Conflict and Commerce on the Rio Grande: Laredo, 1755 – 1955

Abstract

Each year, thousands of trucks and billions of dollars in commerce cross the Rio Grande into the United States at Laredo. The second oldest chartered settlement in Texas has become one of the busiest ports of entry along the southern border, if not the busiest. The transformation of Laredo from a sleepy town on the far northern frontier of Spanish settlement in the Americas into a vital trade link between two of the principal participants in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is the focus of this detailed study by John A. Adams Jr. The author, who earned a doctoral degree in history, spent many years as the executive director of the Laredo Development Foundation. This shows in his focus on Laredo’s business history, though never to the complete exclusion of the social and political context. The result is a well-written and affectionate look at how international commerce created today’s Laredo.The villa of Laredo was chartered in 1755 at a well-known ford across the Rio Grande. Spanish Laredo was dominated by ranching because a lack of money, credit, and roads hampered long-distance trade. Development was also hindered by Spanish restrictions on commerce and the absence of banks. The primary change under Mexican rule was the easing of laws against free trade, but the other problems continued and were even exacerbated by the imposition of onerous taxes. Cattle still provided more income than any other product, trade remained local, and smuggling undermined plans to expand legal commerce. Schemes such as the stillborn Republic of the Rio Grande, for which Laredo served briefly as capital, provided little relief, while the Benavides family emerged as the leaders of efforts to keep the community from disappearing.Real change began with the arrival of the United States Army in 1846, led ironically by Mirabeau B. Lamar, who as president of the Republic of Texas had failed to enforce that short-lived nation’s claims to peripheral areas such as Laredo. New faces and army facilities brought slow growth, which was little affected by Mexican leaders’ declaration of a zona libre along the Rio Grande. What brought an explosion in trade was the Civil War, especially in 1863 when the Confederates were forced to use inland ports such as Laredo to ship cotton to Mexico after Union forces occupied Brownsville. Santos Bena-vides and his brothers repulsed Federal raiders and profited from the border trade, which lapsed after 1865 as commerce returned to more familiar prewar patterns.As Reconstruction came to an end in Texas, and concerns about raids by Indians and Juan Cortina faded, Laredo embraced the future by welcoming a railroad. By late 1881 the town was linked to the outside world through San Antonio to the north and, soon afterward, Mexico City to the south. Trade between the United States and Mexico exploded under Porfirio Díaz, and the population of Laredo more than tripled in the 1880s. Nearby coal mines opened to supply the rail companies, and onions surpassed cattle in profits as farmers around Laredo became the top producers in the United States. The Mexican Revolution caused some brief disruptions, but by 1915 Laredo had recov ered. It continued to grow through the 1920s as oil and gas replaced coal and onions in the local economy. And through it all, commerce across the border continued to increase.World War II brought new military installations and more millions of dollars in trade to Laredo. The army posts later closed, but oil, gas, and transport remained strong in the city that had become a primary point for transborder shipping. Maquiladoras and eventually NAFTA simply reinforced a pattern that was already well established by 1955, the author’s chronological stopping point.The text is supported by many illustrations, an extensive bibliography and annotations, a glossary, useful appendices on many topics, and charts providing information that ranges from essential to quirky. It is evident that the author is not a military historian or an expert in social history. It is puzzling that he ignores the rebellion led by José María de Jesús Carvajal during the early 1850s on the lower Rio Grande, and certainly other military unrest in the region must have had a greater impact on Laredo. Nonetheless, anyone interested in commerce along the border, the colorful history of the Rio Grande region, or the impact of the convoluted economic relationship between the United States and Mexico will find much of value in this book. Laredo’s story, properly told, is complex, and the author did a good job of distilling it into a useful narrative from a business perspective.