the business being in the hands of Mexican, German, and Spanish houses. As showing also how the trade in this district has increased within recent years to the benefit of the United States, it may be also mentioned that, while in 1870 the imports from the United States were only $203,600, out of a total of $1,003,600, they were, for 1885 (as above stated), $1,490,450, out of a total of $2,041,940. It is also the judgment of those well qualified to express an opinion, that, as one effect of the recent discourteous refusal of the United States to negotiate a commercial reciprocity treaty, the number of American firms or agencies doing business permanently in Mexico will notably diminish.
That the ratification of the contemplated treaty for commercial reciprocity between the United States and Mexico would have increased to some extent, and perhaps considerably, the volume of American exports, can not be doubted. Thus, for example, there are no articles of which Mexico stands in greater need than wagons and carts, barbed fence-wire, and petroleum and its derivatives for warming and lighting. In respect to the two first named, the existing Mexican tariff is almost prohibitory, and, as a consequence, it is asserted that there is not a respectable vehicle in any of the frontier towns of Mexico; and no
