GOVERNMENT OF THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 687 Napoleon did its condemnation, for being the prime mover in the melancholy catastrophe which ended with their lives. Yet not altogether ended, as poor Carlotta still lives a maniac. A few years later on, another step in the career of Napoleon to consolidate the Latin race in Europe and become the re-establisher of religion under the patronage of his empress, brought him into contact, face to face, with the man of iron in Central Europe, on which Napoleon's star of destiny paled, leaving him and his empress stranded waifs on the shores of England. The empire of France disappeared, and a mighty French Republic arose in its stead, "to keep step to the music in the march of Republican principles sent broadcast over the world by the example of the great republic of the west.” Since the failure of the Napoleonic episode sketched in the foregoing pages, the history of Mexico has not furnished many incidents of historic interest. The country has enjoyed at least a period of general peace under the system inaugurated by Juarez, whose policy has in the main been pursued by his successors, who have paid more attention to the solid advancement of their country in its social, educational, and material interest, so that under the influence of Gonzales, the president now in office, a general railroad system has been organized, much of it constructed, or is in the course of construction, which will in a very short time place all parts of Mexico in rapid communication not only within the republic, but also with the general railroad system of the United States. This will bind the two republics of the new world together not only in a bond of political interest, but also by bands of iron of such strength as will defy any future assaults upon either from any source whatever. GOVERNMENT OF THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC. The republic is actually ruled by the constitution promulgated on the twelfth of February, 1857, and amended on the twenty-fifth of September, 1873. Its president is elected for four years, by universal suffrage, at the second degree, and he is invested with the executive power. He receives yearly for himself and clerks an average of forty-eight thousand dollars. The legislative power is represented by a congress renewed every two years, composed of two hundred and twenty-four delegates (one for each forty thousand inhabitants or fractions over twenty thousand), and by a senate composed of two senators for each State, and named by universal suffrage at the second degree. The third and last one, the judicial power, consists of the Supreme Court of Justice. Its members number seventeen, and its president is also the vice-president of the republic. These members are elected in the same manner as the other two powers. CHAPTER XLI. IMPORTS, EXPORTS, DUTIES, AND VALUE OF COINS. THE UNITED STATES WITH MEXICO. | ple. With the best coffee in the world The following table shows that the growing as near us as the pears and trade of the United States with Mexico, exports to, and imports from, for the fiscal years 1879, 1880, and 1881 has moved as follows: grapes of California, and itself a far less perishable commodity than fruit, we get but one-fifth of one pound per head from Mexico, for want of railways. SOME SPECIAL ITEMS. Take the item of coffee as an instance of the steady, gradual development of the country. The imports into the United States from Mexico, of coffee, since 1875, run as follows: Quicksilver. 377,825 462,159 6,185 613,338 Indian corn................ 68,872 240.182 Chemicals, drugs, etc... 1878.. Builders' lumber......... 1879.. 1880................................ .10,197 930,396 ..14,086 1,324,075 IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. In 1864-The total exports to the United States...... ..$61,000 00 ....225,000 00 In 1880-The total exports to the ......561,004 44 This is taken from consular reports, and does not include exports of same articles sent to Europe. While the amount increases so greatly from year to year, the articles exported are always about in the same proportion. AT THE PORT OF VERA CRUZ. The customs duties of the important port of Vera Cruz afford another fair metre for recording the general progress of the republic. Vera Cruz is the principal port of Mexico, and the customs duties collected there average generally about two-thirds of the total customs of the nation. 689 free of the weight duties imposed by the laws of the 31st of May and 25th of June, 1881: Plows and their shares, masts, yards, round timbers, and anchors for vessels, quicksilver, live animals, bricks and roof tiles of all classes, refractory earth, wood, ordinary for construction, seeds of cotton, tobacco, coffee, and sugarcane, slates for roofs, vaccine pus, all effects, armament, and material of war, etc., that the Federal Executive may purchase in foreign countries for the different branches of the public service in his immediate dependence, shall not cause any duty on their importations. The above clause will go into effect on July 1st, 1882. From the 1st day of November, 1882, silver and gold coined in bullion, mineral, powder, stone, or under whatever other form, will be free of duties in their interior circulation and for their exportation from the republic. To substitute the duties that are sup The total receipts for the four years pressed by this fraction shall be aug mented from the same date an additional duty of two per cent. over those fixed by the tariff for the importation of foreign effects. In the meantime, until November 1st, 1882, collecting the duties on exports of gold and silver conformably to the existing laws in the present fiscal year. From November 1st, 1882, precious metals shall pay a duty of onehalf per cent. on the value of the silver, and one-quarter per cent. on the value of the gold, determining their value by their respective laws. The Executive will determine the time and form in which it shall be comprehended. Export duties on orchils, ten dollars per ton of one thousand kilogrammes. Export duties of works for construction and for cabinet woodwork, two dollars and fifty cents for one cubic meter, and conformably to the provisions of the tariff of November 8th, 1880. These changes will greatly relieve commerce in the articles mentioned. The bulk duty on live animals, except gelding, plows and plowshares, masts, etc., quicksilver, bricks, etc., and woods at fifty cents the one hundred kilogrammes, which on live animals and wood is particularly heavy. The repeal of the export duty on silver and gold will afford great relief to financial transactions in all parts of the republic. This has been the most annoying law in the whole tariff. Its repeal is accompanied by an augmentation of the regular import duties of two per cent, but while this will doubtless bring into the treasury more revenue than the export duty of five per cent. on silver and twelve per cent. on gold, yet the change will be thankfully received by business men. Section 6 says that a duty of one-half per cent. on silver and one-quarter per cent. on gold will be collected, and the time and manner of carrying it into effect will be determined by the Executive. This is rather obscure, but it is presumed that it is intended to be a tax on production. It will be noted that the repeal of the weight duty takes effect July 1st, 1882, and that the repealing of the export duty on silver and gold, and substituting an additional two per cent. on all importations, takes effect on November 1st, 1882. COMMERCE FOR 1881. The annual report on commerce for 1881 shows $19,961,770 worth of cotton goods purchased by Mexico, and the United States only supplied $2,403,801 of this amount. Surely our merchants can profitably compete with other nations, and call the whole of this treasure into their own coffers. Another item of Mexico's imports is quicksilver; her purchases in 1881 being in value $3,879,713, and only a small portion of it bought from the United States. The barriers of trade are now nearly all removed; and it would be well for our merchants to change their system of political economics, and send their solicitors into the country that produces seventy-five per cent. of the silver of the world. RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE. By the Mexican Railway Report, published in Mexico, for the six months ending June, 1882, the following railroad concessions have been granted by the Executive: A railroad from Villa de Pichucalco to Paso de Casahuyapa; also a railroad from Port Isabel to connect at the frontier with the lines running to San Francisco, Cal.; also a railroad, telegraph, and telephone lines from Dolores to the city of San Andres Chalchicomula; also from the city of Hermosillo to a new mining place called "Nogales," in Sonora, to connect with the Santa Fe road; also a railroad and telegraph from Irola, to pass through Puebla, Chietla, and Matamoras, and connect with the Acapulco railroad; also a railroad and telegraph from San Fernando to the Port of Tampico; also a railroad from Orizaba to Ingenio; also a railroad and telegraph from El Penon to Los Reyes; also a railroad from Tijuana to Punta Isabel and branch road to connect the towns of Alta and Magdalena; also for a railroad from the port of San Benito to Tapachula, in the State of Chiapas, which will connect with the Mexican Southern railroad, with the four railways now under construction from the Rio Grande to the city of Mexico, which will divert to the United States a large share of its trade. The two "Mesa" railroads running to the port of Tuxpan will open the way for supplying the United States with rubber, cedar, fustic, chickle, honey, sarsaparilla, hides, deer skins, silver, marble, coal, petroleum, mercury, With the few railroad facilities that there are, an extensive trade appears to be carried on to-day. and wax. MEASURES, MONEYS, AND WEIGHTS. Monterey by October 1882, and the road from Laredo via Villa Aldama to Toluca is completed. The Central is finished to Queretaro. The Hildago has opened its road for passengers from the city of Mexico to Pachuca, thence to Santa Cruz and Tepa; and the branch from Teolayncan to Zumpango is completed. Work is progressing favorably upon the road from Merida to Calkini and Campeche; also on the roads from Puebla to San Marcos, and Puebla to Tezmalucan. The Telfener railway is building from Matamoras via Ciudad; Victoria to Tampico; also the road from the port of San Benito, Chiapas, to Tapachila. The road known as the Great Southwestern is building two miles a day, and will connect with the National Central, running to the Guatemala line. OLD MEASURES. 691 Quartilla, silver thirty-two parts, 2 tlacos 1d1⁄2 Silver 1 NEW COINAGE. 1d4 10 46 5 (Diez (Cinco ), Cincuenta centavos. Ciuco The Mexican National, from Zacatecas to San Luis Potosi and to Lagos is complete. Connection is made with the Gold $20 piece (Veinte pesos), Texas Mexican at Laredo, running thence to San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and New Orleans. Connection is also made with the International and Great Northern at San Antonio. The Laredo and Corpus Christi is finished; also the Copper uno road from Laredo southward to Monterey, Manzanillo, city of Mexico, and the section known as Toluca, Acambaro, Celaya, Salananca, Morelia, and Patzcuaro. The little town of Leon, in the State of Guanajuato, is the Manchester of Mexico; the whole population is busy manufacturing with their hands, not with steam and machinery, as we do. MEASURES, MONEYS AND WEIGHTS, OLD AND NEW. 1 66 2d The article No. 1, of the law of 28th May, 1874, re-establishes the ancient type of the Mexican dollar, such as it existed before the law of 28th November, 1867; the fractions of the dollar are alone subject to this last law. That of the 28th September, 1867, fixed the date of the 15th September, 1868, as the latest date for the circulation of moneys bearing the effigy of Maximilian. OLD WEIGHTS. pois. Arrobe, 25 fb. Mex. Ibs. 101.440 avoirdupois, 251⁄2 Libra (16 ounces), 1 b. and 2 %. The metrical system has been adopted Quintal, 100 lbs. Mexican lbs., 101.440 avoirduin the United States of Mexico, since the first of January, 1872, and a recent decree has declared it to be the sole legal one; but as it will be some time before it comes into general use, we give the old and new systems compared with the English and American ones: NEW WEIGHTS. |