Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/230

212 point of view, the trade relations between the two great republics of the North American continent have grown increasingly intimate and important. The mutual economic interests are so interrelated and fundamental that they have proven and will continue to prove so powerful that no political propaganda can counteract them. There is no true geographical boundary between the two countries, and communications between them by both land and sea are well developed, better developed indeed than between many regions within Mexico itself. The economic development of the two is highly contrasted but supplemental. The United States is the best market for what Mexico has to sell and the easiest source of supply for what she wishes to buy. In 1912-13 Mexico bought almost four times as much from the United States as from any other country and more than from all other countries combined. In 1912-13 Mexico sold to the United States over seven times as much as to any other country and almost four times as much as to the five nations next in importance in Mexican export trade. The percentages have risen still higher during and since the World War but are not indicative of a condition that will continue in normal times. These latter, however, will not fail to demonstrate the essential commercial unity of interest of the two republics.

That there should be friendly relations between two states bound so closely together by their material interests seems axiomatic. That the international exchange between the two countries is to their mutual advantage is not likely to be disputed; nor is it subject to