Mexican dollar

“ Provincial mints in Canton, Wuchang, and other places have issued silver coins of the same weight and touch as the Mexican dollar, but very few have gone into use. As they possess no privilege in debt-paying power over imported Mexican dollars there is no inducement for the people to take them up unless they can be had at a cheaper rate than the latter, and these are laid down at so small a cost above the intrinsic value that no profit is left to the mint. ”

“ In Manila the Mexican dollar goes in ordinary small exchanges, payment of wages and settlement of bills, for fifty cents; but the banks sell the Mexicans twenty-one of them for ten gold dollars—an American eagle! So far as the native people go, labor and produce are counted in silver, and the purchaser, or employer gets as much for a silver dollar as for a gold dollar. The native will take ten dollars in gold for ten dollars only in all settlements of accounts, and would just as willingly—even more so, accept ten Mexican dollars as ten American dollars in gold coin. ”

“ In consequence of the publication of these assays, the new Mexican dollar passed into favour with the Chinese of Hongkong. The foreign mercantile community, though practically accepting the new Mexican dollar, was anxious to obtain an English dollar which should be guarded, by special prohibition, against defacement by stamping. ”

“ Establishing the gold standard was a great achievement. Just a few years ago Mexican silver varied from $2.05 to $2.40 for a gold dollar, and all business was unsettled as a result. Now the government has established a rate of exchange of two silver dollars for one of gold, and all this was done without any friction or disturbance. It is to be hoped that the new administration will maintain the same high standard of financial integrity that has been handed down by its immediate predecessor.
The foreign trade of Mexico runs into big figures. ”

“ The fact is that today Mexican consumers are already buying over $40 billion worth of American products. And if NAFTA passes, they'll buy even more. Seventy cents of every dollar that Mexico spends on foreign products are spent right here in the United States. And when Mexico takes down its tariff barriers, that means more sales and more jobs for our industries, from cars to computers. ”

“ Race prejudice is stronger here than in the interior, for the Border States have suffered more; and if any one imagines that the Mexican is disposed to allow the American to make a dollar, except by superior skill, he misunderstands the prevalent feeling. He is quite willing el Americano shall spend his own money in the building of railroads, tramways, and hotels, but he will resist strenuously any attempt to capture Mexican trade. ”

“ In coverting the value of the invoices, as expressed therein, from Mexican silver dollars into the value by which the actual ad valorem duty upon them was to be ascertained, the dutiable value was arrived at in each case by estimating the value of the Mexican dollar in accordance with the value of such coin as estimated by the director of the mint, and proclaimed by the secretary of the treasury on the first day of January of the year during which the importations were made ”

“ One other matter called for attention before a start could be made—namely, the matter of cash. No amount of ingenuity could succeed in devising anything more calculated to dismay and exasperate the Westerner than the coinage of China. The Mexican dollar, which simplifies matters on the coast, is not recognised in the interior. The only coin that is generally accepted is the cash—a dirty, shapeless disc of brass with a square hole through the centre. ”

“ White, red, and blue—fifty cents, seventy-five cents, and one dollar. The drivers often try to get the best of a tourist, especially if he speaks Spanish, and charge him one dollar for a seventy-five cent carriage. The Mexicans do not differ much from the Yankee hackman. If any, it is in favor of the Mexican. They do not cheat so much, because they are not sharp enough.
Pulque shops, where they deal out the national drink, are quite plenty. These are the only buildings in the city that are decorated. ”

“ You do not see the great contrasts of wealth so marked in Mexico City. The whole town has an air of prosperity, and it is not an air merely—it is a fact. During the past twenty years the group of large henequen growers—about a score—have divided among themselves as a result of this "green gold," no less than 800,000,000 Mexican dollars. And this vast sum has percolated through the whole place. Merida is a Monte Carlo for extravagance and extortion. There is no social standard but £ s. d. A man is or is not great socially in proportion to his banking account. ”

“ The only complaint against them was that they raised wages from less than twenty cents a day to a minimum of one dollar a day and made native Mexicans into blacksmiths, carpenters, shipbuilders, and engineers at three dollars and fifty cents a day in gold. ”

“ The catty can be no more nor less than what the law of China ordains. As the export trade is greatly in excess of the imports, large quantities of Mexican dollars are brought into the country and recoined into ticals and smaller currency The late King Somdetch P'ra Chaum Klow established the present law, making five ticals the equivalent of three Mexican dollars, Mexican silver being the standard of the Asiatic coast. The importer takes his dollars to the mint and the officers there heat them red-hot to detect counterfeits, and if genuine, ticals are given in exchange. ”

“ Yet, aside from the question of order and justice, Mexico is a simple proposition. The national expenses are less than $100,000,000 American gold, yet a little more than half must go to the national defense. The revenues have been but seventy-five per cent of the expenses, and because it never had any credit it never piled up any outside debt. Diaz not only built up Mexican foreign trade from $15,000,000 American gold to $250,000,000, but he built up the national treasury from emptiness to $30,000,000 American gold. ”

“ Through centuries of change, and every variety of discord and warfare, the dies of the mint have gone on, stamping the likeness of successive rulers upon the product of the mines. Coins of the realm, of the empire, of the republic, at last the steady stream shows only an even flow of coins of the republic, the emblem of Liberty upon every one. Every peso is stamped with its weight in drams and grains; and good weight it is, every dollar weighing just one ounce; for these good Mexicans hold that an honest dollar is alone the product of an honest man. ”

“ By this table, covering the commerce between the United States and Mexico for nineteen years, we observe that from having a trade worth, in imports and exports, about nineteen millions and a half, in 1835, it is now reduced, in years undisturbed by war or the results of war, to not more than two millions and a half or three millions. As commerce usually regulates itself, in spite of personal or national prejudices, this fact is doubtless attributable to the lower rates at which European manufacturers and producers are enabled to afford their merchandise in the Mexican market. ”

“ To the Germans, too, the revolution brought less percentage of loss than to the Americans and British. Mercantile stocks can be adjusted to changing political conditions more easily than can public services, mines, and similar enterprises.
What the total amount of foreign capital in Mexico is and what is its relation to the total national wealth must, like the individual items, be matters of estimate. The American consular report of 1912 put the total value of all the enumerated properties at $2,432,000,000 and those of Mexican ownership at $793,187,242. ”

“ The capital invested in Mexico by United States companies, firms and individuals, has been stated to be in round numbers $1,000,000,000 gold, and a large part of this investment has been made within a few years. Of the total 70 per cent. is invested in railroads, the rest in mining and agriculture. United States firms have recently built many electric light and power plants, waterworks plants, telephone systems and similar plants.
English capitalists have also invested heavily in Mexican enterprises, particularly in connection with the development of the oil fields. ”

“ Is it wonderful that cotton costs more at Orizaba and Queretaro than in Lowell or Manchester? It is not strange that more is not grown in Mexico. The merchant finds it more convenient to pay all his burdens at the custom-house, than each of the lot to the internal-revenue collectors.
This example may be slightly exaggerated, if taken literally. But the principle of Mexican taxation is fairly represented in it. The marvel is that so many blows in succession upon the arm of industry have not paralyzed it. ”

“ But Mexico, politically unsettled, with only two pipe lines in operation, has her oil wealth conserved, and Lord Cowdray can report to the English shareholders of the Mexican Eagle Company that earnings are ten million dollars per annum Mexican gold, or five million dollars per annum United States gold; and the Mexican Petroleum Company can report to its American shareholders net earnings of about the same amount— six millions for the $39,000,000 common stock the past year. ”

“ The total paper currency "legal" and "counterfeit" put out in 1913-16 is estimated to have had a face value of over $2,000,000,000 Mexican. The Carranza issues alone totaled about $1,250,000,000 as follows: [2]
The record of the effects of the paper money issues upon the economic life of the nation reads like pages from the Arabian Nights, As long as the money, issued in large quantities, had any appreciable value, those who could command gold and who were in a position to profit by a rapidly falling exchange were able to build up fortunes in a way little short of fantastic. ”

“ The Mexican merchant does not go into a fine calculation of the proportionate value of each item of a foreign invoice, but "lumps" the profit he thinks he ought to receive on the whole. Some articles, in consequence, can be bought at less than their real value, while others, in compensation, are exorbitantly advanced.
It is the smaller trade, and that most removed from metropolitan influences, which is the gayest and most entertaining as a spectacle. How many picturesque market scenes does not one linger in! Each community has its own market-day, not to interfere with others. ”

“ Many millions of dollars invested by foreigners are in the hands of the government. Since January first, 1917, to the time of this writing, for instance, the Mexican Government had taken, through so-called forced loans, thirty-seven million pesos in gold from the banks of Mexico City, Monterey, Vera Cruz and other cities.
In some cases the government has given receipts. In others the French, English, Canadian and American bankers and depositors have no records. The government has been compelled to take this step because of the financial crisis that faces the nation. ”

“ If money went abroad, the charge was still greater. In 1868 the taxes and cost of transportation of silver sent from Mexico City to the Bank of England were 25 per cent of the value of the shipments.
Conditions were rapidly developing to the northward which were sure to bring great impetus to Mexican trade, and at least partially remove its disadvantages. The United States was beginning to come into the market for raw products and to sell her manufactures. ”

“ To take the single instance of the crop called ixtle—a species of fibre—the Mexican National transported 224,788 pounds of it, grown along its line, in '82, and 3,531,000 in but seven months of '84. There is now said to be a total of $125,000,000 of American capital invested in Mexico. The proposed commercial treaty between the United States and Mexico has unhappily failed, defeated in our own Congress on what would seem most unstatesmanlike and fatuous grounds. The serious decline in silver has been also a very depressing influence. ”

“ The passengers included several tourists like themselves, a few railway agents, some mysterious characters who could not be "placed," and six or eight men of business who cared nothing for scenery, politics, or anything else pertaining to Mexico, except the facilities for commerce and the duties upon imported goods. One of these individuals loudly denounced the protective duties in the Mexican tariff system, and declared that the country would never amount to anything until it abolished its restrictions [Pg 22] upon importations and opened its markets to the world. ”

“ One thing that cannot be overemphasized is that a healthy and expanding Mexican economy is in the interest of the United States. We want Mexico to grow and prosper. And that's why we've done our best and will continue to do our best to help find solutions to the vexing problems of Mexico's international debt. Innovative, market-based methods of managing this burden are being explored, such as Mexico's offer to exchange debt for long-term bonds. ”

“ Some factors of Mexican life favored industrial development in the last half of the nineteenth century. In the industries in which native labor could be used to advantage the low labor cost encouraged investment. The low exchange rate of silver raised the price of imported articles and thus favored local enterprise. Further, the government sought to help industry as it did agriculture by creating artificial advantages for local enterprise, not only in a protective tariff but, after 1893, by special exemptions. ”

“ Of the former 46,500,000 pesos are credited to import duties, 31,930,000 pesos to stamps, excise taxes, &c., 10,930,000 pesos to direct taxes, and the balance to various sources. Owing to the circumstance that the great majority of the Mexican people own no property, carry on no industry, and are not even to be considered regular productive labourers, the revenues are small in relation to the population and are comparatively inelastic. ”