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194 frequently changing tariffs, and the uncertainty of the rates that any shipment might have to pay continued to make importation into Mexico a gambling business. The disturbing influence of the Free Zone established on the northern border was added to the already complex trade problems after 1858, and the French intervention made conditions, if possible, still worse. Only with the coming of the Diaz government were fairly stable rates of customs established. Then also fairly reliable customs reports appeared, the first of which was published in 1878.

Textiles were still the most important item imported. They made up, at that date, 54 per cent of the total. Hardware, machinery, and metal goods formed 20 per cent, and groceries and liquors 16. Great Britain still led in textiles, which were the great bulk of her exports to Mexico. Local manufacture, however, under the high protection and unusual prices obtainable during the American Civil War, had established itself and, in certain lines widely used by the common people, was driving the foreign goods out of the market. Metal manufactures still came almost exclusively from abroad. Railway iron and steel came from England, engines and cars from the United States. The latter, even at this early time, took the lead in the shipment of agricultural machinery, and Germany led in hardware. The groceries trade had already found the channels in which it has to a large degree remained. Flour, breadstuffs, and canned provisions, at the end of the pre-Diaz period, came chiefly from the United States, wines and spirits from France, and olives and olive oil from Spain.