of October 1845 of about forty per cent,[1]owing to the mass of low-duty goods flooding the markets. The measure was also intended to counteract the ruinous contraband trade, facilitated more than ever by the Guadalupe treaty.[2] A further reduction not being deemed advisable, the government was instructed to increase the revenue cruisers and coast guards;[3] but lack of funds and official dishonesty rendered the order of little effect. Traders grew rich publicly by the traffic. Local authorities or conspirators would raise a dispute or pronounce, with a view to remove the federal officials, when the opportunity arose for obtaining large plunder; or they joined in favoring irregular importations at the ports, lest the treasury should lose all through smuggling.[4]
The total estimated revenue for the year 1849-50 was $8,000,000, of which $3,500,000 came from import and export duties, and $1,000,000 from state contingents; while the expenditure was placed at $16,500,000, whereof $5,800,000 toward the debt and $7,600,000 for the war department, leaving a deficit of $8,500,000. For the following year the income and expenditure were placed at $9,000,000 and $20,300,000 respectively, showing a deficit of $11,300,000.[5] These debit balances had to be met, the easiest
- ↑ This was decreed on May 3, 1848, the new duty being 60 per cent of the 1845 tariff, with some exceptions gradually introduced. Méx., Leyisl. Mej., 1848, 128-9. The loss to the treasury in consequence was placed at nearly $2,000,000 in Peña y Cuevas' budget of Jan. 1849.
- ↑ Minister Elorriaga, indeed, urged greater reductions in the tariff as a check. Mem. of Feb. 12, 1850, 8-9.
- ↑ Placing two steamers and thirteen small vessels on the gulf and on the Pacific. The carrying-out of this measure was impeded by lack of funds as usual, save in a small degree. Arrillaga, Recop., 1849, 134-5.
- ↑ Supercargoes would detain vessels off the ports till they could obtain a reduction of duty, and this failing, the cargoes were landed on unfrequented parts of the coast, or on islands and introduced gradually. Honest officials were therefore often prejudicial to the interests of the government, as Minister Esteva confesses in his Memoria of Apr. 4, 1851, 100-2, addressed to the congress.
- ↑ For the preceding four years the income and expenditure stood at $10,700,000 and $25,200,000, $10,200,000 and $24,300,000, $10,400,000 and $21,600,000, $5,500,000 and $13,800,000, the last being for 1848-9. Méx., Presupuesto, 1849, 1-9; Méx., Breve Manif., 3-15; Méx., Mem. Hac., 1850, 127 pp.; Id., 1851, 1-18; Pap. Var., xxxi. pt 56, cxcii. pt 6; Economista, April, etc., 1849; Heraldo, Jan. 8, 1849.
