Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/546

526 dollars, and four crystal and glass establishments producing to the value of $147,696. Earthen-ware of the finest quality has been made in New Spain from very early times.

There are no means of arriving at a correct estimate of the quantity of tobacco produced, nor of that actually manufactured in the country. Since 1765 the cultivation of the weed had been subject to the strictest supervision, the manufacture and sale being a government monopoly. But persons who had suitable land far away from that tyrannical inspection, more especially after the administration became unbalanced by the wars of independence, planted tobacco on a large scale in 1814 and 1815, and carried on their illicit business so boldly that the viceroy in 1816 ordered them to be vigorously prosecuted. After independence, the monopoly practically ceased for a while, but it was restored by the new government. In 1825 the factoría at Orizaba gathered about 20,450 bales, for which the planters received $1,151,684. In 1833 the estanco was again done away with, and the staple was exempted from primicias and tithes. This arrangement gave great impulse to the tobacco industry. But in 1837 the old system was restored, and the whole business of manufacture and sale was farmed out to a company; all the staple grown in the departments of Mexico, Puebla, Oajaca, and Vera Cruz was brought under it. Yucatan was exempted, but could send no tobacco to any other part of Mexico, except to deliver to the contractors. Vera Cruz emancipated herself from that thraldom in 1848 and 1849, but was subjected to it again by Santa Anna