Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/785

Rh. The ordinary means for levying taxes were exhausted, and recourse must be had to forced loans. A revenue system, covering internal, import, and export duties, had been introduced by Viceroy Enriquez in 1574, pursuant to royal decree of 1571, which the merchants, however, strenuously opposed. They claimed that commerce, then in a flourishing state, would greatly suffer by the system, as by exemption only could the merchants of the mother country make it profitable to bring hither their merchandise. Nevertheless Enriquez remained inflexible, alleging that the commerce of the country was so widely extended and permanently established that its interests could not be prejudiced. It appeared to him unjust that Mexico, whose commerce was the most important of any of the New World provinces, should alone enjoy such exemption.

These forced loans of the Spanish king fell heavily on the natives, who neither knew nor cared about wars on the other side of the globe. Their tribute before this had been four reals, and it was eight reals that each must now pay. No mention is made of refunding this difference on the part of the king. It was with reluctance that the viceroy proceeded to impose this tax, knowing how difficult it was to collect even the ordinary tribute. An astute plan, however, was devised which would greatly relieve the red tax-payer from the infliction. For gold and silver one must dig, but beasts and birds grow of themselves. That this European fight in which the