Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/386

368 order had any real effect, though for the next four years the law requiring each vessel to come first to Monterey for a settlement of duties was more strictly enforced than before. After an understanding had been reached with the customs officers by means of statements, exhibition of papers, inspection and appraisal of cargo, the vessel became at once a movable sales-room, opened successively at each port up and down the coast until the cargo had been disposed of and the hides received in payment had been stored at San Diego — a process generally requiring two years of time and several visits to each port. The aim of the traders was to make the agreement at Monterey as favorable as possible; and so entirely dependent on customs receipts was the government, that the supercargoes could often dictate terms. By the connivance or carelessness of officials, the way was often left open for a transfer of cargo at sea or at the islands, so that several cargoes could be sold under one permit. This method of smuggling was more common among the Sandwich-Island than the Boston ships; and many cargoes were thus transferred without the vessel that brought them ever entering California ports. Whalers in quest of fresh supplies smuggled large quantities of goods, and the Russians engaged to less extent in similar operations, both these classes being favored on account of the fact that their coming afforded the inhabitants a market for vegetables and grain. So far as the records indicate, there was very little smuggling carried on by vessels that touched on the coast without a permit of some sort.

Under Figueroa's political administration during 1833-5, no evidence appears that changes were effected in the commercial system, though there were frequent