cordingly orders were issued on the 25th of October, 1522, requiring payment of tribute to be made to the royal treasury officer. This tax was discharged either by the payment of a sum of money and contributions in kind, or by labor which was employed on public works and buildings, and in the cultivation of plantations. The amount paid was regulated by the quality of the soil cultivated by the Indians, and consequently varied in different districts, the land being appraised by the corregidores or sworn commissioners. Those towns which did not pertain directly to the crown paid the tribute to the respective encomenderos,[1] who in turn paid to the officers of the crown the royal fifth.[2]
At first the impost levied upon the Indians was probably the same as that paid to Montezuma, namely, one third of all produce, or an equivalent wholly or in part in the precious metals; but it soon became evident that so oppressive a tribute could not be borne, and reductions and exemptions were repeatedly made[3] during the period from 1550 to the close of the eighteenth century, when the tax which generally prevailed was about two pesos and a quarter per annum.[4]
Meanwhile the importance of this source of revenue was such, and the increase of business in the treasury department became so great, that in 1597 a general
- ↑ The encomenderos, however, were in the habit of exacting a higher tribute than that at which the land was assessed, and on the 30th of May, 1535, the king ordered the viceroy not to permit such exactions. Torquemada, iii. 260-1. This cédula was confirmed in 1540 and 1551.
- ↑ The viceroy in 1537 writing to the king says that there had been much neglect in compelling the encomenderos to pay the king's fifth on tribute paid in gold, and that it was his intention to enforce the payment. Pacheco and Cárdenas Col. Doc., ii. 207-8. In 1569 there were in New Spain 155 alcaldias mayores, the tribute of which to the crown alone amounted in 1570 to 326,403 pesos; and in the following year that of the crown pueblos produced 83,553 pesos, besides 37,776 fanegas of maize and a large number of loads of cochineal, cacao, wheat, fish, honey, clothing, and poultry. Fonseca and Urrutia, Hist. Real Hac., i. 416. This produce was sold at auction in the respective towns before an oidor and the fiscal of the audiencia. In 1536 orders were issued forbidding these officers to send deputies to represent them. Puga, Cedulario, 102, 111.
- ↑ Consult Hist. Mex., vol. i. 153-4, this series.
- ↑ Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 104-5. This tribute as regards Indians, negroes, mulattoes, and others was abolished in 1810. Disposic. Var., ii. f. 6.
