300 BULL OF CONFESSION, 



"vemmentj it may be mentioned, that the exactions 

 in the shape of taxes, tithes, and duties, were le- 

 vied with a degree of severity unknown in any 

 country, except, perhaps, in Spain. The duties 

 on the precious metals at the mouth of the mine, 

 though latterly much reduced, by the impossibi- 

 lity of collecting the nominal amount, were, to the 

 last hour of Spanish authority, a great and for- 

 midable impediment to industry. Tobacco, salt, 

 gunpowder, and quicksilver, were close royal mo- 

 nopolies, the effect of which exclusion was not 

 only to prevent the people from having an ade- 

 quate supply of these articles, even at an im- 

 mensely augmented price, but to deprive the go- 

 vernment of a large revenue, which they might 

 have obtained by a wiser system. 



The horrible Alcavala, the most vexatious of 

 taxes, as it is levied ad infinitum upon every 

 transfer of goods, pressed heavily upon all classes. 

 Nothing escaped the tithes, and every individual 

 in the country was compelled annually to pur- 

 chase a certain number of the Pope^s bulls, under 

 a penalty of forfeiting various important advan- 

 tages. A man, for instance, who had not in his 



