deal of

It has taken me a great deal of time and required a great effort to obtain and prepare the data contained in this paper. I am sorry I have not been able to make it more complete than it is; but I hope my article, by giving a general and superficial idea of Mexico, may promote the desire to read other papers and books treating on that subject in a fuller and more complete manner.

ADDENDA.

Since this paper has been printed the Federal Treasury of Mexico. finished the accounts of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1897, and I give below the general results, showing the total amount of the Federal revenues and expenses during that year. I also give a statement, taken from the Statistical Bureau of the Treasury Department of Mexico, published since this paper has gone to press, of the imports and exports in the same year, both by countries and custom houses, these two statements completing the data contained in this paper, and finally some data of the trade of both countries during the first nine months of the present calendar year.

FEDERAL REVENUE AND EXPENSES OF MEXICO IN THE FISCAL YEAR

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF MEXICO BY COUNTRIES AND CUSTOM HOUSES IN THE FISCAL YEAR 1896-97.

A comparison between the foreign trade in the fiscal year 1896-97 with the year before, 1895-96, gives the following results: During the year 1896-97 Mexico's exports increased $6,329,592, but the value of the exports sent to the United States increased $7,091,256. The

total of Mexico's imports for the year 1896-97 shows a falling-off of $49,843, but, notwithstanding this fact, Mexico's imports from the United States increased $2,448,097. During the year England's exports to Mexico decreased $1,023,315, and her imports from Mexico show a loss of $2,186,622, a combined loss of over 12 per cent. in her commercial relations with the Republic. Imports to Mexico from France fell off $1,110,101, a loss of one-sixth of all France's exports to Mexico. In 1895-96 the United States imported 75.8 per cent. of the total exports from Mexico; in 1896–97 American exporters furnished 53 per cent. of all that Mexico bought abroad, and, more than this, the United States took 47.67 per cent. of all that was exported from Mexico. These figures sustain the prediction made, that any unsettlement or diminution of Mexico's importations either because of fluctuating silver or the increased production of home manufactories would affect American exporters less than those of any other country. The statistics given above show that these causes have affected them less than those of all the other countries combined; in fact, their loss has been the gain of the United States.

TRADE BETWEEN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES DURING THE FIRST NINE MONTHS OF THE CALENDAR YEAR 1897.

The following data, taken from the publications of the Statistical Bureau of the United States Treasury Department, shows the results of the trade with Mexico in the nine months ended September 30, 1897, as compared with the similar period ended September 30, 1896.

Mexican Exports to the United States. In the following items the first group of figures represents the amounts and values exported in the first nine months of this year, and the second those of the similar period in 1896 :

Coffee, 30,016,967 pounds, worth $4,574,252 gold, against 19,715,264 pounds, worth $3,333,385. The much lower price of coffee this year accounts for the disproportionate valuation.

The people of the United States, besides being Mexico's chief customers for coffee, are buying more and more of our tobacco, which they now know and appreciate on its merits. The amount exported to the United States was 600,987 pounds, worth in gold $294,536, against 191,303, worth $78,769.

Mexico exported, in the period under consideration, to the United States, hides and skins to the value of $1,534,306 gold, against $1,055,299. The quantities, respectively, were 11,764,000 pounds, and 7,102,465 pounds. No diminution of activity there.

It is worth noting that oranges were shipped out to the value of $22,444 gold against $19,359.

Mexico's great argentiferous lead business did not fall behind, the nine months' exportation being 108,776,560 pounds, worth in gold $1,226,525, against 97,818,833 pounds, worth $949,926. The bulk of the American purchase of lead is from Mexico.

Yucatan is Mexico's henequen-growing region, and the exportation has been heavy, standing at 48,410 tons, worth in gold $2,889,003, against 35,746 tons, worth $2,323,585, a noteworthy increase. The henequen or sisal-grass trade into the United States is overwhelmingly Mexican," other countries" furnishing but 399 tons in the first nine months of this year!

Mexico both exports and imports coal, and shipped into the United States 85,890 tons, worth in gold $182,416, against 52,674 tons, worth $115,015.

Logwood exports were $44,028, against $15,250.

Mahogany fell off, being $290,044 gold, against $306,715, but this trade is always variable.

Mexican Imports from the United States.—It is worthy of note that, in spite of the extraordinarily heavy gold premium, Mexico should be increasing her buying abroad of electrical apparatus, the purchase from the United States alone, in the first nine months of this year, amounting to $228,000 gold, as against $200,000 in the same period last year. Sewing machines went in to the value of $164,000 gold in the ninemonth period, against $154,000 last year. Builders' hardware fell off from $556,600 gold value, in the first nine months of last year, to $424,000 this year, but lumber for builders ran up to $1,079,000 gold, against only $544,000 last year, all coming from the United States. Furniture increased slightly, $141,000 gold, against $126,000.

Carriages, cars, and other vehicles, in the nine-months' period, came from the United States to the value of $664,000 gold, as compared with $463,000 last year. Bicycles amounted to $56,000 gold, as against $37,700.

Other importations were as follows: