Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/83

 MEXICO. 51 culation is found to be a very lucrative one, as the barrel sells in Mexico for thirty-two dollars, and is worth twenty- four net, after paying both duties and carriage. The possibility of cultivating the sugar-cane beneath the Tropics, by a system of free labour, has often been canvassed, but I know no country except Mexico where the experiment has been fairly tried upon a large scale. The plantations of Cuernavaca were all worked, in the first instance, by slaves, who were purchased at Veracruz, at from three to four hun- dred dollars each. The difficulty of ensuring a sufficient supply during a war with a maritime power, and the number of slaves who perished from the sudden change of climate on the road from the coast, induced several of the great proprie- tors to endeavour to propagate a race of free labourers, by giving liberty to a certain number of slaves annually, and encouraging them to intermarry with the native Indians, which they soon did to a very great extent. The plan was found to be so economical, that, on many of the largest estates, there was not a single slave in the year 1808 ; but the policy of the measure became still more appa- rent in 1810, for, as soon as the Revolution broke out, those planters who had not adopted the system of gradual emanci- pation, were abandoned, at once, by their slaves, and forced, in some instances, to give up working their estates; while those who had provided themselves, in time, with a mixed caste of free labourers, retained, even during the worst of times, a sufficient number of hands to enable them to culti- vate their lands, although upon a reduced scale. The great Haciendas now expend in wages, and other cur- rent charges, from 8 to 1200 dollars a week. The labourers are mostly paid by the piece, and can earn, if industrious, from six to seven reals per diem (three shil- lings, or three and sixpence, English money.) The number of workmen employed upon an estate capable of producing 40,000 Arrobas of sugar, is one hundred and E 2