Commerce for 1912.[1] However, it is an unfortunate fact that since 1912 the value of our investments in Mexico has shrunk seriously, and notwithstanding what we have put into the Mexican petroleum industry I am inclined to regard my estimates for 1916 and 1920 as too high rather than too low. It is to be feared, moreover, that we stand to incur a heavy loss on our investment in Mexican petroleum.[2]
I may refer here to the external obligations of the Mexican Government, which have not been included in the previous table of foreign funded indebtedness. The outstanding principal of these is about $190,000,000, while defaulted interest that has accumulated brings the total to about $240,000,000. Mexican 5 per cent bonds sold at 40 early in 1921, but late in the summer rose to 53.
European Countries
Although the greater part of America’s foreign investment is in Canada, Mexico, Cuba and South America, the amount that has been put into European countries and in the Orient is not inconsiderable. These investments are diverse and difficult of enumeration. In general, they are of the nature of manufactur-
- ↑ Exaggerated ideas respecting the amount of American investment in Mexican mines are prevalent. In fact the total investment of the four principal American mining and metallurgical companies in Mexico at the present time is not more than $70,000,000.
- ↑ Ralph Arnold, who is a high authority on the petroleum industry, said in an article in Mining and Metallurgy, for November, 1921, that it is doubtful if a single company in the Mexican oilfields, which soon will be exhausted, will prove to have operated at an ultimate profit; that over 2,300 km. of pipe lines have been installed, some of which have barely been greased by the fluid; that hundreds of great storage tanks have been built, many of which never held a barrel of oil; and that in brief countless millions of American dollars have been invested, which never can be amortized.
