MEXICO UNDER RE VILLA-GIGEDO I. FERDINAND VI. 235 



enlightened nobleman the colony prospered rapidly, and his services 

 in increasing the royal revenues were so signally successful that 

 he was retained in power for nine years. Mexico had become a 

 large and beautiful city. The mining districts were extraordinarily 

 prolific, and no year of his government yielded less than eleven 

 millions of dollars; — the whole sum that passed through the 

 national mint during his term being one hundred and fourteen 

 millions, two hundred and thirty-one thousand dollars of the pre- 

 cious metals ! The population of the capital amounted to fifty 

 thousand families composed of Spaniards, Europeans and Creoles, 

 — forty thousand mestizos, mulattoes, negroes, — and eight thou- 

 sand Indians, who inhabited the suburbs. This population annu- 

 ally consumed at least two millions arobas of flour, about a hundred 

 and sixty thousand fanegas of corn, three hundred thousand sheep, 

 fifteen thousand five hundred beeves, and about twenty-five thou- 

 sand swine. In this account, the consumption of many religious 

 establishments is not included, as they were privately supplied 

 from their estates, nor can we count the numerous and valuable 

 presents which were sent by residents of the country to their friends 

 in the capital. 



It has been already said that this viceroy augmented largely the 

 income of Spain. The taxes of the capital, accounted for by the 

 Consulado, were collected yearly, and amounted to three hundred 

 and thirty-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three dollars, 

 whilst those of the whole viceroyalty reached seven hundred and 

 eighteen thousand, three hundred and seventy-five. The income 

 from pulque alone, — the favorite drink of the masses, — was one 

 hundred and seventy-two thousand dollars, while other imposts 

 swelled the gross income in proportion. 



The collection of tributes was not effected invariably in the same 

 manner throughout the territory of New Spain. In Mexico the 

 Administrador- General imposed this task on the justices whose 

 duty it was to watch over the Indians. The aborigines in the 

 capital were divided into two sections, one comprising the Teno- 

 chas of San Juan, and the other the Tlaltelolcos of Santiago, both 

 of which had their governors and other police officers, according 

 to Spanish custom. The first of these bands, dwelling on the 

 north and east of the capital, was, in the olden time, the most 

 powerful and noble, and at that period numbered five thousand 

 nine hundred families. The other division, existing on the west 

 and south, was reduced to two thousand five hundred families. In 



