o: of colection and ad- Classification of the Receipts. (Ramos de real hacienda.) o ministration, in so 1n plastres. 1st. Class, called masa commun: alcavala } - 3 - “. . - o “, 52, Indian tribute, duties on gold and silver 10,747,878 1,395,862| 9,352,016 2d. Class, called masa remisible a España: produce of the tobacco farm, of the sale 6,899,830 3,080,303 3,819,527 of cards, and of mercury - - - ; 3d. Class, called destinos particulares: Cru- zada, tithes, medias anatas, mesadas, and 530,425 13,806 516,621 other duties on the clergy - - - |Agenos, revenue of the goods of corpoorations and pious foundations under r) 1,897,128 1,700,956 196,172 inspection of government - - - - Total - - - - - - 20,075,261 6,190,927 | 13,884,836 hibited by the laws of Charles I. and Philip III. ' 6th. Net produce of the duty on imports and exports, under the name of almorarifazgo, half a million of piastres. 7th. Produce of the sale of papal indulgences, or bulls de la cruzada, two hundred and seventy thousand piastres. 8th. Net produce of the post”, two hundred and fifty thousand piastres. This produce between 1765 and 1777 was 1,006,054 piastres; and between 1778 and 1790 was 2,420,426 piastres; an augmentation which both demonstrates the progress of civilization and com1YlerCe. 9th. Net produce of the sale of powderf, one hundred and fifty thousand piastres; from 1788 to 1792 it was at an average 144,636 piastres annually. 10th. Net produce of the revenue levied on clerical benefices, under the name of mesada and media anata, one hundred thousand piastres. 11th. Net produce on the sale of cards, one hundred and twenty thousand piastres, f | 12th. Net produce of stamp duties (papel Sellado) eighty thousand piastres; from 1788 * Renta de Coreos. to 1792 at an average 60,756 piastres per annum. 13th. Net produce of the farm of cock-fighting *, forty-five thousand piastres. 14th. Net produce of the farm of snow, thirty thousand piastres. If there were not countries in Europe where a tax is paid on day-light, we might well be surprised to see in America that the bed of snow which covers the high chain of the Andes is considered as a property of the king of Spain. The poor Indian who with danger reaches the summit of the Cordilleras can neither collect snow nor sell it in the neighbouring towns without paying a duty to government. This strange custom of considering the sale of ice and snow as a royal so existed also in France at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the Ferme des nieges was only put a stop to at Paris because the magnitude of the duty produced such a rapid diminution of the use of cooling beverages, that the court thought it more advisable to declare the trade in ice and snow completely free. At Mexico and Vera Cruz, where the summits of the Popocatepetl and the Pic d’Orizaba furnish snows for the making of sherbets, the estanco de la nieve was only introduced in 1779. * Estanco de los juegos de gallos. We have thus compared the total revenue of New Spain at different periods of the eighteenth century; let us now pursue this comparison in the different branches of impost indicated in the statistical work of Villa-Señor, published at Mexico in 1746; and we shall see at each article irrefragable proofs of the progress of population and public prosperity. Comparative table of the revenue of New Spain. Sources of the public revenue. In 1746. In 1803. Duties levied on the pro- rule. rule. duce of the mines - 700,0003,516,000 Mint , -, - - - - |357,5001,500,000 Alcavala - - - 721,8753,200,000 Almoxarifazgo - - |373,383 500,000 Indian capitation tax - 650,0001,200,000 Cruzada - - - 150,000 270,000 Media anata - - - || 49,000 100,000 Duty on pulque or agave juice - - - |161,000 800,000 Duty on cards - - || 70,000 120,000 Stamps - - - - || 41,000 80,000 Sale of snow - - - || 15,522, 26,000 Sale of powder - - || 71,550 145,000 Cock-fighting - - || 31,100 45,000 We have only included in this table the duties, the tariff of which has not been increased since 1746, when the monopoly of tobacco |