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548

COMMERCE AND RAILROADS.

the duties assigned to them.^[1] Again, in November 1880, the tariff was altered, and being modified by a presidential decree of June 25, 1881, went into force November 1st following. Lastly, President Diaz, by decree of January 24, 1885, proclaimed a new one, to go into operation July 1st following. This tariff surpasses all previous ones in simplicity, is much shorter than the one which preceded it, and has been most acceptable to the mercantile community, from the fact that it has abolished all the vexatious special percentages which had been exacted before, especially the bulto or package duty. In many cases there is an increase in duties, but not as a whole, the special duties that used to be exacted in addition to those marked down in the schedule having been done away with. The free list is curtailed, but many articles erased from it only pay a nominal duty.^[2]

While Mexico was extending her connection with foreign lands by sea, attention was being given to means of internal communication for the benefit of trade at home. The physical formation of the country offers few facilities for the construction of highways leading from the coast to the great central plateau; and thus it was that the capital, being connected with the principal port by the finest road in Mexico, became

↑ A law of July 1, 1876, declared what were the imposts on foreign commerce for the 52d fiscal year; namely, import duties, as per tariff of Jan. 1, 1872; transit duty, according to that tariff, and the law of Dec. 25, 1872; tonnage and light dues; export duty on gold and silver, orchilla from Lower California, lumber, and cabinet woods. The duties collected in the years 1867-77, both inclusive, amounted to $96,504,229. Mex., Mem. Hac., Sept. 16, 1870, 714, 757, 816, 983-9.
↑ Among the articles set down in the free list may be mentioned telegraph wire, ploughs and their shares, cars and trucks for railroads, steel and iron rails, steam-engines and locomotives, rubber belting, coal, quicksilver, bullion, fire-clay, complete houses of wood or iron, anchors and their chains, masts and yards, and unset precious stones, including pearls. Agricultural, mining, and industrial implements and machinery are taxed at 1/2 cent per kilogram. The tariff is so simplified that there are several hundred distinct classifications less than in the one which preceded it. Copy of it in Mex., Diario Ofic, Feb. 3 to 10, 1885. The custom-house receipts during the four fiscal years from July 1, 1880, to June 30, 1884, were respectively $14,462,213, $18,030,436, $19,119,726, and $17,423,529. Mex., Mem. Hac, 1884, p. xlix.

[1] A law of July 1, 1876, declared what were the imposts on foreign commerce for the 52d fiscal year; namely, import duties, as per tariff of Jan. 1, 1872; transit duty, according to that tariff, and the law of Dec. 25, 1872; tonnage and light dues; export duty on gold and silver, orchilla from Lower California, lumber, and cabinet woods. The duties collected in the years 1867-77, both inclusive, amounted to $96,504,229. Mex., Mem. Hac., Sept. 16, 1870, 714, 757, 816, 983-9.

[2] Among the articles set down in the free list may be mentioned telegraph wire, ploughs and their shares, cars and trucks for railroads, steel and iron rails, steam-engines and locomotives, rubber belting, coal, quicksilver, bullion, fire-clay, complete houses of wood or iron, anchors and their chains, masts and yards, and unset precious stones, including pearls. Agricultural, mining, and industrial implements and machinery are taxed at 1/2 cent per kilogram. The tariff is so simplified that there are several hundred distinct classifications less than in the one which preceded it. Copy of it in Mex., Diario Ofic, Feb. 3 to 10, 1885. The custom-house receipts during the four fiscal years from July 1, 1880, to June 30, 1884, were respectively $14,462,213, $18,030,436, $19,119,726, and $17,423,529. Mex., Mem. Hac, 1884, p. xlix.

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