The record-union., 1895-07-12
THE THIRD MEXICAN LETTER
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS.
Tomorrow we shall present the third of
the letters from Mexico written by Pro-
fessor Bernard Moses of the University
of California. The third letter treats of
coffee-growing and its stimulus, the pro-
duction of silver, and the effect of Mex
ico's changing trade policy upon that
metal. and, as incident to these, the con-
ditions in Brazil that have given coffee
growing in Mexico such momentum.
The letter treats of all these subjects in
the light of the effect of increased railway
facilities in Mexico, and of the produc-
tion of silver and the expected increase
of exports.
The reader who studies this letter will
arise from it feeling that there has been
made clear TO him as never before the
operation of forces in Mexico that are
shaping for her new history, If not a
new civilization.
The natural resources of the United
States and of Mexico supplement each
other, and hence reciprocity between the
two countries is natural and mutually
advantageous. Reciprocal trade relations
with the sister republic are very desira-
BILE, therefore, for Mexico more than any
other place on the globe is becoming of
interest and importance to this country.
She is to-day the most wonderful exam
pie in the modern phenomena of science,
of growth and prosperity during world
wide prevalence of business paralysis.
There exists now between Mexico and
the United States a condition analogous
to that existing between California and
the Eastern States prior to the resump-
ton of specie payment. When the Gov
ernment issue was at discount. the peo-
pie Of the Eastern States continued to do
business upon the basis of deprecated
currency, or under the rule of premium
on gold. But California adhered to the
gold standard; SO that an immigrant who
came to California with his fortune ex-
pressed In paper currency suffered a
nominal discount, as high at one time as
30 per cent.-later, 40, 80, 20 and 10 per
cent, and Immediately preceding the
period of resumption, from 3 to per
cent.
Coming Westward, then, q mans for
tune nominally shrunk the percentage
hereinRbove indicated. while going to the
East from California mans fortune COR
respondingly expanded. An individual
with $4,000 Ia greenbacks moving from
an Eastern State so California found his
money to represent but from $1,000 to
$1,000 in the currency Of this State; while
an individual leaving California with
$4,000, found his money convertible into
from 200 to ST.. 900 of the currency of
the East.
All this was accompanied by the fact
that it cost moro to live in California
when the cost of living was paid in gold
than at the East with the cost of living
paid in the currency of the country
Every article of consumption WAS higher
here in California at the gold price than
in the East at the currency price. The
mercantile community were vastly the
gamer. They purchased with green
backs at the Eastern quotations and sold
for gold in California, converting the
gold they obtained for articles of msr-
chandise into gresnbacks, thereby MAX
ing the premium on the gold as well as a
corresponding profit on the goods. 1t
was a period of golden harvest for the
perity of California an injury from which
1t has not yet recovered.
Analogous to this is the financial rels-
ton between Mexico and the United
State. Mexico has maintained the silver
standard. While a Mexican dollar in
Mexico will purchase as much or more
of lands, or clothing, or food, or labor,
as the gold dollar in the United States, the
Mexican dollar ia only 90 cents in gold.
For this reason, Mexico is receiving
large accessions from the capital of the
United States. It is estimated that
within one year past fifty millions have
been sent from the United States in gold
to be converted into one hundred mill
ions in Mexican money to be invested in
Mexico. On the other hand, articles
produced in Mexico upon the silver basis
when sold abroad for gold return 100 per