unfrequently farmed out, but at the auctions at which they were sold frauds were as repeatedly committed as at the sales of other royalties.[1]
In conclusion, with respect to tithes I may add that almost every article of produce or consumption from silk and cacao to lentils and pot-herbs was thus taxed, and that the Spanish colonists frequently endeavored to avoid the payment on certain productions, but, under the pressure of the united interests of church and state, their attempts were generally defeated.[2] Nor did the religious orders escape. In 1655 and 1657 the society of Jesus were condemned to pay tithes on all crops and productions of their estates.[3]
No sooner had the conquest of Mexico been accomplished than the necessity of a numismatic system of exchange became apparent. Previous to the arrival of the Spaniards trade had been mostly carried on by barter, and cacao beans and other articles were used as
- ↑ Instructions were issued directing the audiencia to investigate the nature of these transactions. Puga, Cédulario, 75, 79. The disorders in the administration of this and other revenues continued for many years. In 1070 Viceroy Mancera caused so strict an investigation to be made that a repetition of them was in a great measure prevented. Instruc. Vireyes, 298-9; Revilla Gigedo, Bandos, ii. no. xix. 1-3. In March 1728 the royal novenos were leased out for nine years at $19,000 annually. When the lease expired they were again let for a similar period at $20,000 a year. Pattronatto, etc., f. 129-30, 135, in Doc. Ecles. Mex., MS., ii. no. 1.
- ↑ In Fonseca and Urrutia, Hist. Peal Hac., iii. 139-45, will be found copy of a decree specifying the articles on which tithes and first-fruits were paid. There are some few exceptions, noticeable among which are pine-nuts and acorns 'de queno se ha de pagar diezmo,' p. 141. On a few articles a low'er percentage than one tenth was exacted. The total amount of tithes paid into the treasury collected in the archbishopric of Mexico during the decennary 1780 to 1789 was $6,972,923, one ninth of which sum would pertain to the crown. Id., 260, tabular form.
- ↑ Discurso Legal, in Diezmos de Indias, no. vii. The tenacity with which the crown asserted its rights to the tithes of the church is frequently displayed. Although a papal bull granted to Cortés immunity from tithes, the king ignored the pontiff's authority in the matter, and ordered Cortés to pay. Puga, Cédulario, 84; Montemayor, Sumarios, 49. Were the tithes insufficient to pay church stipends, it was ordered that they should be paid into the treasury under a separate account, and the clergy sustained from other funds of the exchequer. Discurso Legal, in Diezmos de Indias, viii. 12-13. About the middle of the 17th century the bishops in New Spain claimed exclusive right to the tithes, grounded on the fact that Fernando and his daughter Juana had made a grant in 1512 to the prelates and clergy of Santo. Domingo and Puerto Rico of the tithes in those islands; but it was maintained that such grant in no way indicated that they had abandoned their claim to them in other parts of the Indies. Id., 7.
