New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-28

opoly of its orders in his own hands. The
fashions change but seldom in Spanish
American countries, owing to the fact
that the merchants are not anious to per-
pick themselves with increased trouble
in ordering new patterns.
In dry goods there lisa particular quality
of calico that sells in Spanish America,
because it is a cheap and gaudy article.
This calico has a beautiful glazed appear
ance when new, owing to the immense
amount of starch used in giving it body.
1t is printed in colors that are very faring
and fashy, but which almost disappear
after good washing, and what it wants in
weight it makes up in width. 1t is de-
signed to sell, and not to wear. So with
the cottonades and white goods. They
lack body, but they appeal to the eye, and
they are sold cheap. Sprague prints
stand no chance beside the calico made
at Mulhouse for Mexico. And as it is
about these cotton goods, so it is about
almost every other article that is con-
sumed in Spanish America. Europe
cheats her customers in Spanish America,
and her customers refuse to turn from
their betrayer. They say our narrow
prints and modest colors are swindles.
In the next place, Europe is slow, and
this suits the tropics. An Englishman or
a German will enter Mexico or Central
America with a stock of goods valued at
an hundred thousand dollars. He will
settle in some trading centre, fix up a
comfortable lodging room, open his sam
pies, cultivate the cigarette and the
sencritas, and wait for customers as if he
had a thousand years to live. He has
never cultivated novelty, and this allows
him to rest satisfied that the dress pattern
of to-day will be the dress pattern five
years from to-day. He sells to all the
country around, because he gives time.
He waits patiently for his money, satisfied
that his favors to the local officers will
bring it out when it is due. He always
suggests that the Americans are rapacious,
unreliable and dangerous. He asserts
that but for Great Britain the flibusters
would long since have ridden over Spanish
America with q robbing and lustful am
bition.
Spanish American trade has been con-
quered from US in this way. Europe has
educated the people of these countries
into fashions that are steadfast, and
which are peculiar to her manufactures.
She has sent men of capital with their
goods into their markets, and these men
have accommodated the people without
interfering with their institutions. An
in Mexico is the absolute
enemy of progress. He disbelieves in it
Is an element of American life. What
.he Mexican does not do for himself the
European never proposes to do for him.
He accepts the situation at first, becau e
he contends that it is the duty of the
to let the household manage it.
;elf; and at last, because it is easier to
10 nothing than it is to advance. Thus
hese people become intimately allied, the
European in selling, and the Mexican in
ouying a set of goods that have not diff
cred in color or pattern for years. And
10Th parties refuse to accept of the
goods or the superior activity
# the American, because the one looks
heap and the other might be dangerous.
If we desire to push our commerce in
we must consult the taste of the
Iexicans, and we must learn how to
initiate the acquiescence of the English
nan, or else we must seize the country.
If the two alternatives, probably the
asst is the easiest of accomplishment.
t would certainly profit the Mexicans
he most. 9