tend to the proper equipment of all government vessels, and collect all duties.
Apart from these great sources of revenue, enormous profits accrued to the crown from the royal monopolies and the sale of offices. Salt, gunpowder, tobacco, and quicksilver were the most important of the monopolies. The first of these established in New Spain was that of quicksilver. For some years after the conquest, gold and silver were obtained without the necessity of quicksilver, or even a knowledge of its amalgamating properties, until, as we have seen, in 1557 Bartolomé de Medina, a miner of Pachuca, discovered the process of quicksilver amalgamation. The consequent demand was at once turned by the crown to an additional means of profit, and on the 4th of March 1559 a royal cédula was issued prohibiting the importation of quicksilver from the Peninsula and Peru into New Spain, even in the smallest quantity, except through the treasury department.[1] The net proceeds of this branch for the years 1779 to 1789 inclusive amounted to $4,745,318.
Then followed the prohibitions on the manufacture of gunpowder[2] and salt, stringent regulations with
- ↑ At this time the value of the commodity ranged from 55 to 58 ducados the quintal. At the end of the 18th century the price varied at different mines according to the expense of transportation. For instance at San Luis de Potosí the charge per quintal was 80 marcos de plata; at the mines in Michoacan and Oajaca, 90 ditto; at those of Guanajuato, 125 ditto. Id., i. 298-9, 383.
- ↑ The first notice of the restrictions placed on gunpowder in New Spain occurs in 1571. Recop. de Ind., i. 573. In 1600 the factory of Chapultepec was completed by the crown and concessions granted to private individuals to manufacture powder. The privilege was purchased by the Ortega family during the period from 1606 to 1887, the periodical prices paid gradually increasing, being based upon pólvora de gracia, which was a quantity of powder annually presented to the government by the contractors. In 1700 the cost to the contractor was 24,000 pesos yearly, and in 1771 it amounted to 112,800 pesos. Thus the value of the monopoly became so great that the government in 1776 re-
carats to 80 pesos de oro. The same rules were applicable to vessels arriving from Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, and other ports. Neither money nor horses could be shipped to the Philippines without royal permission; nor could any ecclesiastical or secular person proceed thither without leave. The purveyor and auditor at Acapulco was to obey all mandates of the viceroy, provision the fleets, and collect duty on merchandise sent to Mexico, which had hitherto been collected at the capital. But the most important item in the royal order of 1597 was to the effect that the valuation of the average duties was to be made by the viceroy and the treasury officials at Mexico. Id., iv. 451-68.
