ABSTRACT
Just like modern real estate developers or CEO’s looking for a location to build a new factory, “empresarios” like Stephen F. Austin sought tax breaks to help their new enterprises get off the ground. Austin’s empresario contract with the Mexican government included a suspension of import taxes for the first six years, ten years in some of his subsequent contracts. This agreement was to allow colonists to import, tax free, all of the supplies and goods they needed to get farms and businesses up and running. Once the new colony and early colonists were established, regular Mexican import taxes and fees would be levied. Not surprisingly, when the initial period of tax exemption expired, the imposition of taxes was unwelcome by most and resisted by some.
