Long before Texas and the California territory became a part of the
United States, enterprising merchants on the western frontier began a
merchandise trade with the Mexican settlements in what is now New
Mexico. By 1843 this trade reached an annual value of $500,000. After
the occupation of the territory by the United States troops it became
much larger, reaching a total value in 1860 of $3,800,000. The chief
shipping points were Independence and Kansas City, Missouri.
Transportation was supplied by regular freighters who employed a large
number of men to conduct the white-topped prairie schooners across the
unsettled plains between the Missouri River and the mountains. New
Mexico paid for its imports with bullion and wool produced in the
territory, or with money secured by the sale of sheep driven to
California, or by the sale of a scanty agricultural produce to
government military posts and Indian agencies.
In addition to the wagon trade with New Mexico, the Missouri River
cities carried on a similar trade with Utah after its occupation by the
Mormons in 1848. When gold was discovered in Colorado in 1859 there was
an immediate rush of settlers to that territory, which was accompanied
by the rise of a large trade in tools and provisions. There was no
regular overland freight traffic to the Pacific coast, the commerce of
California with the rest of the country, aside from the sheep trade
with New Mexico, being carried on around Cape Horn or across Central
America. Within California itself there was an extensive trade between
San Francisco and the agricultural, lumbering and mining districts of
the surrounding regions.