Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/650

630 But apart from the commercial restrictions imposed upon the colonists by the home government, there were other causes, internal and external, which operated disastrously upon trade, and kept it in an almost continual state of depression. Forced loans and demands of the king for money flooding the market with copper coinage, the interference of the church, the arbitrary action of civil authorities, and contraband trade, each in greater or less degree had an unfavorable influence on legitimate commerce.

But the blows which were most destructive to commercial prosperity were the losses inflicted by the English, French, and Dutch navies in time of hostilities, and the depredations committed by corsairs alike during war and peace. In time of war commerce with the mother country was reduced to the lowest ebb; European goods were poured into the Spanish colonies by neutrals, and the contraband trade was almost openly carried on. In the general necessity during such periods the authorities and custom-house officers relaxed their strictness; the prohibitive system was widely ignored, and illicit trade carried on in spite of all the measures employed by kings and viceroys to