St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-10-13
Mexico,s Needs and Prospects.

! had the exceeding good fortune to
meet most polite and well-informed
Mexican gentleman. Jose VI. Ortiz, OF
AlamOs Sonora, Mex, brother of the
governor of Sonora. We had a long
conversation about old MeXico's pros
poets. He told me Mexico was wax
ing up to the needs of latter-day civ
ilization. 1t had no banks up to last
February, when the Mexican govern
ment gave a concession to French bank
ers with capital of S2O,00O,OOO. The
government gave them the privilege
of issuing To the amount of 500, OOO,OOO
and promised to give the bank the
business If the government offices.
In return for the concession the bank
gives the government credit of So
600. 900.
Senior Ortiz said that there was now
no further fear of revolution, rs with
this large credit the government could
at once find means to put down an up
rising. In the past the difficulty has
been that the government had nothing
in the treasury with which to equip
and pay an army. The republic is
now safely founded. and will he pre-
served, as the public like it and want
it perpetuated. Senior Ortiz says that
he and his brothers have also recently
founded Il bank in Sonora, with cap
ital of 500, 900, one-fifth of which is
held by Boston parties.
He says that Mexico is very quiet
Ii still feels the effects of the last rev
olution, but within two or three years
IA great change is expected. The new
United States and Mexico will be fin
ished within eighteen months, and
they will undoubtedly give Il great
impetus to trade, as convenient mark
cts will he opened by them. Great
quantities of lumber, cotton and grain,
he thinks, will be sent to this country.
The Mexican tobacco and coffee. he
says, are the finest in the world, and
these, too, will seek our marts. At
present it does not pay to raise wheat
on account of the expense of shipment
and the lack of demand for it at
home. Hence the large area of I'M
cultivated land. Not one tenth of
MeNico's arabic lands is under cultiva-
ton. SenOr Ortiz has a tract of two
hundred square miles, and only util-
ICES two miles of it. A square mile of
land can he bought in some places in
Mexico for 500, and the price ranges
from that up to - per acre. Irriga-
ton is necessary to raise crops, hut
there is plenty of water in many places
from which to run bitches and canals.
What Mexico needs, he says, is i'm
migration, and to meet this necessity
the government is hard at work. 1t
recently imported 5000 Italians, SwedeS
and others from Europe, giving them
land on longtime credit in South
Mexico. 1t is expected that they will
send for their friends and relatives,
and that in time they will develop in
to a very large colony.
The Senior said MeXicanS wished to
be friendly with Americans. and pre-
fer to transfer their trade from England
to the United States, but they fear the
American people may want in time to
annex Mexico to the United States and
despoil the MexicanS of their lands, as
the Spanish MeXicanS were despoiled
by Calitornians. At present it requires
six months to receive an invoice of
goods from England, and, as IL cOnse-
quence, long credits to Mexican mer-
chants must be allowed, and very large
orders must be given by the latter to
make up ship-load of goods. When
the railroads to the United States
shall be finished, orders can be filled
from New York within thirty days,
and instead of being compelled to pur
chase from Sl5O,0O0 to 5000, 900 worth
of goods at once the Mexican merchant
can order S5OOO worth from time to
time us needed, sending the order by
telegraph and having the goods quick
ly railrOaded.- Letter in Troy Times.