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Rh regard to the production and sale of which articles were enacted. The most productive of all the monopolies, however, was that of tobacco, which was established in 1765 by Visitador Galvez, and yielded to the treasury during the forty-five following years $123,808,685.

There were moreover other monopolies of greater or less values, from that of stamped paper to that of ice brought from the mountains. The regulations with regard to stamped paper were especially vexatious, as no civil business transaction, whether public or private, was legal unless written on this paper. The stamps were of four different values varying from three dollars to one sixteenth of a dollar, and every instrument, deed, judicial record, will, or contract had to be legalized by one or another according to the importance of the document.

Charles V. by cédula of August 27, 1529, absolutely prohibited gambling; but Philip II. considered that the vice could be turned to profit, and in 1552 ordered a royal monopoly on playing-cards to be established throughout his western dominions. The

the management of it, established a separate department with a full staff of officers and agents, and in 1798 the net proceeds of this branch amounted to 490,226 pesos. ''Notic. de N. Exp. in Soc. Mex. Geog.,'' ii. 25. Fonseca and ''Urritia, Hist. Heal Hac.,'' ii. 190-5. Revilla Gigedo, Instruc., MS., ii. 212-28, 483-5.