Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/89

Rh now had come the time when the government, at last securely on its feet, should and could give greater attention to improving the social and economic well being of its people.

All told the direct external loans, those of 1899, 1904, and 1910, now amounted to $140,709,065 plus the other issues guaranteed by the government. These latter totaled $104,071,950. The two classes together made a debt of $244,781,015; or, if the $50,747,925 General Mortgage Four Per Cent Gold Bonds of the National Railways of Mexico be included, $295,528,940. This was a debt easily borne by a nation of 15,000,000 people whose territory was developing as had that of Mexico in the last quarter century.

But the financial history of Mexico since 1910 does not justify the confidence which the investing world then placed in her nor the hopes that her friends then held. The revolution was not a passing and unimportant storm. It soon became evident that it was a much more fundamental demonstration than even the Mexicans best informed appear to have believed at the beginning. One of the indirect results that have followed in its train has been the temporary paralysis of Mexican foreign credit. When it was realized that the revolution was a serious movement, borrowing at once became difficult.

In May, 1913, a six per cent loan amounting to $80,000,000 was authorized by Presidential decree. It is certain that $8,100,000 worth of these credits were issued and it is understood that a very large proportion of the balance has been used for various purposes. No