Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/573

Rh was offered, collected them in great quantities and flooded the government offices with them. Consequently, the government felt compelled to limit the admission of them in payment of dues, which had the effect of depreciating their value to the extent of from 4 per centum to 50 per centum. This caused a grievous loss to the poor, and in December 1883 a serious riot occurred in the capital. Finally, on April 7, 1884, the president by decree declared the coin no longer receivable in payment of duties, and prohibited the government offices from making any payment in nickel.

Steps have been taken to introduce the decimal system of weights and measures. In 1883 a law was passed to that effect, assigning January 1, 1886, as the date when the new system should be put in operation. By a congressional act, however, passed in 1885, the time was postponed to January 1, 1888.

The necessity of extensive systems of railroads in Mexico has in late years become obvious, not only to the Mexican government, but to a large portion of the inhabitants, and perhaps no other country will be found to reap more marked benefits by the establishment of these means of communication. In a land whose rivers afford but few facilities for navigation, and whose physical conformation is such as to preclude the construction of canals or even good roads, the drawbacks to commercial enterprise were one of the chief causes of such slow progress in Mexico.

The first railway project in Mexico was that for the construction of one from Vera Cruz to the capital, and it began to be advocated soon after the year