Wagon Trails to New Mexico

Sources

A Remote Economy . With comparatively few desirable commodities, and lacking precious metals, the New Mexican economy in the period from 1800 to 1860 remained fairly stagnant. The colony’s population grew but stayed quite low. Nevertheless, trade networks did exist on a North-South axis. The Spanish crown’s policy of tightly controlling commerce did little to help the economy of the northern frontier. By the time Chihuahuan traders transported manufactured goods north to distant New Mexico, the prices were extremely high. Before 1821 it was illegal for New Mexicans to trade with the Americans, English, or French. Not surprising, smuggling existed throughout Spain’s northern frontier; nevertheless, because of its isolation New Mexico generally remained distant from this black market despite the attempts of a few French traders. Overall, Spanish crown policies tended to discourage the formation of the kind of economic changes occurring in the English-speaking world. Thus, though the American economy boomed in the late 1700s and early 1800s, when Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1821, its economy was already weaker than that of the United States.

The Santa Fe Trail . Independence for Mexico meant the legal opening of New Mexican markets to outsiders. In 1821 William Becknell, a Missouri merchant, reached Santa Fe with American goods. By the end of the year two other wagon trains owned by American merchants entered the city. The famous Santa Fe Trail was born. It ran from eastern Missouri through Kansas and south into New Mexico. At first the Hispanics of New Mexico appreciated the Anglo merchants since these newcomers sold many desirable items; local customers particularly wanted clothing and household goods. The American wares were more numerous, more varied, and less expensive than those coming north from Chihuahua. As a result the route from Missouri to Santa Fe, traveled largely by Anglo entrepreneurs, thrived; but the good times failed to last. Declining profitability led Americans to travel south out of Santa Fe to trade with Chihuahua.

Tensions in the Region . Still, from the 1820s to the 1840s citizens of Mexico’s northern frontier relied heavily on U.S. goods. Soon northern Mexico entered the economic orbit of the United States. The Americans brought badly needed capital into the region. They financed and, in the end, largely benefited from the development of the fur trade and most new mining ventures. Yet the Anglos who brought all these wonderful goods did little to hide their racist sense of superiority, thereby creating tensions with longtime residents of the region.

American Dominance . In response to both the growing dependence on and the crude behavior of the Anglo merchants, the Mexican government passed restrictions and tariffs to encourage national economic strength. These laws tended to be piecemeal and far from enforceable. Anglos and New Mexicans alike often evaded them. The officials in Santa Fe were torn because they wanted a stronger territorial economy free from the Anglos, but they also desired goods that failed to arrive from Mexico; widespread smuggling and corruption resulted. Although Mexicans had a role in at least most aspects of the changing economy, American dominance continued into the 1840s.

The Threat to Mexico . In the long run, Mexico suffered from the Santa Fe Trail trade since this commerce discouraged economic development on its northern frontier. The presence of Americans in the Southwest boded ill for the Mexicans. Anglos moved into and eventually took Texas. Although New Mexico remained a part of Mexico until 1846, the many commercial ties between Missouri and Santa Fe facilitated the conquest of the region by the United States in the Mexican-American War.

Sources

David Weber, The Mexican Frontier: The American Southwest under Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982);

Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).