Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/223

Rh was divided about as follows: England, 32.9; France, 4.8; Germany, 3; Spain, 2.6. The import trade of Mexico is the confession of her organic weakness. Its total value is about thirty-five million dollars, and consists of manufactured articles, which, for the most part, might be produced at home.

The Spaniards discouraged manufactures in Mexico for the benefit of their home industry; they did not prohibit them. But the want of steam or water power necessarily kept domestic manufacturing within small limits. Mayer records fifty-three cotton factories in 1844, running something more than one hundred and thirty thousand spindles. Mr. Wells found eighty-four factories returned by the tax-collectors in 1883, running something more than two hundred and forty thousand spindles. Mr. Titus Sheard, another of our pioneer party, himself a manufacturer, informed us, that, owing to the crude chemistry and rude methods, cotton costs nearly twice as much a yard in the Mexican mill as in the United States factories. The laborers employed are compelled to work from daylight to dark for little pay. Improved machinery and more modern processes