Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of that Country from the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.Mayer, Brantz
History
Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of that Country from the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.
Tobacco grows well in a small district near Orizaba and Cordova, but the
best article produced in the republic, comes from Simojovel in the state
of Chiapas and from some districts of Oajaca. In Yucatan and Tabasco,
the plant is also cultivated successfully, and produces a mild and
fragrant leaf which is not included in the national monopoly. A large
portion of the tobacco sold in the republic is contraband; for the
ridiculous and greedy restrictions and exactions with which a plant of
such universal consumption is surrounded, necessarily dispose the people
to violate laws which they feel were only made to impair their rights of
production and trade under a constitution professing to be free.
INDIGO.
Indigo was cultivated and used by the Mexicans previous to the conquest.
The plant was known by them under the name of Xiuhquilipitzahuac, and
the particles from which the dye stuff was made, as Mohuitli or
Tlacohuilli. At the close of the seventeenth century the production of
this article had already greatly decreased. The chief part of it,
required for dyeing the cotton cloths which are generally used for home
consumption by the Indians and lower classes of Mestizos, has been
brought from Guatemala. It is found in Yucatan, Chiapas and about
Tehuantepec in the state of Oajaca, and grows wild in some very warm
localities in Tabasco. In this last named region there is every reason
to believe that it may be profitably cultivated, inasmuch as the indigo
plantations of San Salvador, in the neighborhood of Guatemala have been
known to produce one million eight hundred thousand pounds of the
article, valued at two millions of dollars.
* * * * *
The production of WAX, according to the Memoria Sobre el Estado de la
Agricultura y Industria, of Don Lucas Alaman in 1843, is gradually
augmenting in the republic. Attempts have also been made to cultivate
FLAX and HEMP. The first of which has been successfully raised by
Mariano Aillou in the neighborhood of Tenancingo, and the latter, in the
southern districts of the state of Michoacan, where it grows even
spontaneously and is known under the name of _guinary_. The product is
very large, the extent of territory covered by it very great,--and the
thousands of pounds annually raised in that district, are made up into
garments whose quality is highly approved throughout the republic.
COTTON.
In consequence of the high price of imported goods, owing to restrictive
tariffs as well as to the costliness of transportation a number of
intelligent persons began some years ago to establish factories for
cottons and woollens. The stimulus of domestic factories it was supposed
would naturally increase the culture of the raw materials, and,
accordingly, the national industry was aided from the beginning by
prohibitions or excessive duties, which either excluded the foreign raw
material altogether, or fostered the contraband introduction of cotton
twist and woollen thread.
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