The quarter-century before the Diaz régime saw a lively international contest for Mexican imports. In 1853 it appears that, of the total value of some 26,000,000 pesos. Great Britain furnished almost 50 per cent and France and the United States about 17 per cent each. The German states then contributed about 7 per cent. Thereafter there were various ups and downs in which the United States definitely forged ahead of France in the middle '70s and in 1878 passed ahead of Great Britain, never again to be overtaken. France, meanwhile, fell to the position of a minor competitor. For her and for Great Britain the advance of the railways, then being planned in the north, meant a steadily growing handicap in competition for Mexican trade.
Turning now to the export trade during the first half-century of Mexican independence, we find statistics as unsatisfactory as in the case of imports. They are, in fact, so unsatisfactory that the best method of arriving at the character and value of the goods that were sent abroad is to study the returns of imports from Mexico as published by her chief customers: Great Britain, France, and the United States. The shipments in the first quarter-century of independence were unimportant, except for precious metals and cochineal. In the second a better showing was made. A greater variety of articles made their appearance—earnest of what would occur once the country was opened up to foreign commerce.
Between 1850 and 1878 a sharp international rivalry went on between Great Britain, the United States, and France for the control of both of the branches into which
