SANTA FE Special History Study

¹Without money there are no troops, and without them there is no doubt that my province is in danger. . .There have been some wicked dissidents who in my province are spreading rumors that it would be better for it [my province] to join the United States. José Rafael Alarid, MANM, roll 3 # 1068-69.

²New Mexicans were quite serious about autonomy. In 1822 electors from fourteen alcaldías (municipal districts) met in Santa Fe and elected seven vocales (representatives) to serve in the diputación (delegation to representative body). There was no authorization to do this, nevertheless these representatives met on a regular basis for over a year until the Mexican Congress formally sanctioned their existence, Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 19.

³El Fanal, Jan 6, 1835, pp. 5-6.

⁴Hira de Gortari Rabiela, "La minería durante la guerra de independencia y los primeros años del México independiente, 1810-1824," in The Independence of Mexico and the Creation of the New Nation, ed. by Jaime E. Rodríguez O. (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publication, 1989), 129-161. According to Lucas Alamán average silver production between 1815 and 1820 fluctuated between six and eleven million pesos, cited in Rabiela "La minería durante la guerra de la independencia," 145; Stanley C. Green, The Mexican Republic: The First Decade, 1823-1832 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987), shows that in the 1820s the value of silver production averaged 8.3 million pesos, but between 1822 and 1827 the mean dropped to 3.8 million, 112-113, 128-129.

⁵Lenders could charge an interest rate of 3 percent a month because capital had disappeared. Two thirds of it had been the property of the gachupines, many of whom had returned to Spain taking their money with them, and the remainder—accused of conspiring to restore Spanish authority—were to be expelled in 1829, Harold Dana Sims, The Expulsion of Mexico's Spaniards, 1821-1836 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990), 38-41, 136-138, 152-153; José María Quiroz set the amount of capital flight at 786 million pesos, cited in Barbara A. Tenebaum, "Taxation and Tyranny: Public Finance during the Iturbide Regime, 1821-1823," in The Independence of Mexico and the Creation of the New Nation, ed. by Jaime E. Rodríguez O. (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publication, 1989), 203. Government expenditures were often twice the revenue. Between 1821 and 1868 government income averaged ten and a half million pesos, its expenses seventeen and a half, Parkes, A History of Mexico, 178-179; Cumberland, Mexico, 136-145.

⁶Charles A. Hale, Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1821-1853 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), 254-257; Cumberland, Mexico, 169.

⁷Albert William Bork, "Nuevos aspectos del comercio entre Nuevo Méjico y Misuri, 1822-1846," unpublished dissertation, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1944, 11-12; Cumberland, Mexico, 170-171; Green, The Mexican Republic, 115.

⁸MANM, roll 1 # 703-705.

⁹Green, The Mexican Republic, 135; Bork, "Nuevos aspectos," 11-12.

¹⁰Green, The Mexican Republic, 134-135; Hale Mexican Liberalism, 255.

¹¹Hale, Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 257, 268-277. Taxation of foreign trade presented two major problems which promoted conflict and instability—supervision of collections and international trade fluctuations. First, given the high cost of transportation in nineteenth-century Mexico, the ports and border crossings were relatively far from the capital and other centers of population. If high costs of supervising the collection of foreign trade taxes allowed customs officials to pilfer from the treasury, the national government's dependence on trade taxes collected in the periphery threatened the government's fiscal basis The national government's main source of income was highly vulnerable to dissidents who found it easy to appropriate custom revenues to pay their own supporters. Second, dependence on taxation of foreign trade meant that revenues were subject to the vicissitudes of economic fluctations as well. With total revenues largely dependent on international trade fluctuations and business cycles, a decline in foreign trade produced government revenue shortfalls; Donald Fithian Stevens, Origins of Instability in Early Republican Mexico (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991), 12, 17-18.

¹²Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies, 13-44; Twitchell, Leading Facts, vol. II, 103; Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 125-26; Michael L. Olsen and Harry C. Myers, "The Diary of Pedro Ignacio Gallego Wherein 499 Soldiers Following the Trail of Comanches Met William Becknell on his First Trip to Santa Fe," Wagons Tracks: Santa Fe Trail Association Quarterly (November 1992), 1, 15-20.

¹³Cited in Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 128.

¹⁴Moorhead, The Royal Road, 195-196.

¹⁵The Franklin Intelligencer, May 8, 1824, page 2, col. 3.

¹⁶The Franklin Intelligencer, June 18, 1825; the same concerns were expressed in the November 4 issue, p 3; David Lavender, Bent's Fort (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1954), 61-64.

¹⁷MANM, roll 6 # 459-471; for Beaubien's guía, see # 469-470; for Wilson's, see # 471; in 1831 James Harrison received a guía for 30,000 yards of cloth, close to 150 dozen shoes, 22 dozens socks, silk, scarves, ribbons, combs, hairpieces, mirrors, hair pins, parasols, lace, belts, thread, knives, pocket knives, razors, snaps, saws, files, scissors, tin boxes, soap boxes, inkstands, ink, stoneware, crystal, shawls, threads for sewing and embroidery, thimbles, needles, paper, cinnamon, and many others. For a comparison between earlier and later guías see MANM, roll 4 # 1213-28; roll 7 # 743-757; roll 8 # 1341-1353; roll 10 # 367-382; roll 12 # 1133-1160; roll 14 # 176-319; roll 15 # 1018-1043; roll 17 # 1108-1123.

¹⁸The cuadernos (notebooks) de guías for 1826-1828 identify the specific amount of duties paid by each merchant, MANM, roll 6 # 472-514. Other cuadernos failed to record the duties exacted. The Aduana (custom house) records show that by 1835 in addition to the derecho de consumo custom officials were collecting derecho de reserva and derecho de alcabala, but the actual rates were not indicated, only the actual sums collected, MANM, roll 21 # 135; James Josiah Webb, Adventures in the Santa Fe Trade, 1844-1847 (Glendale, California: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1931), 80-84; Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies, 79-80, 265-268.

¹⁹Tenebaum, "Taxation and Tyranny", 201-214.

²⁰Green, The Mexican Republic, 135-138; Bork, "Nuevos Aspectos," 40-47. It should also be noted that the mark-up of 100 or 120 percent was not unusual; see Chapter IV for a look at contraband and Chapter V for a discussion of the rates wholesale merchants charged retailers.

²¹For example, there were eight different types of wines identified in the tariff of 1822 and each one was assigned a different duty; it would have been difficult for custom officials to have enforced such a variety of duties had they been the same throughout the period, but both the duties assessed and the categories of wines changed periodically, MANM, roll 1 # 724-725; Weber, Mexican Frontier, 149. Excessive regulation of products, like tobacco, also continued to be the rule, MANM, roll 1 # 565-568.

²²Before 1830 only those New Mexicans carrying foreign merchandise had to obtain guías, MANM, roll 10 # 513-574.

²³Beginning in 1826 local customs officials at Santa Fe kept cuadernos (notebooks) where they recorded most of the information from the guías issued. The cuadernos provide the most accurate account of the names of the merchants, muleteers, guarantors, the type and value of the goods traded south, and their destination. Some guías were not registered in the cuadernos. Many have been lost. Still these documents contain excellent sources for the study of the commercial activities associated with the Santa Fe trail before the Mexican War; David Sandoval's "Trade and the Manito Society," was the first attempt to analyze the role of New Mexicans through the study of guías; Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, ed. by Max L. Moorhead (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954), 265-267; Moorhead, New Mexico's Royal Road, 139; Susan Calafate Boyle, "Comerciantes, Fiadores, Arrieros, y Peones: The Hispanos in the Santa Fe Trail," paper delivered at the Santa Fe Trail Association Symposium, Arrow Rock, Missouri, September 27, 1992. Customs officials were expected to follow extremely complex procedures following the arrival of caravans from the United States. For the instructions issued to the Taos administrators, see MANM, roll 4 # 776-778.

²⁴Starting in 1831 the customs office at Santa Fe began to record the foreign merchandise introduced by all merchants. It is not clear if officials were required to do so, but in general these documents lack the consistency of the guías and are often missing, MANM, roll 14 # 182-187; roll 21 # 142-271; roll 28 # 730-760; roll 32 # 1598-1610; roll 34 # 1171-1210; roll 41 # 811-815; for Parkman's manifest, see MANM, roll 14 # 182-187; for his guía, see MANM, roll 14 # 243-249.

²⁵MANM, roll 1 # 724-725. At times New Mexicans were unwilling to perform their jobs according to the legal stipulations, and authorities in Mexico City were forced to insist that proper procedures be followed, MANM, roll 17 # 762-793. With the exception of tornaguías, which were issued in other custom houses, there is no evidence that regular communications were maintained with either terrestrial or maritime customs.

²⁶Requests for additional revenues became quite regular as political instability and conflict within Mexico increased; MANN, roll 1 # 1098-1099, roll 3 # 758-759; roll 12 # 1091; roll 22 # 940, roll 23 # 592, roll 24 # 663, 671, 674, roll 25 # 820, roll 26 # 336, roll 30 # 669, roll 38 # 608.

²⁷"La miseria de estas gentes llega a tal grado que me consta que ya se han comenzado a alimentarse con cueros de reses," MANM, roll 1 # 1098-1099.

²⁸"Extrañan muchísimo no saber para que se dirigen estas contribuciones tan anuales," MANM roll 3 # 758-759.

²⁹Daniel Tyler, "The Personal Property of Manuel Armijo, 1829," El Palacio 80 (Fall 1974), 45-48.

³⁰MANM, roll 22 # 940-976, 982-983.

³¹Manuel Armijo wrote to Pérez on May 16 and May 21, 1837 advising him that Mariano Chávez only had 600 pesos in cash and would be unable to meet his 1,500 pesos assessment, MANM, roll 23 # 353, 360, 592-96; Janet Lecompte, Rebellion in Rio Arriba, 1837 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1985), 11-21.

³²MANM, roll 17 # 645. Concern about the dire economic circumstances which they faced appear in many documents, see MANM, roll 17 # 743-746, 747-754, 755-57, 762-764, 774-776.

³³MANM, roll 22 # 1075. There are numerous examples of public employees receiving their salaries months after they were due, MANM, roll 22 # 1061, 1079, 1082.

³⁴MANM, roll 21 # 568.

³⁵MANM, roll 22 # 1035, 1096, 1097, 1098; roll 24 # 663, 671, 674-75; roll 26 # 336-341; roll 25 # 820-849; roll 30 # 669; roll 38 # 608; in 1836 American Thomas Rowland lent the New Mexico treasury almost 1,000 pesos to pay for uniforms for the troops, MANM, roll 22 # 1096; subcomisario Francisco Sarracino provided almost 5,000 pesos to pay for officials' salaries and supplies for the troops, MANM, roll 22 # 1097, 1098; but the records show that in general New Mexican ricos contributed a substantial portion of these funds, roll 24 # 663, 674-675.

³⁶MANM Roll 22 # 1091-1092.

³⁷MANM, roll 21 # 847-852; Daniel Tyler, "The Mexican Teacher," Red River Valley Historical Review 1 (1974), 207-221.

³⁸MANM, roll 1 # 1475-1481; roll 3 # 219-285. Some of the census information is not reliable. The documents show a lot of errors in adding the reported figures; they often contain blank categories and some of the information is suspect. It is also not clear from the census if those who listed themselves as teachers were actually working in that capacity.

³⁹MANM, roll 7 # 2-5, 52. There is no record of any action on the part of officials in Mexico City to address educational issues in New Mexico.

⁴⁰MANM, roll 19 # 646-48; Weber, Mexican Frontier, 111-114; Lecompte, Rebellion in Rio Arriba, 9-10.

⁴¹Lecompte, Rebellion in Rio Arriba, 10. Pino noted that some men were ruined in a single campaign trading their clothing for ammunition or selling their children into peonage to perform their military duty, Exposición, 227.

⁴²MANM, roll 23 # 705-710; Baxter, Las Carneradas, 92-95; Frank D. Reeve, ed., "The Charles Bent Papers," New Mexico Historical Review 30 (1955), 344, 348-350.

⁴³Weber, Mexican Frontier, 92.

⁴⁴These patterns appear to have been equally applicable to many other regions along the northern Mexican frontier, Weber, Mexican Frontier, 94-95; for growing tensions between foreigners and New Mexicans see MANM roll 23 # 406-409, 622-23.

⁴⁵MANM, roll 1 # 260-261.

⁴⁶MANM, roll 6 # 947.

⁴⁷For examples of Navajo stealing see MANM, roll 5 # 491, 574-576.

⁴⁸MANM, roll 9, # 627, 632, 654, 658, 665, 834-835, 866-868; roll 10, # 941.

⁴⁹MANM, roll 9, # 805-806, 815-816, 831-833.

⁵⁰MANM, roll 9, # 1083-1112.

⁵¹MANM, roll 13 # 481, 559-583, 600.

⁵²MANM, roll 14 # 975-978.

⁵³MANM, roll 18 # 356.

⁵⁴MANM, roll 21 # 660-682; roll 38 # 540.

⁵⁵MANM roll 22 # 772-800, 809-826, lists of men eligible for the militia between the ages of 14 and 60 and they often indicated the type of weapons they had available. In 1836 many of them showed flechas (arrows). Officials also published lists of men who had to march with the regular troops in the campaign against the Indians.

⁵⁶MANM, roll 5 # 1322-1325; roll 8 # 387-438, 440-503.

⁵⁷The wording of the petition by Andrés Archuleta is, "como siempre ha sido estilo," MANM, roll 27 # 1031, roll 41 # 548-551; Swadesh, Los Primeros Pobladores, 62-63; Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 281; Simmons, Spanish Government, 185.

⁵⁸"Sin dinero no hay tropas y faltando éstas está fuera de duda que peligra mi provincia," MANM, roll 3 # 1068.

⁵⁹"No han faltado disidentes malvados que en mi provincia andan diseminando la especie de que le estaría mejor agregarse a los Estados Unidos del Norte," MANM, roll 3 # 1069.

⁶⁰MANM, roll 3 # 1071-1074. There is no record of the extent of the funds, if any, released by this authorization.

⁶¹The letter was signed by Juan Diego Sena, Antonio Sena, and Francisco Baca y Ortiz, MANM roll 4 # 702-704. For a concise discussion of the problems which plagued the judicial system, see Weber, Mexican Frontier, 37-40.

⁶²Letter signed by A. Armijo in 1828 stresses the "hambre y miseria a que se hallan reducidos estos habitantes," (the hunger and misery to which the inhabitants have been reduced) MANM, roll 7 # 1181; for Pino's letter see MANM, roll 8 # 1119-1126. For continuous problems with the judicial system, see Weber, Mexican Frontier, 37-40.

⁶³MANM, roll 9 # 1142-1143. There is no record of official acknowledgement of Alarid's request.

⁶⁴MANM, roll 13 # 601, 613.

⁶⁵MANM, roll 13 # 393-394, 601, 613, 630-642; it is not clear why this plan never received much attention; Santiago Abreu, the jefe político at the time decided to archivar (archive) the project, MANM, roll 13 # 642.

⁶⁶MANM, roll 13 # 635.

⁶⁷MANM, roll 23 # 705-710.

⁶⁸El Fanal, p. 56 Jan 6, 1835, "Dijimos en el aríiculo de que se trata después de quejarnos de esta indiferencia, que el Estado por conservarse rompería los vínculos que lo unen con la Nación Mexicana y se uniría a la República del Norte para salir de la abyección a que lo tiene reducido la guerra de los bárbaros y el abandono del Gobierno general." El Fanal was published between September 29, 1834 and September 22, 1835. Many of its editorials were quite critical of the central government and the paper was closed as a result. El Noticioso, the newspaper that replaced El Fanal explained in its editorial of October 2, 1835, the reasons for the closure. Rejoicing at the demise of the "subversive" El Fanal, "pues los editores de aquel periódico a fuerza de presentar al Supremo's general ante sus conciudadanos como un padrastro cruel, acaso alguna vez conseguirián alarmar a estos pacíficos paisanos. Las incesantes declamaciones de EL Fanal eran reducidas a persuadir que el alto gobierno no atiende con igual zelo al centro de la República que a sus extremos, no advirtiendo o afectando no advertir que si no sobran los recursos para exninguir la guerra desoladora que nos aflige, es porque tampoco hay los suficientes para cubrir las vastas asenciones que pesan sobre el erario federal. Hace el Gobierno supremo. . . cuanto está en la esfera de su posibilidad para asender a aquel objeto y por consiguiente exigirle más de un modo irritante es procurar el trastorno del orden; más los señores redactors de El Fanal jamás tomaron en consideración la crítica posición del gobierno para denostarlo casi en todos sus números, porque no ha disuelto como al humo a las hordas de los salvajes: lejos de esto incitan a la rebelión invocando principios del derecho público con que alucinan a los incautos." (The editors of that newspaper trying to depict the Supreme Government before the citizenry as a cruel stepfather, perhaps they would manage to alarm the peaceful countrymen. The never-ending declamations of El Fanal were limited to persuade the people that the government does not pay equal attention to the edges of the Republic than to its center, not noticing or pretending not to notice that if there are not enough resources to extinguish the devastating war that afflicts us, is because there are insufficient fund to cover the vast number of responsibilities that have to be taken care by the public treasury. The government does everything that is possible to take care of this and as a result to demand more in an irritating fashion in to look for upheaval and disorder; but the editors of El Fanal never took in consideration the critical situation of the government and insulted it in every issue because it has not dissolved as smoke the savage; far from this they [editors] incite a rebellion invoking the principles of public right with which they hallucinate the innocent).

⁶⁹El Fanal, p. 56, Jan 6, 1835.

⁷⁰Thomas Chavez, "The Trouble with Texas: Manuel Alvarez and the 1841 'Invasion.'" New Mexico Historical Review 53 (1978): 133-144.