regard to the production and sale of which articles were enacted.[1] The most productive of all the monopolies, however, was that of tobacco, which was established in 1765 by Visitador Galvez, and yielded to the treasury during the forty-five following years $123,808,685.[2]
There were moreover other monopolies of greater or less values, from that of stamped paper to that of ice brought from the mountains. The regulations with regard to stamped paper were especially vexatious, as no civil business transaction, whether public or private, was legal unless written on this paper.[3] The stamps were of four different values varying from three dollars to one sixteenth of a dollar, and every instrument, deed, judicial record, will, or contract had to be legalized by one or another according to the importance of the document.
Charles V. by cédula of August 27, 1529, absolutely prohibited gambling; but Philip II. considered that the vice could be turned to profit, and in 1552 ordered a royal monopoly on playing-cards to be established throughout his western dominions.[4] The
tained the management of it, established a separate department with a full staff of officers and agents, and in 1798 the net proceeds of this branch amounted to 490,226 pesos. Notic. de N. Exp. in Soc. Mex. Geog., ii. 25. Fonseca and Urritia, Hist. Heal Hac., ii. 190-5. Revilla Gigedo, Instruc., MS., ii. 212-28, 483-5.
- ↑ The monopoly on salt was established in 1580. The principal saltworks were at Santa María de Peñol Blanco. They were like most other monopolies at first rented out. In 1778 the administration of this branch was assumed by the crown, and in 1798 the net proceeds were 123,350 pesos. Soc. Mex. Geog., ii. 25. The salt works in Jalisco during the four years 1792-95 produced gross proceeds amounting to $49,517. In 1828 they were farmed out for six years at $7,000 a year, and in 1834 for $14,000 a year. Id., 2da ep. iii. 201-2.
- ↑ Mex. Dict., in Pap. Var., xii. 27; Hex. Anal., in Id., clxv. no. 7. Tabular statement. Miguel Urrea's estimates differ considerably from those given in the text. He states that the net yield to the treasury down to the year 1802 was $144,693,581, or a mean annual gain of $3,018,251. Soc. Mex. Geog., ii. 29. The tobacco estanco prohibited the cultivation of the plant, except under contract with the government. Seed was imported from Habana. Fonseca and Urrutia, Hist. Real Hac., ii. 353-438. Large sums of money from the proceeds of this rent were sent to Cuba and Louisiana annually for the purchase of tobacco for the Peninsula. Ibid.
- ↑ This duty was established in 1638. Recop. de Ind., ii. 573-7. See also Cedulario, MS., i. 135-43; ii. 247-53.
- ↑ All cards were to be stamped with the royal arms. The monopoly of the
