The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 235

Explanation by Stephen F. Austin.

235

and independence of the republic, for it will increase industry and
agriculture in all sections, particularly as to those products adapted
for export.
At the present time the exports of the republic are reduced to little
more than gold and silver, whence it follows that the Mexicans are
the miners for other nations. Let such a state of affairs change;
let the imports be paid for with agricultural products such as sugar,
cotton, indigo, cocoa, etc.; let mining unite with flourishing agri-
culture, and in a few years Mexico will present an interesting pic-
ture of wealth and prosperity hitherto unknown to the world.
Commerce by land from the ports of Texas to the interior of the
republic presents advantages almost equal to the coast trade, since
that country is level and very well adapted for highways to Mon-
clova and the other towns of Coahuila, to El Paso del Norte in the
state of Chihuahua, and to New Mexico. It is worthy of note that
every year about two million pesos' worth of merchandise enters New
Mexico and Chihuahua from Missouri across more than four hun-
dred leagues of desert. This commerce from Missouri is entirely
outside the course which the geopraphical situation of the country
and nature itself has marked out; the ports of Texas were evi-
dently designed for it. There is no difficulty in opening highways
from Texas to the state of Chihuahua and to New Mexico, whose
length would not be half the actual distance over which merchandize
from Missouri is now transported, and they would pass throughout
their whole extent within Mexican territory by the way of the in-
terior of Texas, which can be settled and would afford abundant
means for facilitating the transportation. The work of opening
these roads is certainly of the greatest importance, since it would
change the course of the commerce that now comes from Misouri
from that foreign country to the Mexican ports of Texas, and con-
sequently all the advantages from the payments for freight and
transportation would pass from the freighters of Missouri to Mex-
ican citizens; it would increase the income of the maritime custom-
houses; it would distribute merchandize to the inhabitants of the
interior at less cost than [if brought by the other route] from Mis-
souri, on account of the reduction of the distance and of the expenses
of transportation; it would attract settlers to the vast uninhabited
districts of the interior, because of the advantage of establishing