Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/237

Rh French government objecting, the allowance stopped, and consequently any progress of army organization.

The temporary coöperation of Bazaine was greatly due to Maximilian's effort to retain French army officials for the finance department, thereby placing additional responsibility on their government. But all this had served merely to postpone the trouble. The budget for 1866 placed the expenses, with a low estimate, at over $35,000,000, and as the revenue in the preceding and far more prosperous year came to little more than half this amount, the outlook for the present one may be imagined. Among the measures adopted to meet a portion of the demand was a contribution on the net revenue of town and country estates of one sixth and one seventh respectively, and a tax of six and one quarter cents on each 50,000 square varas. But the difficulty with these and previous exactions was to collect them.