Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/682

662 to the proper equipment of all government vessels, and collect all duties.

Apart from these great sources of revenue, enormous profits accrued to the crown from the royal monopolies and the sale of offices. Salt, gunpowder, tobacco, and quicksilver were the most important of the monopolies. The first of these established in New Spain was that of quicksilver. For some years after the conquest, gold and silver were obtained without the necessity of quicksilver, or even a knowledge of its amalgamating properties, until, as we have seen, in 1557 Bartolomé de Medina, a miner of Pachuca, discovered the process of quicksilver amalgamation. The consequent demand was at once turned by the crown to an additional means of profit, and on the 4th of March 1559 a royal cédula was issued prohibiting the importation of quicksilver from the Peninsula and Peru into New Spain, even in the smallest quantity, except through the treasury department. The net proceeds of this branch for the years 1779 to 1789 inclusive amounted to $4,745,318.

Then followed the prohibitions on the manufacture of gunpowder and salt, stringent regulations with