Page:A Study of Mexico.djvu/249

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TRADE PECULIARITIES.
239

that the "Mexican Central Railroad" now carries considerable freight that comes to New York by European steamers, and is thence transported, in bond, by rail directly through to Mexico; to which it may be added that some $300,000 of this freight, during the past year, is understood to have been English agricultural machinery, which has been bought in preference to the world-wide famous American farm machinery and implements, and carried past, as it were, the very doors of the American competing factories!

For such a singular result there are two explanations. One is, that not only in Mexico, but in all the Central and South American countries, the English and the German merchants take special pains, not only to adapt their merchandise to the peculiar tastes bf the people with whom they wish to deal, but also to cultivate their good-will. The representatives of the United States, as a general rule, do neither.

A quick witted American merchant, who has had abundant opportunities for observation in Central and South America, recently wrote to the author in respect to this matter as follows: "My experiences lead me to the conclusion that Americans are not fitted for doing an export trade in foreign countries, except, may be, English-speaking countries. The characteristic of our people to