Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/45

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MEXICO IN 1827.
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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 the Capital, were not taken advantage of, because the government conceived that the mania for foreign investments in England would last forever; and when, in 1826, it perceived 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 principal 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 continued 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