Mexico's  economic conditions worsen during the administration of its first president, Guadalupe Victoria, as government expenditures soar beyond revenues.

Declining economic conditions persuade the criollos that there is more behind the economic decline than bad management by peninsulares.

One of the government's major burdens is the assumption of all debts contracted during the late colonial period and the empire, a substantial sum.

The government's ability to service the debt is severely constrained by the costs of maintaining a fifty-thousand-strong standing army and the insufficiency of revenues generated by tariffs, taxes, and government monopolies.

To cover the shortfall, Victoria accepts two large loans on stiff terms from British merchant houses.

The British have supported independence movements in Spanish colonies and see the loans as an opportunity to further displace Spain as the New World's dominant mercantile power.