Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/224

206 There is no reason to believe that Mexico will cease to be one of the world's great sources of silver supply, but in recent decades other mining products have assumed an increasing importance. The exploitation of the base metals has had an extraordinary development and the oil resources have been developed so rapidly that the total yield of the country is now determined by the conditions under which the product may be marketed, not by the amount the wells are capable of producing.

The growth of this export is a twentieth century development. There was a small sale of local oil products for about a decade preceding the beginning of the export trade. The total production reported was 75,375 barrels in 1903 and 3,634,080 in 1910. The first cargo of crude oil left Tampico May 20, 1911, by an American steamer. Thereafter the growth in production was rapid and all but a small part went directly into the export trade. In 1911 a total of 12,552,798 barrels was produced. By 1913 an increase of over 100 per cent was recorded, the total being 25,696,291 barrels. During the war the production continued to rise and could have been increased still further had it been necessary, for the potential yield of the wells had now outrun the ability to market the product. The total for 1917 was 55,292,770; for 1918, 53,919,863; for 1919, 87,072,955; and for 1920, 156,062,707 barrels.