spindles, ten woolen-mills, and five establishments for the printing of calicoes, representing a valuation of $9,507,775, and giving employment to 12,646 operatives of both sexes, of which 7,680 were men, 2,111 women, and 2,855 children.
The range of product of the Mexican factories is exceedingly limited, and comprises little besides the coarser cottons and woolens, the coarser varieties of paper, a few (cloth) printing and dye works, milling (flour), some machine-shops, and the manufacture of unrefined sugar.
Notwithstanding, also, that Mexico is an agricultural country, she does not produce sufficient material (cotton and wool) to keep her small number of textile factories in operation; and for this reason, and also because of the inferior quality of cotton produced, she imports a considerable proportion of her raw cotton from the United States (5,877,000 pounds in 1885),[1] and also of her wool from Australia.
The two largest and finest cotton-factories in Mexico are located at Querétaro, on the Mexican plateau, and at Orizaba, on the line of the "Vera
- ↑ The existing Mexican tariff imposes a duty of three cents per kilogramme (2.2 pounds avoirdupois) on the importation of un-ginned cotton, and eight cents on cotton ginned. Mexican cotton is packed in small bales weighing from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five pounds; and the pure lint commands about fifteen cents per pound. American cotton ranges in price from sixteen to eighteen cents.
