Page:A Study of Mexico.djvu/183

Rh work and construction, $2.50 per 31.3 American cubic feet. Small export duties are also imposed on coffee and heniquen. A revision of the Mexican tariff, with a view of modifying certain of its exorbitant duties, more especially those levied on the importation of wines and liquors and certain articles of food, has been recently recommended (1885) to the Government by a committee of delegates of prominent men of business from different parts of the republic.

The existence in a state of the New World of a system of taxation so antagonistic to all modern ideas, and so destructive of all commercial freedom, is certainly very curious, and prompts to the following reflections: First, how great were the wisdom and foresight of the framers of the Constitution of the United States in providing, at the very commencement of the Federal Union, that no power to tax in this manner, and for their own use or benefit, should ever be permitted to the States that might compose it (Article I, section 10). Second, how did such a system come to be ingrafted on Mexico, for it is not a modern contrivance? All are agreed that it is an old-time practice and a legacy of Spanish domination.