Education he encouraged by engaging the services of foreign instructors, and he brought about a better observance of the law by the promulgation of new codes.

He also introduced railways and telegraph lines.

Since the manufacture of aniline dyes abroad had diminished the demand for cochineal, Barrios decided to replace this export by cultivating coffee.
To this end, he distributed seeds among the planters and furnished financial aid besides, with a promise to inspect the fields in due season and see what had been accomplished.

Finding that in many cases the seeds had been thrown away and the money wasted in drink and gambling, he ordered the guilty planters to be given fifty lashes, with the assurance that on a second offense he would shoot them on sight.
Coffee planting in Guatemala was pursued thereafter with much alacrity! Posts in the government service Barrios distributed quite impartially among Conservatives and Democrats, deserving or otherwise, for he had them both well under control.

At his behest a permanent constitution was promulgated in 1880.