Welcome to the Republic of the Rio Grande.

Episode 4, the Constitution of 1824.

I'm Brandon Seal.

By 1824, Antonio Zapata was wealthier than he had ever had any reason to hope to be.

In a violent, classist, and turbulent time,

he had still managed to rise up by the sweat of his brow, and yet most of those around him

were as poor as they had ever been, because the war of Mexican independence had been economically

devastating. Quoting historian Timothy Anna, quote,

Between 1806 and 1823,

Mexican government revenue fell from 39 million pesos to 5.4 million.

Between 1809, coinage of silver fell from 24.7 million to 7.6 million.

And exports fell from 20 million pesos in 1800 to $5 million in 1825, end quote.

Which is to say that across Mexico, economic activity had collapsed about 75 to 80% over the previous

decade. And for reference, the U.S. economy only contracted something

like 30 percent during the Great Depression, and recovered that in the course of 10 or 15 years.

In some ways, Mexico would never recover from the damage of its war of independence.

Quoting Timothy Anna again, quote, Mexico's gross domestic product per capita fell from roughly half that of the United States in 1800 to less than one seventh by 1860, end quote.

In real terms, this depressed livestock prices and the general volume of trade that men like Antonio Zapata depended on.

Of course, livestock prices and trade volumes were mostly outside the control of men and governments. But things like tariff duties definitely weren't.

And what had all the fight for independence been about if the Rio Grande Via's most significant grievance remained unaddressed?

Because tariff duties, even after independence,

still remained offensively high, only now they went to finance a central government in Mexico

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