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Rh entailed. In accordance with the usual policy, the sale of an article of such extensive consumption had been monopolized, the government granting to one individual the exclusive right to sell pulque to the thirty-six establishments allowed in the city of Mexico for that purpose. The amount paid for it almost doubled between 1669 and 1763, but this by no means indicates the real extent of the consumption, for during the eighteenth century the fraudulent manufacture of pulque and other beverages, chiefly adulterated with unwholesome roots, assumed great dimensions. A number of cédulas and orders were issued both in Spain and Mexico to suppress the abuses, but with so little result that, in 1763, the contract was not renewed, the government taking charge of its sale, and ten years later, the net profits derived therefrom exceeded 930,000 pesos annually.

Of Aztec origin, like the pulque, is the sugar made of the sap of the maguey by condensation but its manufacture decreased after the introduction of the sugar-cane. In the second half of the eighteenth century the juice was also more freely employed in the distillation of a brandy called mescal. This branch, however, was little developed, owing to the efforts of the Spanish government to protect the industry of the mother country. Medicinal properties have also been attributed to the plant, but it does not appear to have come into general use for this purpose. In their