Application of receipts. Piastres. Piastres. Remains in net produce (liquido) from the preceding page III. Remittances to the mother country and colonies (cargas ultramarinas). Net produce of the to- Remains in the treasury of Mexico at the end of the year Application of receipts. Piastres. Piastres. Sums sent to the Royal From the tobacco farm Surplus (sobrante) in the 5,940,000 treasury of Mexico - 2,320,000 s To give a clearer idea of the situation of the finances of Mexico, I shall present, at the close of the budget of the year 1803, a Table of the expences of state, as they are classed in a memoir drawn up by me in Spanish during my residence at Mexico, and communicated by the viceroy to the ministry at Madrid in 1804. The revenue of New Spain, estimated at twenty millions of piastres, is consumed, I. By expences incurred in the interior of the kingdom, amounting to ten millions and a half of piastres : II. By remittances of specie (situados) annually made to other Spanish colonies, amounting to three millions and a half of piastres : III. By money paid, as the net produce of the colony, into the treasury of the king of Spain at Madrid, amounting to sir millions of piGStréS. I. The expences of internal administration, s covered by the receipts of the masa commun, are divided as follows: Piastres. 1. War expences - - 4,000,000 Viz. Piastres. Troops of the line (tropa reglada) - 1,800,000 Militia - - - 350,000 Presidios - - - 1,200,000 Expence of the Fort of Perote - 200,000 Marine, dockyards of San *} arsenals of the ports - 450,000 4,000,000 The war expences in 1792 were calculated at 1,507,000 for the regular troops, 292,000 for the militia, and 1,079,000 for keeping up presidios. 2. Salaries of the viceroy, intendants, and officers employed in the administration of the finances - 2,000,000 3. Expences of administration of justice, audiencias, salas del crimen, juogados de penas de camara, juxgado de bienes de defuntos, jusgado de Indios - - - 300,000 Carried forward 6,300,000 Piastres. Brought over - - 6,300,000 4. Prisons, correction houses, hospitals 400,000 5. Pensions - - 250,000 6. Expences of administration, advances made to the tobacco farm, expences of the royal manufactories, purchase of raw materials, repairs of public buildings 3,550,000 10,500,000 In Europe very exaggerated ideas are in general entertained of the power and wealth of the viceroys of Spanish America. This power and wealth have no existence, but when the person who fills the situation is supported by a great party at court, and where, by making a sacrifice of his honour to a sordid avarice, he abuses the prerogatives entrusted to him by the law. The salaries of the viceroys of New Grenada and Buenos Ayres, are only 40,000 piastres per annum"; and the viceroys of Peru and New Spain have only 60,000t. At Mexico a viceroy finds himself surrounded by families, whose revenues are three or four times greater than his own; and his house is |- * 8,400l. Sterling. Trans. t 12,600l. Sterling. Trans. |