page_title: Porfiriato
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Porfiriato / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Metlac bridge with train 1903, taken by Guillermo KahloObject location18°&#160;54′&#160;53.64″&#160;N, 97°&#160;00′&#160;33.84″&#160;W&#160;View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Google Earth
context_page_description: The Porfiriato is a term given to the period that General José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori ruled Mexico as president in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coined by Mexican historian Daniel Cosío Villegas. Díaz pursued a policy of "order and progress," inviting foreign investment to Mexico and maintaining social and political order, by force if necessary. There were tremendous changes economically, technologically, socially, and culturally during this period. As Díaz approached his 80th birthday and after having been continuously elected since 1884, he still had not put in place a plan for his succession. The fraudulent 1910 elections are usually seen as the end date of the Porfiriato. Violence broke out, Díaz was forced to resign and go into exile, and Mexico experienced a decade of regional civil war, the Mexican Revolution.
context_section_description: Mexico at the beginning of the Porfiriato was a predominantly rural nation, with large estate owners controlling agricultural production for the local and regional food market. The largest groups of Mexicans involved in agriculture were small-scale ranchers and subsistence agriculturalists along with landless peasants tilling lands they did not own.  Patterns of land ownership were shifting in the nineteenth century. The Liberal Reform had sought to eliminate corporate ownership of land, targeting estates owned by the Roman Catholic Church and indigenous communities, forcing them to be broken up into parcels and sold.  Despite liberals’ hopes, this did not result in the creation of a class of yeoman farmers, but it did undermine the integrity of indigenous communities and undermine the economic power of the Church.
  Construction of railway lines was a major factor in transforming the Mexican economy.  Mexico is not endowed with a navigable river system that would have allowed for cheap water transport, and roads were often impassable during the rainy season, so the construction of railway lines overcame a major obstacle for Mexican economic development. The first line to be built was from the Gulf port of Veracruz to Mexico City, begun during the French intervention, but the rapid expansion of lines in central Mexico and northward to the U.S. border lowered transportation costs for passengers and freight, opened new regions, such as the Comarca Lagunera in northern Mexico, to agricultural development.  The capital for railways as well as tracks and rolling stock were foreign. Investment in such capital demanding infrastructure is an indicator that foreign investors had confidence in Mexico’s stability.  Construction of the railways was an effect of stability, but there was a significant decrease in banditry and other unrest because of the railways.  The Rurales and their horses could be loaded on trains and dispatched to impose order. 
  Along with the construction of railways, telegraph lines were built next to the tracks.  This allowed instant communication between capital and distant cities, increasing the power of the central Mexican state over distant regions.  Dispatching Rurales quickly to troubled areas was a direct effect of more efficient communication.
  An industry that expanded significantly during this time was mining.  In the colonial era, Mexico had mined and refined silver, minting silver coinage that became the first global currency.  During the Porfiriato, mining of industrial minerals was the core of the industry.  The world price of silver dropped in 1873, while at the same time economies in developed countries needed industrial minerals for their manufacturing.   As with other aspects of the Mexican economy, the growth in the mining sector was predicated on the stability established by the government.  The expansion of the railway network meant that ore could be transported cheaply and the telegraph network allowed investors to have efficient communications with the mining sites.  Foreign investors, particularly from the U.S.,  had confidence in risking their capital in mining enterprises in Mexico.  Mining enterprises for copper, lead, iron, and coal in Mexico’s north, especially Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato and Coahuila, with Monterrey and Aguascalientes becoming especially prominent.
  The development of industrial manufacturing aimed at a domestic market, primarily in textiles. Factories were built in urban areas by Mexican entrepreneurs in Orizaba and Guanajuato, which provided opportunities for workers to earn wages.  These factories, many owned by French nationals, supplied domestic textile needs.
caption: A photo of the Metlac railway bridge, an example of engineering achievement that overcame geographical barriers and allowed efficient movement of goods and people. Photo by Guillermo Kahlo.
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