Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/582

562 A special council was created to manage the consolidation and direct the custom-houses, appointing also agents therein, at expense of creditors, to watch the collection of duty on their behalf. The issue of bonds for the new fund was fixed at forty million pesos, leaving an extorted gain for the treasury of nearly thirty millions. But several circumstances combined to interfere with the plan which aimed foremost at restoring the national credit, while relieving a burdened treasury. There was not a sufficient surplus from the indemnity to meet the demands assigned upon it by the funding law, and the prospect of guarantee for paying even the reduced interest appeared so slim that it assisted materially in raising a wide outcry against this partial repudiation of the debt. The proper step should have been to plan the reorganization of the finance department, notably by economic curtailments and establishing the necessary taxes for responding to the new funding law. Instead of this, a leap was made in the dark, with the result of exposing most glaringly the insolvent condition of the