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242 be best explained by example. Thus, the German, who has become thoroughly conversant with Mexican methods of doing business, could sell say $3,000 worth of American cottons, furniture, sewing-machines, and the like, at cost, or possibly even less than cost, because his system of selling is to exchange them for $3,000 worth of Mexican products, which he can afterward sell, it may be, at $5,000, or a sum which would give him a fair return for all his risks and for long credits, and also reimburse him for all the expenses of extended transportation. And the Mexicans are contented with their share of the transaction, because nothing better is offered to them. Hence also an explanation of what may seem to be paradoxical: that although the import and export trade of the United States with Mexico is larger than that of any other nation, there are comparatively few American dealers or distributors of merchandise permanently established in Mexico. Thus, for example, while the consumption of American imports in the district of Guaymas, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, was for the year 1885 (according to consular returns) over sixty-five per cent of the total importations, or $1,490,450 out of an aggregate of $2,041,940, there were at the same time but three American importing mercantile firms whose sales amounted to $100,000 per annum—the great bulk of