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The Germans in Mexican Trade and Industry During the Díaz Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Warren Schiff
Warren Schiff*
Affiliation:
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
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Extract

One of the key policies guiding the regime of General Porfirio Díaz during its rule over an underdeveloped Mexico between 1877 and 1911 was to invite foreign participation in Mexico’s economic activities. At that very moment in history a rapidly industrializing Germany was anxious to find new economic opportunities in less advanced nations. German private entrepreneurs in Mexico could easily exploit both of these trends. A study of their fortunes suggests that commercial and industrial representatives of an economically advanced nation can earn the respect and personal friendship of citizens of a less developed country. This relationship was readily manifested because the Mexicans did not fear or resent German entrepreneurs since the German influence was large and tactful enough to be useful but small enough not to constitute a menace. There was no great possibility of a large influx of Germans into Mexico, because, by contrast to the opportunities enjoyed by German businessmen, Mexico’s latifundia system continued to limit German participation in Mexican agriculture to a few plantation owners. German professional people and workers avoided Mexico because of the depressed conditions that faced members of their calling there. Cautious German investors, afraid that Mexico’s political and economic stability might not last, limited themselves to extending occasional loans to the Mexican Government or to investments in Mexican private enterprises in conjunction with other foreigners, especially Americans.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , January 1967 , pp. 279 - 296
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1967

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References

1 Pferdekamp, Wilhelm, Auf Humboldts Spuren (Munich, 1958), pp. 35–55.Google Scholar

2 Darius, Rudolf, Die Entwicklung der deutsch-mexikanischen Handelsbeziehungen von 1870–1914 (Cologne, 1927), pp. 14 and 41 respectively.Google Scholar

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5 Memorandum by Wentzel, Prussian Ambassador to Mecklenburg and the Hanse towns, Hamburg, December 11, 1881, G.F.M., 11092/2, A 7056.

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7 Waecker-Gotter to Bismarck, April 25, 1881, as cited in Katz, p. 95.

8 Der Export, 1889, p. 218, as cited in Katz, p. 96.

9 Katz, p. 96.

10 Darius, pp. 18, 29, 49–59, and 65. Concerning the dynamic and significant development of German shipping to Mexico see Katz, pp. 139–151; Pferdekamp, pp. 89–90; Schiff, Warren, “German Interests in Mexico in the Period of Porfirio Díaz” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1957), pp. 113–126.Google Scholar

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12 Darius, pp. 30–31.

13 Romero, Matías, Geographical and Statistical Notes on Mexico (New York and London, 1898), p. 79.Google Scholar

14 Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, May 16, 1884, inserted into G.F.M., 1092/2, A 964.

15 Evald Paul in Kaufmännische Blätter as quoted in Goodwin, Consul George B., “Exports of Germany to Mexico,” United States, Department of State, Reports from the Consuls of the United States, Vol. XX (Washington, 1886), pp. 370–372 Google Scholar. Concerning how some of the suggestions were later accomplished see Pferdekamp, pp. 284–289.

16 Katz, pp. 126–127; Darius, p. 15.

17 See Katz, pp. 127–129; Pferdekamp, pp. 72–78; Schiff, pp. 103–105; United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Monthly Consular Reports, Vol. LXXIV, No. 282 (Washington, 1906), p. 586. The limited nature of German investments and banking in Mexico is discussed in Katz, pp. 99–115 and Schiff, pp. 127–142.

18 George, Paul, Das heutige Mexico und seine Kulturfortschritte (Jena, 1906), pp. 53–54 Google Scholar; United States, Department of Commerce and Labor, Monthly Consular Reports, Vol. LXXVII, No. 306 (Washington, 1906), p. 160 Google Scholar. For 1895–96, German exports to Mexico amounted to 4,363,229 Mexican pesos and German imports from Mexico were valued at 2,968,792 pesos according to República Mexicana, Secretaría de Estado y del Despacho de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Estadística, Sección, Boletín de estadística fiscal, 1896–1897, No. 214 (México, 1901), pp. 183 and 231Google Scholar. In 1905–06, German exports to Mexico rose to 20,668,731 pesos; by comparison, those of the United States totaled 145,541,633 pesos. That same year, German imports from Mexico amounted to 20,523,156 pesos, while those of the United States totaled 186,010,052 pesos according to República Mexicana, Secretaría de Estado y del Despacho de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Sección Estadística, Boletín de estadística fiscal, 1905–1906 (México, 1907), pp. 61 and 77Google Scholar.

19 Darius, pp. 34 and 45. For a thorough and excellent discussion of the implications of Mexico’s currency problems see Hernandez, Fernando Rosenzweig, “Las Exportaciones Mexicanas de 1817 a 1911 “in Historia Mexicana, Vol. IX, No. 3 (January-March, 1960), pp. 395–411 Google Scholar. It should be noted that between the United States, Germany, Great Britain, and France, Mexico’s most important trade partners, only Germany and France maintained a significantly higher balance of exports over imports, with Germany’s ratio surpassing that of France. However, United States exports to Mexico were roughly five times those from Germany between 1905 and 1910; United States imports from Mexico were more than twenty times those of Germany. For precise data and further information see United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Manufactures, Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Countries During the Year 1907 (Washington, 1908), Vol. I, pp. 99 and 121 and Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Countries. Calendar Year 1911 (Washington, 1913), p. 71, as well as the same Bureau’s Special Butman’s, Agent Arthur B. Report on Trade Conditions in Mexico (Washington, 1908), pp. 15 and 17–18Google Scholar which refer to United States-German or Franco-German trade competition in such lines as hardware, drugs, chemicals, and electric appliances.

20 George, pp. 53–54 and United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Monthly Consular Reports, Vol. LXXVI, No. 306 (Washington, 1906), p. 160.

21 In 1896–97, Great Britain furnished 16.30 against Germany’s 9.48 per cent of Mexico’s imports. By 1905–06, the ratio had shifted to 9.22 per cent for Great Britain and 9.42 per cent for Germany, according to Great Britain, Office, Foreign, Diplomatic and Consular Reports. Miscellaneous Series. Mexico. No. 662 (London, 1907), p. 3 Google Scholar. British imports from Mexico in 1905–06 were valued at 141,672,873 Mexican pesos, according to Secretaria de Estado, Boletín de estadística fiscal, 1905–1906, p. 77.

22 Wangenheim to Bülow, Mexico City, July 13, 1905, G.F.M., 1269/4, A 13483.

23 Board of Trade to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, London, October 12, 1900, Great Britain, Foreign Office, Vol. 523, p. 215.

24 In United States, Department of Commerce and Labor, Monthly Consular Reports, Vol. LXXV, no. 325 (Washington, 1907), p. 76.

25 Berliner Tageblatt, September 15, 1910, G.F.M., 1272/2, A 15548.

26 Darius, pp. 55 and 63.

27 Holm, Orea, Aus Mexiko (Berlin, 1908), p. 242.Google Scholar

28 Darius, p. 57. Krupp’s and other German industrialists’ increasingly unsuccessful efforts to sell armaments to Mexico are discussed at length in Katz, pp. 130–137 and Schiff, pp. 76–93.

29 Foreign. Ministry Memorandum, Berlin, September 19, 1906, G. F. M., 1270/4, A 15771.

30 Hamburgischer Korrespondent, August 7, 1900, G. F. M., 1268/1, A 10472.

31 Wangenheim to Bülow, Mexico City, April 12,1906, G. F. M., 1270/3, A 7789.

32 Berliner Tageblatt, June 16, 1894, G.F.M., 1092/4, A 5411; Zedtwitz to Caprivi, Mexico City, June 1, 1891, G. F. M., 1092/4, A 5403; and Bunz to Bethmann Hollweg, Mexico City, June 3, 1909, G. F. M., 1271/4, A 10643.

33 José C. Valadés, , El porfirismo (Mexico City, 1948), II, 106.Google Scholar

34 Wangenheim to Bülow, Mexico City, December 14, 1906, G. F. M., 1270/4, A 172.

35 A. G. E. to Holstein, Berlin, January 10, 1906, and Foreign Ministry to A. G.E., Berlin, January 14, 1906, both in G. F. M., 1270/2, A 829.

38 Günther, Erich, Illustriertes Handbuch von Mexiko (Mexico City, 1912), p. 287.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., p. 283; and Pferdekamp, Wilhelm, Deutsche im frühen Mexiko (Stuttgart, 1938), p. 219.Google Scholar

38 Ayuntamiento Constitucional de Guadalajara, Apuntes Biográficos del Sr. D. Teodoro Kunhardt, consul del Imperio Alemán (Guadalajara, 1892), p. 9.

39 Günther, p. 285.

40 For one of the more exhaustive lists of German industrial activities see Pferdekamp, Auf Humboldts Spuren, pp. 146–47. Concerning the development by German scientists and capitalists of a Mexican rubber industry, see Tischendorf, Alfred, Great Britain and Mexico in the Period of Porfirio Díaz (Duke, 1961), p. 109.Google Scholar

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42 Between 1874 and 1875, there were from 500 to 600 German nationals in Mexico according to Ratzel, p. 378. Their number grew to 2337 in 1895, 2567 in 1900, and 3645 in 1910 according to Darius, p. 51. For discussions concerning the process of assimilation see Schiff, pp. 195–201 and immediately below in this article.

43 Deutsche Zeitung von Mexiko, April 14, 1900, p. 3 and “Cámara Mexicana-Alemana de Comércio,” anonymous typewritten manuscript furnished the author by the German Chamber of Commerce in Mexico in 1955.

44 Interview by author with Georg Kunhardt (merchant), Mexico City, August 8, 1955. A mild form of pro-Díaz activity took place in 1896 when the prominent Guadalajara merchant and industrialist Federico Kunhardt participated in a reception committee that, on the occasion of a presidential visit to Guadalajara, helped to organize a ball in Díaz’ honor according to Gaceta Mercantil, December 9, 1896, pp. 4–5. The Governor of the State of Mexico, Fernando Gonzales, granted several honorary posts to Germans. Few of them, however, became as distinguished apparently as Karl Hahne, the director from 1901 on of the Toluca Brewery’s glass factory, who was known affectionately in his home town as “Don Carlos ” and was appointed a regidor, or city councillor, and honorary inspector of Toluca’s slaughter house and taxi carriages. Governor Gonzalez left his mansion open to informal visits by Hahne who, in 1904, became head of Toluca’s delegation to recommend the re-election of President Díaz. Interview by author with Fräulein Ilse Hahne, director of the Kindergarten of the German School, Mexico City, July 28, 1955.

45 O’Farril, Mi Patria, as cited in Valadés, II, 225.

46 México Nuevo, January 27, 1911, as quoted in Günther, p. 257.

47 Wangenheim to Bülow, Mexico City, April 12, 1906, G.F.M., 1270/3, A 7789 and Stelzmann, Alexander, Mexiko. Kultur- und Wirtschaftskundliches (Lübeck, 1927), pp. 103–106 Google Scholar. See also footnote 44.

48 El Eco del Comércio, December 5, 1905, G.F.M., 1270/2, A 866.

49 Winter, Nevin O., Mexico and Her People Today (London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne, 1913), pp. 38–39 Google Scholar; Radowitz to Biilow, Mexico City, September 20, 1908, G.F.M., 1271/3, A 16256; and Stelzmann, p. 103.

50 Wangenheim to Biilow, Mexico City, October 18, 1905, G. F. M., 1270/2, A 19382.

51 Radewitz to Bülow, Mexico City, September 20, 1908, G. F. M., 1271/3, A 16256; Bünz to Bethmann-Hollweg, Mexico City, January 31, 1910, G.F. M., 1272/2, A 2842; Stelzmann, p. 103; Beals, Carleton, Mexico. An Interpretation (New York, 1923), p. 222 Google Scholar; Thompson, Wallace, The People of Mexico (New York and London, 1921), p. 124 Google Scholar; and Schumacher, Karl von, Mexiko und die Staaten Zentralamerikas (Zürich, 1928), p. 50.Google Scholar

52 According to a German consular count in 1912, there were 2,237 German male and 1,347 German female persons in Mexico, excluding the State of Chihuahua. Of these, 657 men and 648 women were married, according to Schmidt, Georg A., Mexiko (Berlin, 1925), p. 92 Google Scholar; see also Stelzmann, p. 129.

53 Schumacher, p. 50.

54 Bünz to Bethmann-Hollweg, Mexico City, January 31, 1910, G.F.M., 1272/1, A 2842. Differences of opinion concerning the rearing of children did exist according to Stelzmann, p. 129. The assimilation process in Mexico was occasionally criticized in such German publications as Below, Ernst, Aus Mexiko (Berlin, 1899), pp. 255–56 Google Scholar and Stelzmann, p. 130.

55 Trautz, Margarete, Mexiko. Erinnerungen einer Deutschen (Braunschweig, 1899), pp. 13 and 15.Google Scholar

56 Stelzmann, p. 129.

57 Stelzmann, p. 115.

58 The impressed German chargé d’affaires in Mexico reported that an intimate of the Mexican president suggested to him that Madame Díaz would be pleased to obtain a German decoration in return for her sponsorship. A German Foreign Ministry official responded to the request in a marginal comment: “I think that [the chargé] is becoming insane!” See Floeckner to Bülow, Mexico City, October 2, 1903, G.F. M., 1269/1, A 15538.

59 Wangenheim to Bülow, Mexico City, October 2, 1905, G. F. M., 1270/1, A 18387.

60 Pferdekamp, Auf Humboldts Spuren, pp. 77–81, 151–52, and 284–89; also Katz, p. 494.

61 Report by Sutton, Consul-General Warner P., Matamoros, March 14, 1884 in United States, Department of State, Reports from the Consuls of the United States (Washington, 1884), No. 45, September, 1884, p. 71.Google Scholar