Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/45

MEXICO. 15 the Capital, were not taken advantage of, because the govern^ ment conceived that the mania for foreign investments in England would last for ever; and when, in 1826, it per- ceived its error, no foreign capitalist would advance a shilling towards the attempt. With the exception, therefore, of some temporary improvements, made by the Real del Monte Company for the conveyance of its steam-engines, the prin- cipal communication with the coast is now in the same state as in 1815, when the great stone-causeway, built by the merchants of Vera Cruz in 1803, was destroyed by the Insurgents, in order to cut off the intercourse between the Peninsula, and the Spanish Authorities, and merchants, in the Capital. When this is thoroughly repaired, and con- tinued across the Table-land into the vicinity of the corn lands of La Puebla, it may be expected to produce a great change in the agricultural prosperity of the country, if the opinions of those, who think it possible to bring Mexican flour into the Havanna market, at a lower price than that of the United States, prove to be correct. I am myself inclined to question the probability of Mexico ever finding a source of wealth in the exportation of her Cerealia, or, as it would be termed in the United States, her bread stuffs ; and this, not from any deficiency in the power of producing, to almost any extent, but from the want of a market for the produce when raised. The consumption of the West In- dian Islands is extremely limited, and most European nations have been endeavouring, for some years, to render themselves independent of external supplies, by growing a sufficiency of corn for home consumption. The effects which have been produced already by this system upon the United States, prove how little reliance Mexico can place upon the foreign market. The exports of bread stuffs from the United States, amounted, in 1817, to 20,388,000 dollars; in 1821, to 5,296,000, (vide Mellish's United States ;) and the conse- quence of this sudden falling off would have been inevitable