eral subventions by the Mexican government.[1] It is, however, to American enterprise that Mexico will be principally indebted for the eventual opening of her railroad systems. With the exception of the Mexican Railway, which is in the hands of an English company, all the great arteries and principal branch lines are controlled by United States capitalists, to whom many of the minor concessions have been sold. That citizens of the United States should have acquired such important interest in the nation's future welfare has naturally created some alarm among the Mexicans, which time and intercourse will doubtless obliterate.
The great central plateaus of Mexico, with their extensive level plains and gently undulating elevations, afford unusual facilities for the rapid construction of long trunk lines connecting the south of Mexico with all important points on the United States frontier. Three such lines have been planned; namely, the Mexican Central, the Mexican National, and the International. Of these the main line is the Mexican Central, traversing the great dorsal ridge of the high table-land. This project was nominally commenced in June 1880, when the company began to grade from the capital northward toward Leon, in Guanajuato,[2] but it was not until late in the year, after the company had obtained their charter for the whole line,[3] that determined work was begun, when it was pushed vigorously forward at both ends of the line.[4] Its northern terminus is Paso del Norte. The route
- ↑ In a pamphlet entitled Los Ferrocarriles Mexicanos, published in 1881, by a prominent Mexican, a list is supplied of 42 concessions granted during the period from Aug. 14, 1877, to Feb. 3, 1881.
- ↑ A concession had been granted Dec. 5, 1874, to Camacho, Mendizábal, & Co., to build a line from the capital to Leon. It was annulled Dec. 26, 1976, and was extended Apr. 3, 1580, to the Mexican Central R. R. Co., organized in Boston, Mass. Mex., Diario Ofic., Apr. 13, May 7, 1880.
- ↑ The concession was granted Sept. 8, 1880, and the government subsidy was $9,500 per kilometre. Mex., Recop. Leyes, xxxiii. 472-505.
- ↑ Besides the subvention, the Mexican government granted the company the right to import materials for construction, repairs, and operation, for 15 years, free of duty. The line is of the standard gauge, 1.435 metres in width. Capital stock, $32,000 per mile, divided into shares at the par value of $100 each.
