It would be so much better for the United States if Mexico was more prosperous. Aid, Mexican favored trade deals, legal guest workers have all been attempted to give Mexico a boost. Yet today there is a crisis at the border and since this stamp 25 percent of the population of Mexico has migrated out. There was a period between the forties and the seventies where it looked like this sad fate might be avoided. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp tries to put a brave face on economic progress. A Mexican made car travels on a modern highway and has been doing so for 25 years, which equates almost exactly to the American Interstate highway system. A closer look though reveals the flaws. The highway shown is only 38 miles long between Mexico City and a weekend getaway. It is a high toll road, so only available to the wealthy few in Mexico. The car is a Mexican assembled Renault 12, a modern in the day French car but one with only 54 horsepower so barely capable of expressway travel. When Mexico became slightly more open to foreign cars, the Renault factory quickly closed. Things are not quite as rosy as they seemed.
Todays stamp is issue C544, a 1.4 Peso airmail stamp issued by Mexico on November 30th, 1977. It was a single stamp issue that celebrates the 25th anniversary of the first section of the Autopista toll federal highway system. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
World War II was progressive for Mexico. They stayed out but opportunities for legal guest workers opened with the USA and there was a more friendly relationship with the USA. Mexicans had proved capable of factory work and the government set up a system that promoted local production of goods and kept out import competition. Exports to the USA were allowed and unique in the history of Mexico there was a twenty year period where Mexico was able to maintain a fixed exchange rate with the USA, which lessened the constant third world problem of capital flight. The government, a stable one party system, stigmatized immigration to America and cooperated with USA immigration to curb illegal crossers. The time saw on average 7 percent annual economic growth. However the population was growing so fast that it worked out to only 3 percent growth per capita.
In the seventies, the pattern of growth broke down. Excessive, non productive spending by the government saw to the first of many Peso devaluations. Naturally wage growth did not make up for the Peso’s buying power decline so the industrial worker paid a huge price. The industrialization had given the worker some skills and that opened up the ability to perform more than just agricultural work in America but much better paying jobs in construction and industry.
By the 80s, workers were flooding out of Mexico and there was the sad picture from the old days of the government looking north with it’s hand out. Bailouts followed and Mexico’s successful industrial policy was liberalized which saw much of it become foreign owned. The illegalities of illegal immigration expanded to drug and sex trafficking and law and order further broke down. The location next to the USA has seen Mexico, the 75 percent that stayed doing well by Latin America standards but the gnp per capita is a little less than 15 percent of the USA. This is about on a level with Brazil or China. I am sure the Mexicans hoped for more by now.
The Autopista system may have started the same time as the American Interstate system, but progress is slow and use is less due to the high tolls,(US$ .20 per mile). See below the gap filed current rout map. The best selling car is the Nissan Versa that is more highway capable and made in Mexico. Nissan is now owned by Renault and the Versa is a French design so what goes around comes around.
Well my drink is empty and after all the tolls there is nothing left to pay for another round. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.