Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/238



is hard for Americans, who have seen their country welcome immigration of European stocks and prosper from so doing, to realize that other states, even American states, have not uniformly followed the same policy.

In Mexico an illiberal exclusive policy was followed before its existence as an independent state. Spain first kept foreigners out because she wished to keep all the benefits of local resources for her own people and to keep all the people under the unquestioned dominance of Spanish institutions. Later to these motives was added the fear that to abandon that policy would mean to open the way for foreign aggression.

As early as 1602 the attention of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities was called to "the evils resulting from foreigners going to the Indies, to reside in the ports and other places, it being found that our Catholic faith is not secure, and it being important to see that no errors may be sown among the Indians and other ignorant persons." The officers were commanded to "aid in cleansing the land of these people, and that they cause them to be expelled from the Indies."

Twelve years later even trade with the non-Spanish world was prohibited to the colonies "under a penalty of