Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/642

622 were issued in Mexico, severe penalties forbade all persons interested in or connected with mining to employ native jewellers for making ornaments either of gold or silver. Thus European designs and methods prevailed, and although the manufacture of jewelry was extensively pursued, the style led in another direction, and processes which had only been known to the native workmen were irretrievably lost.

All jewellers were obliged to have their establishments in a certain street, and were forbidden to work any metal unless the payment of the king's fifth had been proved; nor were they allowed to employ coined gold or silver. Since early times they had been incorporated as a guild, with a patron-saint of their own, and subject to certain regulations or statutes. Nevertheless there is no doubt that contraband trading was carried on in this branch as in most others, and therefore some addition must be made to the official returns, which indicate for the beginning of this century an average value of $270,000 for the gold and silver manufactured every year.

The question has often been brought forward whether the agricultural and industrial resources of New Spain were sufficient to place her on an independent footing, and the answer has frequently been based on the condition of the country at the close of the eighteenth century. The propriety of selecting that epoch is at least doubtful, considering 'the character and influence of the Spanish dominion during the preceding three hundred years. Allusion has often been made to the policy of the government toward New Spain in all affairs where the interest of