TRADE  IN  CINCHONA  BARK  IN  BOLIVIA. 
541 
chona  bark  of  the  republic,  limiting  the  contract  to  a  duration  of 
two  years.    No  one,  however,  offered  to  accept  it. 
The  year  following  (1845)  the  basis  of  the  agreement  offered 
by  the  government  was  modified,  and  the  monopoly  finally  adjudi- 
cated to  Messrs.  Jorge  Tesanos  Pinto  and  Co.,  for  the  annual  sum 
of  119,000  piastres,  and  for  a  period  of  five  years,  during  which 
the  annual  export  might  not.  exceed  four  thousand  quintals,  or 
during  the  whole  time,  20,000  quintals,  or  2,000,000  pounds. 
It  appears  that  the  congress  of  1846,  to  which  Ballivian  sub- 
mitted the  plan  adopted  by  his  government,  gave  it  its  approbation, 
but  the  low  price  at  which  the  company  purchased  the  barks  of 
those  who,  with  immense  toil  had  collected  them  in  the  depths  of 
the  forests,  rendered  it  very  unpopular,  and  it  ceased  not,  from  the 
time  of  its  foundation,  to  excite  public  complaint,  until  at  last  a 
decree  of  General  Belzu,  dated  17th  March,  1849,  put  an  end  to 
its  existence.  Happily  for  the  company,  its  coffers  had  already 
been  long  since  filled. 
Unrestricted  trade  with  a  duty  of  twenty  piastres  per  quintal  was 
immediately  re-established,  until  a  new  company  could  be  formed 
upon  the  conditions  laid  down  in  the  laws  of  1834  and  1844,  which 
indeed  had  been  attempted,  but  with  no  greater  success  than  on 
the  first  occasion.  Recourse  was  then  again  had  to  the  public, 
and  the  offers  of  Messrs.  Aramayo,  Brothers  and  Co.,  towards  the 
end  of  the  year  1849,  were  accepted. 
The  new  society,  whose  operations  commenced  on  the  1st  of 
April,  1850,  was  to  pay  to  the  government  the  yearly  sum  of 
142,000  piastres  for  the  right  of  exporting  annually  7000  quintals 
of  barks,  binding  itself  to  purchase  the  said  barks  of  any  one  of- 
fering them  ;  the  large  bark  or  Calisaya  tabla  at  the  rate  of  60 
piastres  per  quintal,  and  the  thin  or  rolled  barks,  known  as  Char  que 
and  Canuto,  at  the  rate  of  36  or  30  piastres  per  quintal  of  100 
Spanish  pounds. 
But  the  Pinto  Company  paid  for  the  Tabla  but  from  eighteen 
to  twenty-two  piastres,  and  for  the  Canuto  from  eight  to  ten 
piastres  per  quintal.  One  may  judge  then  under  what  favorable 
auspices  the  new  monopolists  commenced  operations ;  but  the  har- 
mony was  riot  to  last  long.  The  advantageous  conditions  which 
were  offered  to  the  cascarilleros,  so  different  from  those  to  which 
they  had  been  accustomed,  induced  so  great  a  number  to  engage 
