Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/239

Rh, is supposed to be not much short of 30,000.

The motive power made use of in the factories is water, which is often abundant enough for that purpose, proceeding from small streams falling from the mountains into the neighbouring plains or barrancas. Owing to the scarcity of wood (the only available fuel), and the costliness of its transportation, steam cannot be advantageously produced.

There are several manufactories of cotton balls, or thread, in Mexico; but they are not of very great importance.

Puebla is the Lowell of Mexico: the principal cotton manufactories are located there; and some of them are in very successful operation at the present time, which can be said of very few others. It was by the influence of the manufacturers of Puebla, that the permission granted to foreign merchants for the introduction of cotton-twist, in 1842, was withdrawn.

The high price of the raw material, which ranges from forty to fifty cents per pound (and in such articles as coarse cottons, the raw material constitutes the chief value), is one great obstacle to the success of cotton manufacture