Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/595

Rh of coloring matter being known to the Aztecs before the conquest. In time, the superiority of the indigo produced in Guatemala caused a corresponding demand for it in European market and a decline of the industry in Mexico, which now receives but little attention, though extensive tracts of land are preëminently adapted to the production of this dye.

Cotton holds the fifth place in the list of Mexico's productions, its annual value exceeding $6,500,000. The cultivation, however, of hemp, ramie, and flax might be proportionately developed. Owing to the importation of foreign fabrics, and the inability of Mexican manufacturers to compete with those of Europe and the United States, cultivation of cotton has declined, until at the present date the supply is hardly equal to the demand for home consumption. When increased facilities for transportation offer an inducement to capitalists to engage in the production of cotton with a view to exporting it, the cultivation