Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/471

Rh South American countries, the English and the German merchants take special pains, not only to adapt their merchandise to the peculiar tastes of the people with whom they wish to deal, but also to cultivate their good-will. The representatives of the United States, as a general rule, do neither. Another explanation is that our European competitors in foreign trade recognize at the outset, and at all times, that trade, especially when involving radical innovations on old-time precedents and usages, is not of spontaneous growth, but has got to be cultivated; that it is a system in which product is to be given for product, and service for service, and therefore, from its very nature, can not be a "one-sided business." Accordingly, the German and English merchants in Mexico take in exchange for such wares as they desire to sell, and at a certain price, whatever the Mexicans have to offer of their products. The American merchant, on the other hand, finding that the commercial policy of his country is based on the assumption that such a system of exchanges is not desirable, and that its existing laws make reciprocal trade difficult, does not seem even to attempt it. And in connection with this subject it may be stated, that during recent years German merchants have bought merchandise in New York, which American manufacturers have acquired particular advantages in producing, shipped the same to Hamburg, and after re-exporting to Mexico, sold them at cheaper rates than any American engaged in direct trade could afford to offer! How such a result, which on its face seems so mysterious and paradoxical, is accomplished, may be best explained by example. Thus, the German, who has become thoroughly conversant with Mexican methods of doing business, could sell say $3,000 worth of American cottons, furniture, sewing-machines, and the like, at cost, or possibly even less than cost, because his system of selling is to exchange them for $3,000 worth of Mexican products, which he can afterward sell, it may be, at $5,000, or a sum which would give him a fair return for all his risks and for long credits, and also reimburse him for all the expenses of extended transportation. And the Mexicans are contented with their share of the transaction, because nothing better is offered to them.

The annual value of the total import trade of Mexico is probably not in excess of $35,000,000; of which the United States already controls a large proportion. Thus, for the year 1883, the returned value of all merchandise exported from the United States to Mexico was $16,587,630; of which $14,370,992 was "domestic," and $2,216,638 "foreign" merchandise. This was, however, a year of very active railroad construction, with an abnormal employment of Mexican labor, and large disbursements of American capital in the country. Since then, there has been a marked falling off in exports from the United States (less than $13,000,000 in 1884), which has been attributed partly to the withholding of orders in anticipation of the ratification of a commercial treaty between the two countries, and partly to the