After recovering the assets from Don Sebastián’s enormous estate, we traveled through several other estates in the Puebla region, securing as much property as possible.
‘There’s so much grain that some of it is literally rotting.’
It took us five days to return to Mexico City.
There weren’t enough horses, so the soldiers had to pull many of the carts themselves.
‘And the carts kept breaking down or getting damaged.
What a complete disaster.’
We even had to cut down trees along the way to repair damaged carts or build replacements.
‘At least no idiots tried to rob us on the road.
I suppose I should be grateful for that.’
After all those hardships, we finally reached Mexico City.
Hundreds of carts had already gathered outside the capital.
They carried goods recovered from confiscated estates all across Mexico.
“They’re building new warehouses too.”
“Yes.
It seems we’re going to need a great deal of storage space, especially since we can’t immediately sell everything and turn it into cash.”
Before independence, Mexico—then New Spain—naturally used Spanish currency, particularly the real and the Spanish dollar worth eight reales.
Mexico would later issue its own peso under a decimal system, but immediately after the War of Independence, the country was still trapped in a chaotic transition.
Currency circulation was poor, and the economy was a mess.
Colonel Fernando kept his earlier promise.
He had the soldiers remove even their uniforms and boots for inspection, and he personally examined the officers with almost frightening thoroughness.
Once the recovered goods had been unloaded into temporary warehouses, I went to report to Father.
Colonel Fernando informed Agustín I about our clash with General Javier at Don Sebastián’s estate.
“What?
Someone actually tried to divert the confiscated property?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Agustín I frowned.
“If someone sent a messenger immediately after my speech, that would explain how they moved so quickly.
But the real question is who leaked the information.
Colonel Fernando, investigate this thoroughly.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.
I’ll make certain we discover where the information came from.”
Agustín I then turned to me.
“I told you to take cover if a battle broke out.
Instead, I hear you killed the enemy commander with a cannon?”
“…I wasn’t the one who fired it.
Lieutenant Manuel aimed the cannon.
I merely watched.”
“According to the report, Lieutenant Manuel intended to fire at the enemy soldiers, but you suggested that since the enemy was close enough, he should aim for their commander instead.
Is that true?”
“…Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Then you deserve credit as well.
If the battle had continued, it would have lasted much longer and our casualties would have been far worse.
Isn’t that right, Colonel Fernando?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.
If not for His Highness’s decision, the enemy’s casualties would have been devastating, and our own losses would likely have been so severe that we might not have had enough men left to recover the property.”
“Exactly.
Then you’ll be rewarded alongside Lieutenant Manuel.
Colonel Fernando, there will be decorations and rewards for the officers who distinguished themselves during this operation.
Make sure they’re informed.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!
Thank you!”
Colonel Fernando finished his report and withdrew.
Once he was gone, I asked Agustín I how he intended to use the assets we had secured.
I was worried he might pour everything into the army or use it all at once to pay down the foreign debt.
“Father, how do you plan to use the funds we’ve secured?”
“For now, I’m paying the overdue salaries of government officials and soldiers.
At first, I intended to wait until all the confiscated property arrived and the records were organized so everything could be settled at once.
But we’re already running out of warehouse space.
“So I decided to pay the arrears while the officials catalog the property and the soldiers manage the warehouses.
Don’t worry.
I’ve entrusted those duties to people loyal to me.”
‘It looks like he’s handling this well.’
“And after all the overdue salaries are paid and the property is organized?
What do you plan to do with what remains?”
Agustín I ruffled my hair.
He no longer looked at me as though I were the irresponsible eldest son he remembered.
There was trust in his eyes now.
“Why?
Do you have another suggestion?
I was planning to keep the officials employed so we can normalize the administration and properly manage the recovered assets.
What do you think?”
‘It seems I underestimated Agustín I.’
“I think that’s a good plan.
But we should be careful with the silver.
We should restart silver mining and use the metal to mint currency.
I’ve heard that the shortage of circulating money is preventing the economy from functioning properly.
If we still have funds left after that, we could purchase silver mines.”
“Hmm… Currency, you say.
I intended to deal with that later, but now that you mention it, we have the resources to begin immediately.”
As long as the government possessed enough precious metal to mint coins, putting currency back into circulation would not be an impossible task.
***
“…In recognition of his achievements during this operation, Colonel Fernando Cortés Mendoza is hereby awarded the Order of the Eagle and promoted by one rank.”
Agustín I distributed medals, promotions, and modest monetary rewards to those who had participated in the confiscation operation.
Because the operation had been led primarily by officers loyal to Agustín I, most of the recipients belonged to the royalist camp.
‘He’s strengthening his control over the army almost effortlessly.’
The mass promotion of royalist officers pushed republican officers—already increasingly marginalized within the military—even further aside.
Those without particularly strong republican convictions began approaching the royalists and quietly changing sides.
Some officers who remained committed republicans chose to resign after watching younger subordinates receive the same rank as them or even surpass them.
‘Now that the overdue wages have been paid and bonuses distributed, support among the soldiers is extremely high.
At least the central army is firmly under Father’s control.’
Some men had been promoted by two ranks, including Manuel, now a major, because of their outstanding performance in combat during the operation.
And there had been plenty of fighting.
The enemies ranged from commanders of local forces to the bandits infesting Mexico during this period, and even wealthy landowners who mobilized their workers to resist confiscation.
Although the central army won every engagement, it still failed to recover all the targeted assets.
At many estates far from Mexico City, the owners managed to flee with their valuables before the troops arrived, leaving behind empty warehouses.
Our soldiers could not all travel on horseback, while the messengers leaking information rode alone and moved much faster.
Anyone capable of dispatching a messenger immediately after hearing Father’s speech was probably already wealthy and well connected.
‘Damn thieves.’
I was grinding my teeth over the stolen property when my own name was called.
“…Agustín Jerónimo de Iturbide is hereby awarded the Order of the Eagle and a monetary reward.”
I was among those decorated, officially because I had played an important role in the largest battle of the operation.
Since I wasn’t actually serving as a military officer, Agustín I couldn’t promote me, so he compensated by giving me a generous monetary reward.
‘He really does favor me because I’m his eldest son.’
The decoration ceremony was held with considerable pomp in the Zócalo.
To the public, it served as proof that the confiscation of peninsular property had succeeded and, more importantly, that the government was finally doing something.
The citizens enjoyed the spectacle.
Republican deputies in Congress objected to the medals and rewards, but their protests were ignored.
The army had already received its overdue wages and firmly supported the Emperor, while conservative deputies backed the awards.
“Your Highness, thanks to you, I received a reward I hardly deserve.
You have my gratitude.”
After the ceremony, Major Manuel approached me to offer his thanks.
“It was nothing, Major.
Thanks to your accurate cannon shot, I received a generous reward too.
If anything, I should be thanking you.”
“No, Your Highness.
It was only because you ordered us to aim for the enemy commander.”
“Hahaha.”
***
“This is a perfect three-for-one.”
Mexico had another political conflict every bit as important as the rivalry between royalists—or conservatives—and republicans.
It was the struggle between federalists, who wanted decentralized government, and centralists, who wanted stronger authority concentrated in the national government.
There were a few centralists among the republicans, but they were a minority.
Most republicans were federalists.
Although they had been influenced by the liberal and republican ideas that emerged from France, these men were hardly members of the lower classes.
Many were powerful regional leaders representing local interests, and they were often closely connected to local military commanders.
Marriages like that of my mother—the daughter of a wealthy landowning family—and Agustín I, who had been a young military officer at the time, were quite common in this era.
During the investigation into General Javier’s attempt to loot Don Sebastián’s estate, one of the local officers under his command broke when offered leniency in exchange for information.
He revealed the source of the leak.
“A republican deputy sent a man to his son-in-law immediately after His Majesty’s speech.
He provided a list of exiled landowners and urged them to hide their assets as quickly as possible.”
The revelation was explosive.
There was a major difference between merely passing along information and directly ordering people to divert property that the government was preparing to seize.
Congress had convened about an hour after the speech because it took time to gather all 201 deputies.
That single hour had been enough for people to act.
Agustín I wanted severe punishment immediately, but I saw an opportunity.
I approached the accused deputy and offered him a deal: if he revealed the names of other deputies who had done the same thing, he could avoid prison.
Similar situations surfaced several times.
In the end, twenty-nine of the 201 deputies were discovered to have participated in such schemes.
They were stripped of office and fined enormous sums—nearly the value of their entire fortunes—under the justification of recovering stolen state property.
Except for a handful who managed to reach judicial settlements, most were facing imprisonment.
‘When the laws are still this vague, you can get away with measures like this.’
“There were nine conservative deputies among them as well.”
“There were probably more, but we have no way to catch them.”
Those exposed were mostly people who had conspired with others.
Anyone who acted alone couldn’t be betrayed by another deputy, so there was no easy way to uncover them.
And there had been far more than twenty-nine estates with mysteriously empty warehouses.
Many people had probably hidden the evidence successfully.
“There’s nothing we can do about that.
Still, this incident should accelerate the issuance of new currency.”
“That’s right.”
The minting of new silver coins was already progressing smoothly.
Mexico had possessed technicians and facilities for minting silver coinage since the colonial era, so restarting production did not take long.
Using silver confiscated from estates, silver ore from mines, and newly refined metal, the government began minting coins bearing the face of Agustín I.
Ordinarily, a newly introduced currency might struggle to gain public trust.
But the government now held vast quantities of property and silver that could support the currency’s value, so the coins entered circulation without much difficulty.
The real problem was the limited supply of silver.
That meant it could purchase additional silver mines.
‘Good.
It’s finally time to bring up the real issue.’
“Father, I’d like to discuss the ‘request’ I mentioned before.”
“Of course.
I promised I would grant your request if the confiscation succeeded.
What do you want?”
“I want to colonize the northwestern territories.”
At this time, most of Mexico’s population lived on the Mexican Plateau.
Territories such as Texas and California were nominally recognized as parts of Mexico, inherited from New Spain, but they had never been properly settled or integrated.
‘I obviously can’t tell him I’m going to California to look for gold, so I’ll have to be subtle.’
“The northwestern territories?
You mean Alta California?”
“Yes.
It’s an enormous part of the Mexican Empire, and I’ve heard the climate is excellent.
Yet it hasn’t been properly colonized.
I want to change that.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.
Do you understand how far away that land is?
Just reaching it would take four to six months.
As Crown Prince, you’d be better off spending that time on something useful.
You’re intelligent.
Why not study instead?
I’ll send you to any school you want.”
‘I don’t want to go either.’
It wasn’t as though I was chasing some romantic dream of the Gold Rush.
California was far too distant for that kind of fantasy.
The straight-line distance from Mexico City to Sacramento—one of the future centers of the Gold Rush—was roughly three thousand kilometers.
Even walking forty kilometers every day would take seventy-five days.
But no one could travel in a straight line.
We would have to make detours, stop for supplies, rest, and deal with terrain.
Realistically, the journey would take about five months.
Even so, I had a reason to go.
‘I don’t have many options.’
With my civil-engineering knowledge, I couldn’t simply demand massive infrastructure projects when present-day Mexico didn’t even have the necessary legal framework.
Nor could I casually persuade Father to reform the entire country or launch industrialization.
The conservatives supporting Agustín I would fiercely oppose it.
Industrialization required enormous amounts of labor, which inevitably encouraged urbanization.
‘Peasants leaving the countryside is exactly the kind of thing that terrifies landowners.
The republicans are still active.
Alienating the conservatives too would be insanity.’
Was I supposed to sit around studying until adulthood while the damned Yankees colonized the West at full speed?
That would be suicide.
I needed to accomplish something during those years, even if it meant “wasting” time traveling through distant territory.
So I adjusted my argument.
“If we establish firm sovereignty over California, it will be extremely valuable.
The Americans have been expanding westward ever since the Louisiana Purchase.
“If we leave those lands empty, American settlers will move in and eventually claim the territory belongs to them.
Then the United States government will use their presence as an excuse to pressure us.
“I’ve heard Americans are already entering Texas.
If we do nothing, we’re going to have trouble.”
“Then the government should organize the colonization, not you.”
‘I’d love that too!
What wouldn’t I give to stay here, send someone else to mine the gold, and have them bring it back to me?’
But would that actually work?
No one believed California contained that much gold.
And even if someone discovered it, would they honestly mine it and faithfully hand it over?
‘I certainly wouldn’t if I were just an employee.’
“If you propose colonizing California as a national policy, the deputies will oppose it.
The conservatives won’t like it either.
“Even if you force it through, the time and political effort required would be better spent stabilizing the country and drafting the constitution.
“But if I use my own money and my own time, Congress has little reason to interfere.”
“Haa…”
Agustín I let out a long sigh.
“I never imagined this would be your request.
But I promised, so I’ll allow it.
“However, you are not to separate from the escort I assign to you.”
Agustín I still looked hesitant.
I, on the other hand, was already imagining a glittering golden future.
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