Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/44

18 possible to construct a road sufficiently good to open a communication with the coast to the land-owners 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,