Page:EB1911 - Volume 18.djvu/349

Rh states have control of the schools within their own boundaries there was at first a great lack of uniformity, but the national system is being generally adopted. In the official report for 1904 the number of public schools, exclusive of infant schools, was returned at 9194 (against 5843 in 1874), with an enrolment of 620,476. Of these 6488 were supported by the national and state governments and 2706 by the municipalities. The private, religious and association schools numbered 2281, with 135,838 pupils. For secondary instruction the national and state schools numbered 36 with 4642 pupils, and for professional instruction 65 with 9018 students, of whom 3790 were women. Normal schools for the training of teachers are also maintained at public expense and are giving good results. Besides these, the government maintains schools of law, medicine, agriculture and veterinary practice, engineering, mining, commerce and administration, music and fine arts. There is also a mechanics training school (artes y oficios) for men and a similar school for women, schools for the blind and for deaf-mutes, reform schools, and garrison schools for soldiers. Early estimates were that 90% of the population were illiterate. In 1895 this percentage was reduced to about 84%, and the work of the schools is slowly cutting it down. Mention must be made of the National Library in Mexico City with about 225,000 volumes, and 138 public libraries (in 1904) in other parts of the republic, 34 museums for scientific, educational and art purposes, and 11 meteorological observatories. Newspapers and periodicals, whose educational value varies widely, numbered 459 in 1904, of which 439 were in Spanish and 12 in English.

Religion.—The people of Mexico are almost wholly of the Roman Catholic faith, the census of 1900 returning 13,533,013 communicants of that church, 51,795 Protestants (in great part foreigners), 3811 of other faiths, and 18,640 of no faith. The constitution of 1857 grants toleration to all religions, and since 1868 several Protestant denominations have established missions in the towns, but their numbers are still comparatively small. The Roman Catholic religion was enforced at the time of the conquest, but a large percentage of the natives may still be considered semi-pagan, the gods of their ancestors being worshipped in secret, and the forms and tenets of the dominant faith, which they but faintly comprehend, being largely adulterated with superstitions and practices of pagan origin. The church hierarchy consists of 3 archbishops and 23 suffragan bishops. It dates from the creation of the bishopric of Mexico in 1530, with Fray Juan de Zumárraga as bishop, although two previous creations had been proclaimed at Rome, that of Yucatan in 1518 and Puebla in 1525. In 1545 the bishopric of Mexico was elevated to an archbishopric, which in 1863 was divided into three archdioceses—Mexico, Michoacán and Guadalajara. An Inquisition tribunal was established in the capital in 1571, and in 1574 its first auto-da-fé was celebrated with the burning of “twenty-one pestilent Lutherans.” The Inquisition was active in Mexico during two and a half centuries, and was finally suppressed on the 31st of May 1820. The great power exercised by the Roman Catholic church during the colonial period enabled it not only to mould the spiritual belief of the whole people, but also to control their education, tax their industries, and shape the political policies governing their daily life. In this way it acquired great wealth, becoming the owner of extensive estates in every part of the country and of highly productive properties in the towns. It was said in 1859 that the church owned one-third of the real and personal property of the republic. The reform laws of that year nationalized its property, abolished its numerous orders and institutions and deprived it of state support and of all participation in political affairs. Subsequent legislation removed clerical influence from public instruction, made marriage a civil ceremony and closed all conventual establishments. The church still exercises a boundless influence over the Mexican lower classes, and is still the most influential organization in the republic.

Finance.—The national revenues are derived from import and export duties, port dues and other taxes levied on foreign commerce; from excise and stamp taxes and other charges upon internal business transactions; from direct taxes levied in the federal district and national territories, covering a land tax in rural districts, a house tax in the city, commercial and professional licences, water rates, and sundry taxes on bread, pulque, vehicles, saloons, theatres, &c.; from probate dues and registry fees; from a surcharge on all taxes levied by the states, called the “federal contribution,” which is paid in federal revenue stamps; from post and telegraph receipts; and from some minor sources of income. The most fruitful revenue is the duty on imports, which is sometimes used for the protection of national industries, and which yields from 40 to 45% of the total receipts. The excise taxes in 1905 were levied on tobacco, alcohol and alcoholic beverages, and on cotton goods. Mining taxes, which are subject to periodic changes, consist of an initial or registry tax on the claim (pertenencia), an annual or rental tax on each claim, and a tax of 3% (1905) on the export of unrefined gold and silver, 2% on partially refined ores, and % on pure silver. The expenditures are chiefly for the services of the public debt, military expenses, public works and internal affairs (Department of the Interior). The public debt service alone required $26,201,873 (£2,620,187) in 1908.

For the fiscal year 1906–1907 the revenue produced a total of 114,286,122 pesos (dollars), or, approximately, £11,428,612, and the expenditure was 85,076,641 pesos, or £8,507,664. The estimates for 1908–1909 show a marked decline owing to the commercial depression, the revenue being computed at 103,385,000 pesos, and the expenditure at 103,203,830 pesos. Of the former 46,500,000 pesos are credited to import duties, 31,930,000 pesos to stamps, excise taxes, &c., 10,930,000 pesos to direct taxes, and the balance to various sources. Owing to the circumstance that the great majority of the Mexican people own no property, carry on no industry, and are not even to be considered regular productive labourers, the revenues are small in relation to the population and are comparatively inelastic.

The revenues and expenditures of the states and municipalities in 1904, the latest date available, aggregated as follows:— The taxes cover a great variety of occupations and property, often to a minute and vexatious degree, and the expenditure includes the expenses of local administration, schools, police, streets and other objects of purely local interest.

The public indebtedness of Mexico includes a foreign debt payable in gold, an internal debt payable in silver, and a floating debt covering unpaid balances on appropriations, unpaid interest, and other credits and obligations. The paper money issues are by banks and not by the government, and the national treasury keeps no cash in its vaults and has no sinking funds to offset this indebtedness. The foreign debt dates from 1825, when £10,000,000 were borrowed in London through two loans. Interest defaults led to a conversion of the debt in 1851, the interest rate being reduced from 5% to 3%. Further defaults followed and in 1888 another adjustment was made by the issue of 6% gold-bearing bonds. From this time the Mexican government has met its obligations promptly, in consequence of which its credit is rated high and its bonds have even been quoted at a premium. In 1899 the government placed a loan of £22,700,000 in Europe at 5% for the conversion of its 6% bonds, securing it by the hypothecation of 62% of its import and export duties. Further loans have considerably increased the debt since then, but it is still within the normal resources of the country. According to Matias Romero (Mexico and the United States, 1898), a new type of indebtedness was inaugurated in 1850 in the shape of an internal debt payable in silver. Other loans and obligations contracted during periods of disorder were afterwards consolidated under this type, and later on unpaid railway subsidies were also included. The rate of interest is from 3% to 5%, and both principal and interest are payable in silver. The rapid development of railway construction has largely increased this part of the public debt, the revenues of the country being insufficient to meet the subsidy obligations, but as the railways are built for the development of valuable resources and the opening of needed trade communications, the increase has occasioned no loss of credit. At the end of 1908 the total public indebtedness of the republic was:— The fiscal or tax valuation of property throughout the republic in 1904 was computed to be—the fiscal value being two-thirds of the real value:— Previous to 1905 all monetary transactions in Mexico were based in practice on a fluctuating silver standard and free coinage. By a law of the 9th of December 1904, promulgated by an executive decree of the 25th of March 1905, the gold standard was adopted, and the silver peso, ·9027 fine and containing 24·438 grammes of pure silver, was made the monetary unit with a valuation of ·75 grammes of gold. At the same time the free coinage of silver was suspended, the government reserving to itself the sole privilege of coining money. The coinage of Mexico, now concentrated at the mint in the capital (all others having been closed) is based (since November 28, 1867) on the decimal system—the peso being divided into 100 centavos—and consists of gold, silver, nickel and bronze coins, whose weight and fineness are determined by the monetary law of 1904. The coins minted under this law are:—