Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/128

The great improvement which statistics show to have taken place since the advent of rail-roads, and in direct proportion to their use, is one of the most encourageing signs of the times. Already the states have grown to see the enormity of placing barriers between their own free intercourse; and the law has thrown down the petty system of customs which prevailed on each boundary line, as well as the differences in currency which made a cent taken at Zacatecas useless in Querétaro. A common coinage and common laws are to be put in operation throughout the republic. Equally blind is the present system of duties between it and our own country, placing an insurmountable obstacle between free interchange of products and manufactures, and shutting two great nations out of mutual advantages. On our side especially there would be everything to gain, and nothing to lose, by abolishing the protective tariff. Business is conducted now upon a most unhealthy basis. Credits of a year are given with interest of at least one per cent a month meantime; an unfair taxation makes landed property and incomes free, and leaves the entire burden to fall on the already overladen shoulders