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The purpose of this essay is to analyze the impact of foreign trade upon the state and civil society in the first decades of Mexican independence. It will focus both on socioeconomic and political aspects of that impact. First, it examines the foreign trade at the end of the colonial period and the first decades of independence by reviewing available data. Second, it gives a brief description of some of the most outstanding consequences of this trade in respect to distribution of the imported goods, and unemployment related to the overflow of foreign products, especially textiles. Third, the essay outlines two types of state reaction: a more defensive reaction, pointing out certain aspects of fiscal and customs policy concerning foreign trade (protective tariffs); and a more offensive reaction by the state which promoted industrialization in order to become more independent from imports. This last aspect of industrialization, however, is discussed only in terms of foreign contribution (import of machinery, skilled workers/technicians, investment of "foreign" capital) to the process of modernization. Finally, the essay concludes by trying to provide an answer to the question of why the early attempts at industrialization failed.