Application of receipts. Piastres. Piastres.

Sums sent to the Royal
Treasury of Madrid.

From the tobacco farm
and cards - - |3,620,000 l

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 piGStres.

I. The expences of internal administration, | covered by the receipts of the masa commun, are divided as follows:

w 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, jusgado 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 60,000+. 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. + 12,600l. Sterling. Trans.

232 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [Book v1.

on an establishment like that of the King of Spain. He cannot leave his palace without being preceded by his guards on horseback; he is served by pages; and in the town of Mexico he is only permitted to dine with his wife and children. This excess of etiquette becomes a means of saving; and a viceroy, who wishes to quit his retirement and enjoy society, must remain for some time in the country, either at San Augustin de las Cuevas, or at Chapoltepec, or at Tacubaya. Some of the viceroys of New Spain have had an increase of salary; instead of 60,000 piastres, the Chevalier de Croix, Don Antonio Buccarelli, and the Marquis de Branciforte, had an annual revenue of 80,000 piastres"; but this court favour was not extended to the successors of the three above-named viceroys. A governor who chooses to renounce all delicacy of sentiment, and considers himself as having come to America for the purpose of enriching his family, finds means for accomplishing his end, by favouring the richest individuals of the country in the distribution of places, in the dealing out of the mercury, in privileges granted in time of war to carry on a free trade with the colonies of neutral powers. For some years past, the ministry of Madrid have deemed it for their interest to

name even to the smallest situations in the Colonies. However, the recommendation of the viceroy is still of great importance to the person who solicits, especially if the object solicited be a military charge, or a title of nobility (titulo de Castilla), which the Spanish Americans are in general much more eager for than the European Spaniards. A viceroy, it is true, has no right to make any commercial regulations, but he may interpret the orders of the court; he may open a door to neutrals, by informing the king of the urgent circumstances which have determined him to have recourse to that step ; he may protest against a reiterated order, and accumulate memoirs and informes; and if he is rich, adroit, and supported in America by a courageous assessor, and at Madrid by powerful friends, he may govern arbitrarily without fearing the residencia, that is to say, the account which he must render of his administration to every superior (Chef) who has occupied a place in the Colonies. There have been viceroys who, secure of their impunity, have extorted in a few years nearly eight millions of livres tournois”; and with pleasure we add, that there have been others, who, far from increasing their fortune by unlawful means, have displayed a noble and generous disinterestedness. Among the latter,