexican national war-god, Mexitl, better known as Huitzilopochtli. The Aztecs from the 12th century appear to have migrated from place to place over the mountain-walled plateau of Anahuac, the country “by the water,” so called from its salt lagoons, which is now known as the Valley of Mexico. About 1325 they founded on the lake of Tezcuco the permanent settlement of Mexico Tenochtitlan, which is still represented by the capital city, Mexico. The name Mexico[1] was given by the Spanish conquerors to the group of countries over which the Aztec power more or less prevailed at the time of the European invasion. Clavigero (Storia antica del Messico, vol. i.) gives a map of the so-called “Mexican empire,” which may be roughly described as reaching from the present Zacatecas to beyond Guatemala; it is noticeable that both these names are of Mexican origin, derived respectively from words for “straw” and “wood.” Eventually Mexico and New Mexico came to designate the still vaster region of Spanish North America, which (till cut down by changes which have limited the modern republic of Mexico) reached as far as the Isthmus of Panama on the south and took in California and Texas on the north. Mexico in this wide sense is of high interest to the anthropologist from the several native American civilizations which appear within its limits, and which conveniently if loosely group themselves round two centres, the Mexican proper and the Central American.
When early in the 16th century the Spaniards found their way from the West India Islands to this part of the mainland of America, they discovered not rude and simple tribes like the islanders of the Antilles, but nations with armies, official administrators, courts of justice, high agriculture and mechanical arts, and, what struck the white men especially, stone buildings whose architecture and sculpture were often of dimensions and elaborateness to astonish the builders and sculptors of Europe. Here was a problem which excited the liveliest curiosity and gave rise to a whole literature. Hernandez and Acosta shared the opinion of their time that the great fossil bones found in Mexico were remains of giants, and that, as before the deluge there were giants on the earth, therefore Mexico was peopled from the Old World in antediluvian times. On the other hand the multitude of native American languages suggested that the migration to America took place after the building of the tower of Babel, and Siguenza arrived at the curiously definite result that the Mexicans were descended from Naphtuhim, son of Mizraim and grandson of Noah, who left Egypt for Mexico shortly after the confusion of tongues. Although such speculations have fallen out of date, they induced the collection of native traditions and invaluable records of races, languages and customs, which otherwise would have been lost for ever. Even in the 19th century Lord Kingsborough spent a fortune in printing a magnificent compilation of Mexican picture-writings and documents in his Antiquities of Mexico to prove the theory advocated by Garcia a century earlier, that the Mexicans were the lost tribes of Israel. Modern archaeologists approach the question from a different standpoint, but the origin of the American aborigines and of Mexican civilization remains extremely obscure (see America, where the primitive Mexican cultures are fully illustrated, and Central America.
Real information as to the nations of Mexico before Spanish
- ↑ In this, as in all other Aztec names, the x (or j) represents the English sound sh; hence Mexitli and Mexico should be properly pronounced Meshitli, Meshico. But they do not appear to have ever been so pronounced by the Spaniards, who naturally gave to the x its ordinary Spanish sound of the German ch.
