But apart from the commercial restrictions imposed upon the colonists by the home government, there were other causes, internal and external, which operated disastrously upon trade, and kept it in an almost continual state of depression. Forced loans and demands of the king for money[1] flooding the market with copper coinage, the interference of the church,[2] the arbitrary action of civil authorities, and contraband trade, each in greater or less degree had an unfavorable influence on legitimate commerce.
But the blows which were most destructive to commercial prosperity were the losses inflicted by the English, French, and Dutch navies in time of hostilities, and the depredations committed by corsairs alike during war and peace. In time of war commerce with the mother country was reduced to the lowest ebb; European goods were poured into the Spanish colonies by neutrals, and the contraband trade was almost openly carried on. In the general necessity during such periods the authorities and custom-house officers relaxed their strictness; the prohibitive system was widely ignored, and illicit trade carried on in spite of all the measures employed by kings and viceroys to
- ↑ The king made a forced loan of one eighth of the gold and silver shipped on the fleet which arrived at Seville in 1620. Reales Cédulas, in Pacheco and Cérdenas, Col. Doc., xvii. 215-16. In 1662 the crown demanded 200,000 pesos, and the merchandise embargoed till the owners paid the sum. Guijo, Diario, 495. Like demands were repeatedly made.
- ↑ Felipe IV. in March and April 1660 issued edicts requiring the archbishop and bishops to avoid the use of anathemas on the subject of privileged merchandise, pulque, and miscarried letters, as the management of such matters pertained to the viceroy, audiencia, and secular authorities. Montemayor, Sumarios, 35.
city of Mexico occasionally felt the power of the viceroy. In 1653 the members were imprisoned and their property confiscated 'hasta que exhibiesen un grueso alcance que al consulado hizo el visitador.' Guijo, Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série i., i. 266. In 1663 the viceroy called upon the consulado for 200,000 pesos in two days' time to be collected from the merchants, and in spite of the prior's claim that such a proceeding was not within the court's prerogatives, the viceroy insisted upon the demand being carried out: 'Prosigue el virey eu que los entere.' Id., 507-8. On February 4, 1757, a decree was passed forbidding the usurpation of this tribunal's powers by the viceroy. Providencias Reales, MS., 46-0. Consult Recop. de Ind., iii. 540-62; Reales Cédulas, MS., i. 83, 88; V. Cruz, Esposic., in Pap. Var., 15, 17; Cedulario, MS., iii. 176; Guadalajara, Real Céd. Erec. Consulado; Lerdo de Tejada, Apunt. Hist., no. v. 326-37, 390; Humboldt, Essai Pol., ii. 708-9.
