Page:A Study of Mexico.djvu/209

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PAPER MONEY.
199

now are, that a flood of paper will ultimately drive silver out of circulation in Mexico; and that neither popular traditions nor prejudices, nor the adverse influence of the mints (which in Mexico are private establishments), nor its great silver-mining interests (at present the most important business interest of Mexico), can have any effect in checking the paper currency movement.


RELATION OF THE SANITARY CONDITION OF MEXICO TO ITS COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT.

The sanitary condition of every country constitutes an important element in determining its commercial development, and Mexico especially illustrates the truth of this proposition. The coast-lands of the republic are hot and unhealthy. The more elevated portions, where nine tenths of the people live, are claimed to be unsurpassed in salubrity. Strangers from northern latitudes, and accustomed to the ordinary levels of human residence, are liable, on coming to the Mexican plateau, to a process of acclimation, which, although often very trying, is rarely attended with any very serious consequences. Horse-dealers from Texas state that they lose from twelve to twenty per cent of the horses brought to the city of Mexico for sale, solely from the climatic in-