Jose Yves Limantour He was a Mexican politician born in 1854. The most important part of his political career took place during the Porfiriato, a period of almost 30 years in which the presidency of the country was held by Porfirio Díaz. During that stage, Limantour was Secretary of Finance and Public Credit.
From that position, Limantour implemented a series of economic reforms that made it possible to stabilize the country's accounts. Among other aspects, it applied a severe program to reduce public spending and created mechanisms to increase revenues. On the negative side, his policies created great inequality and there were serious allegations of corruption..
Limantour was the leader of the "scientists", a group of politicians, intellectuals and businessmen with great influence on the politics carried out during the Porfiriato.
From the end of the 19th century, the "scientists" began to prepare the succession of Díaz, with Limantour as the best placed candidate. However, Porfirio's plans were to remain in the presidency and he maneuvered so that his Secretary of the Treasury could not face him in an election.
With the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, Limantour tried to negotiate with the supporters of Francisco Madero. Finally, he accompanied Porfirio Díaz in his exile in France, where he resided until the moment of his death, in 1935..
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José Yves Limantour Marquet was born on December 26, 1854, in Mexico City. His parents, the schooner captain Joseph Yves Limantour and Adela Marquet, were both French and well off financially..
The family's wealth came from the sale of weapons, land speculation and their ownership of various properties in the Mexican capital. In this last aspect, they had benefited from the confiscation of Church assets that had been decreed by the liberal governments of Benito Juárez and Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada..
Family fortune allowed young José Yves to receive the best possible education, both in Mexico and in Europe, where he traveled when he was only 14 years old..
Upon returning, he began his studies at the National Preparatory School. In 1871, he entered the National School of Jurisprudence, where he obtained his law degree in 1876. To complete his training, he returned to Europe to train in administration and economics..
His return to Mexico coincided with the beginning of the Porfiriato. At that time, he taught at the National School of Commerce and the National School of Jurisprudence. In addition, between 1877 and 1882, he collaborated with the magazine El Foro, dedicated to legal issues.
In 1877 he was appointed secretary of a commission that had to analyze whether the signing of a commercial treaty with the United States was convenient for the country, something that Limantour opposed. Three years later, he was elected deputy to Congress and his career began to take off.
Among other assignments, he was part of a commission that tried to find solutions to the problem of the alcabalas, in addition to preparing a report on the effects on the Mexican economy of the drop in the price of silver.
In 1892, after having participated in the Liberal Union, founded by Manuel Romero Rubio, he was appointed senior officer of the Ministry of Finance.
A year later, the support of Romero Rubio was essential for him to be appointed as Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, a position he held until the fall of the Porfiriato, in 1911.
During those years, he was also president of the Sanitation Board (1896) and the Potable Water Provision Board (1903).
In his time as Secretary of the Treasury, Limantour was known as the leader of the positivist group called the "scientists", a series of politicians, economists and businessmen with a lot of influence on Porfirio Díaz.
The "scientists", named for the culture they treasured and for proposing that the government make decisions based on science, were followers of Auguste Comte's Positivist Theory, which claimed that the only valid knowledge was that validated by science.
Limantour, like other members of the group, was a strong supporter of Social Darwinism. In one of his speeches, he expressed that thought:
"The weak, the ill-prepared, those who lack the elements to successfully achieve evolution, have to succumb, yielding the field to the most vigorous, or who, due to the characteristics of their way of being, managed to overcome them and can transmit the qualities to their descendants. to whom they owed the supremacy".
The contributions of the "scientists" were especially relevant in the field of economics. Some of its members acted as government representatives to banks, while others were tax advisers. Similarly, they were also intermediaries between the government and foreign investors..
Corruption accusations
The work of the "scientists" was not without controversy. Many of them were accused of committing acts of corruption and taking advantage of their positions and their closeness to Porfirio Díaz to enrich themselves.
According to the prestigious journalist John Kenneth Turner, Limantour also profited financially from his political decisions. In this case, the corruption occurred in the deferred sale of the Mexican railways.
The journalist stated:
"LMembers of the Diaz clique received, as their share of the loot, many millions of dollars through maneuvers with the stocks and securities upon the merger. Altogether, it was probably the most colossal case of dispossession ever carried out by the organized destroyers of the Mexican nation.... ".
José Limantour was considered by the rest of the "scientists" as the natural candidate to occupy the presidency when Porfirio Díaz decided to retire..
The occasion seemed to arrive in 1899, when Díaz announced that he did not intend to run for his fourth reelection. He also offered his support on the sole condition that the other possible candidate, Bernardo Reyes, then governor of Nuevo Léon, give the go-ahead..
In reality, Porfirio Díaz never intended to leave the presidency. His maneuver was aimed at confronting the very popular Reyes with the "scientists".
Limantour, believing that he had a real chance of becoming president, convinced Reyes to support him in exchange for appointing him Secretary of War and Navy..
Díaz then launched the second part of his plan and ordered Limantour to travel to Europe to negotiate the Mexican debt with various countries on the continent..
During his absence, the president maneuvered Limantour from being his successor. To do this, he argued that the Constitution did not allow it as his parents were French
Porfirio ran as the only possible candidate and achieved his fourth presidential re-election.
Limantour was absent during the celebration of the centenary of independence, in 1910, since he was in Europe negotiating the payment of the foreign debt..
On November 20 of that same year, the Mexican Revolution began. Limantour tried to stop the rebellion with a series of political reforms that actually tried to maintain the same social structures created by the Porfiriato.
The revolutionaries, led by Francisco Madero, did not stop their advance. In March 1911, Limantour met in New York with relatives of Madero and Francisco Vázquez Gómez to try to reach an agreement, but without success..
Faced with the sure triumph of the revolution, Limantour was in charge of negotiating with Madero the agreement that put an end to the Porfiriato, the so-called Ciudad Juárez Treaties, and the formation of an interim government chaired by Francisco León de la Barra..
Porfirio Díaz submitted his resignation on May 25, 1911, but a good part of his supporters kept their positions and their share of power..
Limantour remained faithful to Porfirio Díaz and accompanied him when he went into exile from the country. His destination was Paris, where he devoted himself to his private business.
In addition, he was appointed a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques and "Grand Officer" of the Legion of Honor..
José Yves Limantour died in the French capital on August 27, 1935, when he was 80 years old..
José Limantour was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1893. His first measures were to impose a series of new taxes that affected the types of production not affected by the crisis, such as tobacco or alcohol..
In addition, it carried out reforms to reduce the expenses and services of the national administration and, on the other hand, it reduced the salaries of a good part of the civil servants.
All these measures allowed the Mexican hacienda to have a surplus for the first time in the country's history. This surplus was more than 2 million pesos in fiscal year 1894-95, while the following year it amounted to five million..
Another type of measure that he took during his first years as Secretary of the Treasury were the restructuring of the public debt and the reorganization of credit institutions..
In the following years, Limantour continued to carry out far-reaching economic reforms. Thus, he eliminated the alcabalas; managed to balance the budget; promoted several works to improve the country's infrastructure in areas such as railways, ports, parks and lighting; reformed the monetary system adopting the gold standard; and attracted international credit.
The politician maintained the Porfiriato's policy of favoring businessmen and foreign companies that showed interest in investing in the country.
On the other hand, Limantour approved the General Law of Credit Institutions, conceived to reorganize the Mexican banking system.
Limantour, who was never in favor of Mexico depending too much on the US contribution to its economy, tried to get Porfirio Díaz to seek foreign investors from other countries.
However, his attempt was unsuccessful and, at the end of the Porfiriato, American investments were still overwhelmingly greater than either British or French..
Since the end of the 19th century, Limantour had taken a special interest in railways. His measures achieved that in 1907 the company Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México was created under state control..
Likewise, it also approved measures to better control public funds and their accounting..
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