EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...

Belgium did not successfully trade with the Republic, it was not due to a lack of
information from Pirson. Interestingly, buried within his report, Pirson noted that
among the hides and pelts available in Texas were those of tigers, panthers, and
leopards. A letter and Pirson’s report 180 were apparently accompanied by some pelts for
the minister’s examination.
He continued with an analysis of trade commodities and trade practices, and
finally the exports and imports of the Republic. This was a basic catalogue of the
commercial aspect of the new nation. 181 He reviewed the principal advantages of the
Republic in terms of international trade by virtue of its proximity to interior centers
such as Santa Fe and the fact of its multipurpose nature and the hospitality of the
Republic’s ports, especially Galveston and Victoria, and their accessibility to European
shipping. He pointed to the reduced distance and cost that would result in bypassing
New Orleans and St. Louis, thus reducing time and exposure to the elements. 182 He
clearly envisioned the Republic as a shortcut to the new settlements of the United States
on the Western frontier that could not be duplicated by any other routes through either
the United States or Mexico.
The portrait he painted is an assessment of Texas in 1842 obviously geared
toward the commercial advantage which he perceived that the land possessed. Pirson’s
delineation of specific export items revealed an agricultural base predominantly rooted
180
Ibid., 15.
181
Pirson to de Briey, 5 March 1842, AMAE 2013and BL.
182
Pirson, Moniteur Commerical, 1-2, AMAE 2013 and BL.
93