Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/44

 of the ground would rather favour than oppose the project ; but to the Kast, and West, the obstacles to be overcome are very serious. On the Eastern side, particularly, the descent from the Table-land is so precipitous, that it appears to me very questionable whether it be possible to construct a road sufficiently good to open a communication with the Coast to the landowners of the Table-land; I mean, such a communication as would enable them to bring their produce into the West Indian, or even the European market, at the same price as the flour from the United States. It is true, that from the extraordinary ratio of increase, and the lowness of wages in Mexico, a greater expense in conveyance might be borne; but as the Americans are already in possession of the market, that expense must be so far reduced, as to lower the price of Mexican wheat, in the first instance, to something below that, at which it can be offered by the farmers of Kentucky, and the Anglo-American Western States.

To ascertain, and accomplish this, (if practicable,) should be the great object of the Mexican government, as nothing could have so immediate an effect upon the general interests of the country. The vessels by which Mexico is now supplied with European manufactures, return in ballast, or obtain, with difficulty, a cargo of Campeche wood, or coffee ; in default of which, remittances are made in specie alone. Roads, if constructed with success, as Baron Humboldt, and many other scientific men, are of opinion that they may be, would give quite a different character to trade, by furnishing a mass.of raw produce for exportation, which would, at once, increase the consumption of the country, (by giving a value to property, which has now, comparatively, none,) and the advantages of the foreign merchant, by enabling him to invest his profits immediately in a second venture. Towards this, as yet, nothing has been done. The proposals made by foreign houses of respectability, in 1825, for the establishment of a line of roads between Vera Cruz and