THE SPANISH ADMINISTRATION. 77 



The exclusive mercantile system to which the country was subjected during 

 the Si^anish rule had the effect, so to say, of sequestrating JN'ew Spain, and of 

 concealing from the eyes of the world the changes that had been accomplished 

 since the days of the conquest. It was in fact a system of absolute monopoly. 

 From the standpoint of the Spanish Government, the Aztec populations existed 

 only for the purpose of enriching the treasury and the commercial " farmers- 

 general." But these vast monopolies, and the incessant manipulation of the 

 customs, combined with the oppression and empoverishment of the natives, 

 naturally resulted in exhausting the sources of all trade. 



All violation of the fiscal laws was severely punished, and often involved the 

 death of the offender. All trading relations with strangers were interdicted 

 under pain of death ; even shipwrecked mariners were thrown into prison, and 

 occasionally even executed, to prevent them from entering into commercial 

 relations with the natives ; the very highways leading seawards were systematic- 

 ally abandoned, and the Mexican seaboard became a wilderness. Thus the 

 English navigator, George Anson, warned by the Indians of the neighbourhood, 

 was able to put into the port of Siguantaneo (Zehuatanejo), between the two 

 hostile garrisons of Zacatula and Acapulco, and wait quietly for the sailing of 

 the valuable galleon freighted with ingots for Manilla. 



The system was at last pushed so far that the fleet destined for Sj^ain was only 

 allowed to sail every third year, and to make for any other port but Seville or 

 Cadiz was declared to be a crime, against the State. The search for quicksilver 

 mines was prohibited in order to maintain the monopoly of the Almaden mines in 

 the south of Spain. Till the j'ear 1803, the Mexicans were forbidden to cultivate 

 the vine ; it has even been asserted that Hidalgo first raised the standard of revolt 

 in the Dolores district, because this revolutionary parish priest had been compelled 

 to destroy his vineyards. The olive was also interdicted, as well as many other 

 plants whose products might replace those introduced from Spain ; even these 

 were imported only in small quantities to keep up the tariff of high prices. 



At one time the people were forbidden to brew any more pulque, the national 

 drink extracted from the maguey plant, the sale of which interfered with that of the 

 Catalanian brandies. In the same way certain trades were officially abolished as 

 being prejudicial to the national industries of the Peninsula, or rather to the 

 interest of a few private speculators. Even so late as 1819 a royal decree pro- 

 hibited foreign vessels from entering the port of Vera Cruz " under any pretext." 



Such an administration could end only in the total ruin of the colony, or in a 

 revolution. The moment the mother country became engaged in a war of inde- 

 pendence against the French, and was thus obliged to leave her ultramarine posses- 

 sions almost entirely to themselves, a change of the political equilibrium became 

 inevitable. The imprisonment of the Spanish Viceroy, Itturigaray, in 1806, by 

 th.e other members of the State Council, may be said to have been the first act in 

 the Mexican Revolution. 



Doubtless the Creoles were far from being unanimous in their opposition to the 

 old order of things, and many even allowed themselves to be seduced by titles, 



