‘Wow.
They gave me quite a lot.
So this is what the fortune of a great landowning family looks like.’
Father gave me 5,000 pesos together with my medal.
When he agreed to my request, he reluctantly handed me another 5,000 pesos.
Then, when I told Mother that I was leaving to colonize California, she gave me another 7,000.
Just like that, I had a fortune of 17,000 pesos.
Adding the 1,000 pesos I had already saved, my total came to 18,000 pesos.
Considering that an ordinary worker in this era earned roughly one peso a day—or around twenty to twenty-five pesos a month—it was an enormous amount of money.
‘It’s a miracle nobody stole the equivalent of forty months of a worker’s wages from my room.’
In the nineteenth century, the country that minted a gold or silver coin mattered less than the weight and purity of the precious metal it contained.
The Mexican peso contained roughly the same amount of silver as the Spanish dollar and was worth about 0.2 British pounds at the time.
Using a rough modern comparison, one pound from this era could be worth around fifty to sixty pounds in 2022 purchasing power, putting one peso at approximately thirteen modern US dollars.
‘So in modern terms, I have around 234,000 dollars.
Roughly 320 million won.’
I sat down and began calculating.
‘Land?
I shouldn’t worry much about land prices.
There’s an enormous amount of unsettled territory in this era.
If I bring settlers, the government would probably grant the land almost for free.
‘There aren’t proper laws for this yet, and the deputies would oppose outright subsidies.
But if I present it as a purchase, officials friendly to Father can probably sell it to me for almost nothing.
‘Most importantly, I need to secure the major gold-bearing areas.’
I calculated the cost of supplies needed to establish the colony, mining equipment, a continuous food supply, horses, wagons, and wages for miners.
The budget would be tight, but it was possible.
‘If we stretch our resources, the first stage of colonization should work.
We’ll begin with surface mining and placer gold.
If the results are good, we can invest in deeper mining later.’
Father assigned Major Manuel—the officer I already knew—to command my escort.
He would oversee two companies, each led by a captain and twenty-five soldiers.
That gave me three officers and fifty soldiers in total.
With their assistance, I began recruiting families willing to settle in California.
The response was overwhelming.
I offered land, agricultural tools, food for the journey, and enough support to survive the first few months after arrival.
Applications poured in.
“Did I read this wrong?
Read it again.”
“Are those conditions really true?”
“The Crown Prince himself is leading the expedition!
How could it be fake?”
In this era, settlers were sometimes practically forced into colonization projects, so the terms I offered sounded almost too generous to believe.
Only two days after recruitment began, more than a hundred families had already applied.
Because the journey would take four to six months, we refused families with pregnant women or very young children.
Exceptions were made for those who owned horses and wagons.
Otherwise, we selected healthy families whose children were old enough to endure the journey.
‘I’d like to accept more, but I simply don’t have the money.’
Colonization might be the official purpose, but my real objective was gold mining.
That meant I had to purchase mining equipment in addition to agricultural tools.
We also needed equipment to extract and refine gold on site.
Transporting enormous quantities of soil and rock by wagon would be absurdly inefficient.
Once horses, wagons, food, and miners’ wages were added to the calculation, supporting more than a hundred families became impossible.
***
“I’m still worried.
Do you truly have to go yourself?”
Mother held my hand tightly, unable to hide her anxiety.
I tried to reassure her.
“Don’t worry, Mother.
I’ll return in a year.
I’ll have an armed escort with me, so nothing will happen.”
Her concern was understandable.
Mexico had been economically devastated by more than a decade of war and was infested with bandits.
And I was her eldest son.
At the moment, she had only four younger daughters and one younger son besides me.
She continued holding my hand, still clearly uneasy.
“Mother, I’ll come back safely.
Please don’t worry too much.”
“Let him go.”
Agustín I stepped in.
“I’m not pleased that the Crown Prince of the Mexican Empire wants to travel all the way to California, but this will benefit the empire, and he’s old enough to make his own decision.
Let him do what he wants.”
Father patted me on the shoulder and gave me one final warning.
“Never forget that you are the Crown Prince of this Mexican Empire.
Your safety comes first.
Do you understand?”
“Yes, Father.”
“I’m entrusting him to you, Major Manuel.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!
I’ll protect His Highness with my life!”
Agustín I looked back at me.
“The deputies are delighted that you’re leaving to colonize California.
I suppose that shows how strong an impression you made on them in Congress.
“They’ve suddenly become eager to accelerate the drafting of the constitution—something they had been dragging their feet on before.”
“Hmm… I’ll take that as a compliment.
I’ll trust you to handle everything in Mexico City.”
“Of course.
We’ll have to make a few compromises, but it appears we can fill most of the twenty-nine vacant seats with people loyal to us.
“Don’t worry about the capital.
I’ll handle everything here.
You only need to keep yourself safe.”
“Yes, Father.
Then I’ll be going.”
I had already purchased the land and the supplies needed for the colony, and everything had been loaded onto wagons.
The hundred families recruited for the expedition were waiting alongside fifty soldiers and several guides.
Altogether, the expedition numbered roughly five hundred people.
I embraced Mother.
“I’m leaving.”
“Please be careful.”
I mounted my horse at the head of the column beside Major Manuel and our guides.
Then the expedition began moving.
‘I have to succeed, no matter what.’
That thought dominated my mind as we departed.
I had invested practically all my money in this expedition.
‘The round trip alone will take about ten months.
Establishing the colony, finding the gold deposits, and beginning extraction will take at least another six.
‘I should assume I’ll spend more than a year and a half on this.’
Three months had already passed since I woke up in this body.
I had spent those months gaining Father’s trust and helping stabilize the government.
If this expedition failed, I would lose nearly two years.
And if I lost two years, I might not gain enough power to prevent the disasters that would soon strike Mexico.
‘For example, the Texas rebellion, its independence, and its eventual annexation by the United States.
‘By now, Stephen Austin—the so-called “Father of Texas”—should already be in Texas.’
Stephen’s father, Moses Austin, had signed a contract with Spain before Mexican independence.
Under the agreement, he would bring three hundred settler families into Texas in exchange for land grants.
Moses died before he could complete the project, but his son Stephen continued the colonization effort.
Stephen Austin personally traveled to Mexico City on January 3, 1823, to renegotiate the agreement with the new Mexican government.
In the original history, Agustín I approved the arrangement without much trouble.
This time, however, I had already instructed Father to change several conditions before approving it.
‘The original agreement was far too generous.
I don’t care how empty the territory is.
That was ridiculous.’
Historically, each head of household who settled in Texas could receive 4,605 acres of land—4,428 acres for grazing and 177 acres for cultivation.
Stephen Austin himself received 67,000 acres for every two hundred families he brought.
The results were explosive.
Starting with only three hundred settler families, the American population in Texas grew to around twenty thousand by 1830.
That astonishing rate of growth, combined with Texas’s excellent agricultural land, intensified American interest in the region.
In 1827, US President John Quincy Adams offered Mexico one million dollars for Texas.
Mexico refused.
In 1829, President Andrew Jackson raised the offer to five million dollars.
Mexico refused again.
But refusing to sell ultimately changed nothing.
‘In the end, the American settlers in Texas rebelled on their own, declared independence, created the Republic of Texas, and eventually joined the United States.’
It was a devastating blow to Mexico.
Historically, however, Mexico lacked the strength to stop it.
The United States was still a young nation, but compared with newly independent Mexico, it was already a giant.
Mexico could barely suppress rebellion in Texas, much less confront the United States directly.
‘This time, I won’t allow that to happen.’
I had told Father to approve Stephen Austin’s proposal—but only under revised conditions.
‘Accepting immigrants and granting them land is fine.
But we need strict control, and we absolutely cannot give them that much.’
I cut the land grants and Stephen Austin’s rewards in half.
More importantly, I proposed that for every group of American settlers admitted into Texas, a comparable number of Mexican settlers should be established there under the supervision of Mexican officials.
The purpose was straightforward.
Control the immigrants closely.
Reduce the strength of their American identity.
Encourage assimilation into Mexican society.
And grant them as little land as reasonably possible.
The conditions were far harsher than those of the original contract.
That didn’t bother me.
Anything was better than losing Texas.
***
March 1823.
While the California colonization expedition led by Crown Prince Jerónimo Iturbide continued moving through city after city toward its final destination of Sacramento, the debate over Mexico’s constitution intensified.
The twenty-nine congressional seats left vacant after corrupt deputies were removed had been divided through political compromise.
Twenty went to conservatives.
Nine went to republicans.
Unlike the original course of history, when republicans had been able to paralyze the government, Mexico’s administration was now rapidly stabilizing and the Emperor’s power was growing.
The republicans could no longer rely on the same obstructionist strategy.
They wanted to finish the constitution as quickly as possible before they lost even more influence.
Agustín I and the conservative deputies, however, were in no hurry.
“One hundred eleven republican seats against ninety conservative seats.
We’re still far from controlling Congress.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.
The republican deputies still believe they have enough support, which is why they continue acting aggressively.”
The republicans were pushing for a constitutional monarchy resembling Britain’s.
Under such a system, the king or queen remained head of state and retained certain powers, such as veto authority, but practical government was conducted by a prime minister and ministers supported by Parliament.
Agustín I disliked the idea.
He had promised his son not to resort to extreme measures and was willing to compromise, but he still had cards left to play.
“We need to reduce their influence.
Is the reorganization ready?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Ever since the confiscation operation succeeded, Congress had struggled to challenge the Emperor’s control of the army.
More accurately, the deputies tried.
But they lacked sufficient justification to restrict Agustín I’s military authority.
He had been commander-in-chief of the army since before independence, and public opinion was firmly on his side.
With support from officers in the central army and conservative deputies in Congress, Agustín I could deploy troops with considerable freedom.
He was now using that advantage to devise a plan for bringing the regional armies under tighter central control as well.
‘The commanders of the local forces are mostly federalists who favor decentralization.
Most of them support the republicans in Congress.’
Agustín I replaced several major local commanders implicated in the corruption scandal involving the dismissed deputies.
The official justification was simple: they had failed to manage their troops properly.
***
“Is this it?
Are you sure?”
I pointed to a location on the map.
“Yes, Your Highness.
I’m certain.
I know this region very well.”
The guide sounded confident.
‘So this is where Sacramento—the capital of California in my previous life—stood?
Then that must be the Sacramento River…’
A strange emotion rose in my chest.
Five months.
Five long months of traveling nearly ten hours a day.
Some people might imagine horseback travel to be comfortable, but after a while it became miserable.
When our backs and thighs hurt too badly, we walked.
When walking exhausted us, we climbed back onto the horses.
‘But we made it.
We actually arrived safely.’
It had been a dangerous gamble.
We had a guide who claimed to have traveled through California several times and an armed escort to protect us, so I had believed we could make it.
Even so, the journey alone had taken five months.
Bandits were everywhere in this era, and powerful regional figures did not always recognize the Emperor’s authority.
Anything could have happened during such a long journey.
“…There’s nothing here.”
“Well, this is where we start building everything.
Hahaha.”
“Yes.
Let’s begin.”
I turned toward the settlers, who were staring at me with shining eyes, silently asking whether we had finally reached our destination.
I raised my voice.
“WE’VE ARRIVED!”
“WAAAAAAH!”
“AAAAAAAH!”
“FINALLY!”
Sacramento, California.
A region that would become famous for vast gold deposits, an excellent climate, and some of the most productive agricultural land in the world.
Its colonization had finally begun.
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