Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/690

670 Laws were also passed to the effect that the officials of the mint should be appointed every two years, and by the viceroy only; that civil suits against employés in the mint be adjudged by the alcaldes of the mint, and by no other judicial authority; and that no silver should be received unless it bore the stamp which certified that the royal fifth had been satisfied. Persons who contravened this law were to suffer death and confiscation of property. The silver thus presented was to be seized. No official could buy or sell bullion.

It must not be supposed that the appointment of the mint officials by the king or viceroy constituted them royal officers. From its first establishment the mint was leased to private individuals, and the officials were as yet in the service of the lessees and not of the crown, which, however, retained the right of their appointment. The work of improving the specie system of exchange was at once begun. In 1536 the tepuzque coinage, the value of which had been arbitrary, fluctuating, and above par, was ordered to be called in and recoined into pieces of oro de minas. A large quantity of silver coin was struck off the