Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/19

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CONTENTS.
xi
Page
CHAPTER XXII.
COMMERCE AND RAILROADS.
1800-1887.
Symptoms of Free Trade — A Commercial Inroad — Exports and Imports — Customs and Custom-houses — Cabotage — Abolishment of the Alcabalas — Smuggling — The Mercantile Marine — The Carrying Trade — Commercial Regulations — Foreign Steamers — Case of the Danube — First Mexican Steamships — The Mexican Transatlantic S. S. Co. — Unjust Taxation — Tariffs — Metropolitan Highways — Mercantile Tribunals — Brokers — Banks — The Mail Service — Nickel Coinage — The Decimal System — Railroads — The Mexican Railway — Development — Projected Lines — Considerations — Telegraphs, Telephones, and Electric Lights 533
CHAPTER XXIII.
AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF MEXICO.
1887.
Capacity for Production — Unequal Distribution of Land — Necessity of Irrigation — Drainage of the Valley — The Nochistongo Cutting — Poumaréde's Siphons — Garay's Project — A Pestilent Metropolis — Maize and Other Cereals — Chile Pepper — Plantains, Cacao, and Coffee — The Agave Americana — Pulque, Mescal, and Tequila — Hennequen and Ixtle — Sugar and Aguardiente — Tobacco, Olive-oil, and Wine — Cochineal, Indigo, Cotton — Silk Culture — Vanilla and Jalap — Stock-raising — Horned Cattle, Horses, and Hogs — Agricultural Prospects of Mexico 561
CHAPTER XXIV.
ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.
1800-1887.
Relations of Church and State — Demoralization of the Clergy — Their Influence Waning — Measures to Curtail their Power — Intrigues — The Clergy and the Reactionists Co-operating — Sequestration of Church Property — Banishment of Bishops — Creation of New Dioceses — Condition of the Church during the Regency — Differences between the Pope and Maximilian — Policy of the Latter — Liberal Changes — Freedom of Worship a Fact — Monastic Orders — Their Suppression — Religious Societies — Property and Revenue of the Clergy — Church Feasts — Superstitions — Intellectual Improvement 580