of larger businesses in the United States and the Fatherland.
Many of these businesses have suffered severely from the condition of unrest which has prevailed of late years in the country, manufacturing works having been raided by one or other of the contending parties and practically sacked, or at least gutted, of all saleable material, which has been "requisitioned" by the several governments which have flitted across the stormy arena of Mexican politics since the nominally peaceful days of Diaz came to a close.
Many of these industries were protected by tariffs more or less substantial—in some cases, perhaps, exorbitant, having regard to the cheapness of native labour and the slenderness of the native supply of the taxed article.
The position of the United States trading interests in Mexico is a dominating one, a resultant, of course, of its contiguity to the Republic. Indeed, almost one-third U.S.A. Trade
with Mexico. of the imports which leave the United States for Latin-American countries come to Mexico, and one-sixth of all that the United States purchases from its Southern neighbours hails from Mexico. Of course, during the last two years (concerning which we have no figures) commercial relations between Mexico and the United States must have sunk to a very low ebb. In 1913, the last year for which figures are available, imports from the United States had fallen only $16,000,000, and were even larger than in 1909. Indeed, they were still 49-69 per cent, of the total imports of the country, Germany showing a percentage of 12-89 and Great Britain 13-22.
American superiority in Mexican markets springs in a great measure from the ease with which freightage is effected between the two countries. There is also an excellent service of steamship lines between American and Mexican ports, and, above all, Mexico is much more frequented by Americans than by people of any other nationality; and even if these visit the country on pleasure bent, they cannot so far lay
