Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/226

222 released the soil; as he was in France, until the Revolution. The land that produces the raw material pays nothing; but the instant labor touches it, cotton begins to pay taxes. Everything used in transforming the boll into material is taxed: the dyes used in coloring it are taxed; the sale of each of them is individually taxed; the wagon that carts it from the field to the factory is taxed; the wheel that softens it is taxed; the animal that turns the wheel is taxed; the chemicals that enter into its composition are taxed; its transfer from the factor to the jobber is taxed; its transfer from the jobber to the retailer is taxed; its sale to the purchaser is taxed. Is it wonderful that cotton costs more at Orizaba and Queretaro than in Lowell or Manchester? It is not strange that more is not grown in Mexico. The merchant finds it more convenient to pay all his burdens at the custom-house, than each of the lot to the internal-revenue collectors.

This example may be slightly exaggerated, if taken literally. But the principle of Mexican taxation is fairly represented in it. The marvel is that so many blows in succession upon the