COLONIAL DEPENDENCE BAD INTERCOMMUNICATION. 51 



Conde de Monterey in those colonies, the royal prohibitions were 

 repeated, with the addition of the following emphatic language : — 

 " Inasmuch as you understand perfectly, how much the observance 

 of these rules is necessary for the dependence of the colonies upon 

 the parent state, we charge and command you to see to their faithful 

 execution." Wine and oil, two of the most important products of 

 Spain, and two of the absolute necessaries of a Spaniard's life, 

 wherever he may happen to live, where thus protected from com- 

 petition, and formed the means of preserving the colonial vassal- 

 age. Nothing was left to the New World, therefore, either to manu- 

 facture extensively, or to cultivate, except some of the coarser 

 cotton cloths, for ordinary garments, or a sufficiency of the cerealia 

 for domestic consumption. It was necessary to preserve an equili- 

 brium or a reasonable ratio between the supply of food and the pro- 

 duction of the mines ; and thus the common agricultural and horti- 

 cultural home markets for the necessaries of life were alone left 

 unencumbered for the Mexicans. 



We are not aware that Spain encouraged, more than was abso- 

 lutely demanded for political ends, a system of internal improve- 

 ment by national roads, with lateral branches thridding and binding 

 together all parts of the country. Highways were opened and 

 horses and mules imported. But these were only suitable for the 

 internal transportation of the country ; and, even to the present 

 day, the whole of Mexico is traversed by miserable roads, whose 

 channels are often cut up into deep ravines by the unceasing attri- 

 tion of caravans. The stubborn but useful mules, moving about 

 the country in large bodies, under the guidance of Arrieros, follow 

 each other in single file over the same path for centuries, and there 

 is scarcely a highway in Mexico that is not worn by their footsteps 

 to the depth of several feet. Bad roads, royal restrictions, and the 

 want of transportation except by mules, all combined to impede 

 rural industry, waste the people's time, destroy internal intercourse, 

 and to force the consumption of agricultural products either upon 

 the spot where they grew or in its immediate neighborhood. The 

 independence of Mexico since 1824, has of course relieved the 

 nation from the foreign restrictions upon her commerce ; but the 

 agricultural habits of the people were not to be changed by a con- 

 stitution or industrial laws. Improved roads and improved modes 

 of transportation have scarcely been attempted by the modern re- 

 publicans. Constant revolutions have destroyed concert of action 

 among the people in the different states through which the new 

 highways would pass, at the same time that they have impaired 



