History and government of New Mexico . Chihuahua, and elsewhere. 116. Trades and Industries. ?— Manufacturing industrieswere in a very primitive condition. Agriculture, stockraising, trading, fighting Indians, and exploring the frontiersabsorbed most of the energy of the colonists. The Indianspracticed their native handicrafts and those that themissionaries had taught them. Cotton cloth, coarse woolenblankets, prepared skins of animals, rough leather, andpottery were the chief products. Other manufactured ar-ticles were imported from Spain through the one seaportof Vera Cruz and then brought b
History and government of New Mexico . Chihuahua, and elsewhere. 116. Trades and Industries. ?— Manufacturing industrieswere in a very primitive condition. Agriculture, stockraising, trading, fighting Indians, and exploring the frontiersabsorbed most of the energy of the colonists. The Indianspracticed their native handicrafts and those that themissionaries had taught them. Cotton cloth, coarse woolenblankets, prepared skins of animals, rough leather, andpottery were the chief products. Other manufactured ar-ticles were imported from Spain through the one seaportof Vera Cruz and then brought by pack train for two 94 THE HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO thousand miles through Mexico City, Durango, and Chi-huahua. The cost of such goods was enormous. 117. The Taos Fairs. — The royal order of 1723 (sec. 96),prohibiting trade with the French and limiting trade withthe plains Indians to those who came to Taos and Pecos,brought into existence regular annual fairs at Taos. Thesefairs were rapidly developed by the new policy of seeking. mwm The North Pueblo of Taos To-day the friendship and trade of the plains Indians after themiddle of the eighteenth century (sec. 98). Taos was theextreme northern outpost of Spanish settlement. For theplains Indians in all directions it was the nearest sourceof supplies of manufactured articles. The Comanches andother tribes came in from the plains bringing deer skins,buffalo robes, furs, buffalo meat, and captives, to exchangewith the Spaniards and Pueblos for knives, bridles, trink- THE CLOSE OF THE SPANISH ERA 95 ets, horses, blankets, and even fire arms if they could getthem. It was a motley array that gathered there eachsummer. Taos became the busiest and most turbulenttown in the province. Its population grew rapidly from160 in 1760 to 1,351 in 1799. Money was hardly known among these people untilabout 1800, and old-time barter had ceased to meet thevaried needs of this growing trade. So the professionaltraders invented a system of imaginar
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