22. Application of all that has been said to the subject of the fifth or tenth duty payable to the crown.

23. A fifth, tenth, or twentieth part of the produce of the mines of the Indies, has been levied at different times, and under different circumstances.

24. Purchasers continued liable to pay a fifth, but subsequently have been charged with a tenth only.

25. A gracious concession to the kingdom of Guatemala, in respect to the fith duty upon gold.

26. Reasoning in justification of this deviation, and shewing how frequently an abatement of duty becomes necessary.

27. The tenth is levied upon gold and other metals, without any distinction of persons; practical course of proceeding in respect thereof; where, how and when, a fifth ought to be levied; of the penalty for transgressing these rules, and the mode of estimating the amount of the duty.

28. For the prevention of fraud, the nonpayment of the fifth is not corrected by bringing in the bullion to be stamped at any of the ports, except that of Vera Cruz; and why? The markets of the fleet, now re-established at Xalapa, tend to prevent contraband dealings.

29. Gold and silver being wrought without having paid the fifth, are liable to confiscation; but this penalty is usually dispensed with.

30 and 31. The Duke de la Palata prohibited the exportation of wrought silver from Peru to Spain. A statement of the order, which was confirmed by the king, with the qualification that it was to be only temporary.

32. Old silver, and such as is procured by burning silver tissues, does not pay the fifth. 33. The exercise of the business of a silversmith was prohibited in Mexico, in the year 1551, but was permitted again in 1559. It is advisable to pay the fifth upon table services of plate taken in execution, or enumerated in inventories.

34. Plate used for the service of the church, or the pontifical ornaments of a bishop, are exempted from the payment of the fifth, but none other.

35. A determination of the crown, as to bullion and worked plate, being the property of a deceased prelate, which had not paid the fifth.

36. An estimate of the amount this department brings in to the crown.

37. The fifth is payable on lead, and the other metals.

38, 39 and 40. Saltpetre, copper, alum and gunpowder are the subjects of monopolies, and the duty is included in the rent reserved.

COMMENTARY.

1. All these different heads of the ordinance relate to one object, namely, the right of the crown and the subject, respectively, to the ores produced from the mines, and the proportions which they ought severally to take; the rules on which subject we are about to trace briefly from their source. By the edict of Alphonso XI., in the year 1345, the ores of all mines in common ground belong to the crown. After this, John I. by an edict,† dated

* Law 2, title 13, book 2, of the Collection of Castile. shall pay us the proceeds of the whole of it."

"Wherefore we command that they

† Law 3, title 13, book 6, of the Collection. "First, that he who shall raise it, shall deduct all the expenses he may have incurred in digging and raising it, and after deducting such expenses, the third part shall be for him who shall have raised it, and the other two thirds for our. selves."

in the year 1387, ordered, that the expenses being first deducted, two third parts of the produce should go to the crown, and one third to the proprietor.

2. By an edict issued in the year 1559, by the Princess Joanna, in the absence of Philip II.* this last rule was established generally and without distinction; but if, after deducting the expenses, the miner's third part amounted to 100,000 ducats, he was thenceforth allowed the fourth part only; and if he realised 200,000 ducats, then he was to have the fifth part only; to which proportion he was to continue entitled, without further reduc tion, however profitable the mine might prove to be.†

3. About four years afterwards, in the year 1563, this rule was totally altered by an edict of Philip II. in which the subject is divided into several heads.‡ When the produce of the mine gave a marc and a half per quintal, or under, the duty was rated at one eighth, without deducting expenses ;§ thence to 3 marcs, at one fourth ;|| above 3 marcs, and up to 6 mares, at one third; and above 6 marcs, at one half, whatever the produce might be, and whether expected or not.** The produce of the gold mines was charged with a duty of one half, without deducting expenses. The produce of old silver mines, which had been once abandoned (having been sunk to the depth of 20 or more estados), if amounting to a mare and a half per quintal, was - charged with an eighth part. If yielding more, they were to pay as new mines. The produce of the heaps of refuse belonging to such old mines, was made liable to pay one fifth ;§§ and the silver from the heaps of slag, one twentieth part; all clear of expenses. The lead, litharge, impregnated cupels and sweepings, resulting from the process of refining, were declared free of duty.¶¶ Poor lead, which would not bare refining, and not yield more than 4 reals of silver per quintal, was charged with a fifteenth part; copper was charged with a twentieth part, and if it contained gold, one fourth part of the gold was payable over and above the duty on the copper; if it contained silver, such silver was liable to one half the duty payable on silver produced from the mines, over and above the duty on the copper, and antimony paid an eighth part.***

4. By the new edict, and the ordinances of the new code, issued by Philip II. in the year 1584, twenty-one years after, an abatement of duty was made, upon the following scale.††† The produce of mines yielding from 1 to 12 ounces, was decreed to pay a tenth part; from 12 ounces to 4 marcs,

a fifth part; from 4 to 6 marcs, a fourth part; and above 6 marcs, one half. The produce of gold mines was charged with one half. The produce of old mines, abandoned before the issue of the edict, and worked to the depth of 10 or more estados, if yielding 2 marcs or under per quintal, was charged with a twelfth part; if yielding more, then with the same duty as the produce of new mines. The produce of old heaps of refuse and slag, was decreed to pay a tenth part; but if smelted with an intermixture of other ores, then (in consideration of the intermixture of new ores), such produce was made liable to pay in the same proportion as the produce of other mines. Lead, litharge, impregnated cupels and sweepings, and every thing else resulting from the process of refining, were made free of duty. Copper was made liable to pay a thirtieth part, besides which, if it contained gold or silver, the gold was decreed to pay a sixth part, and the silver one half the usual amount of duty payable on that metal. Antimony was charged with a tenth part. Lead, yielding not more than four reals of silver per quintal, a twentieth part. And these duties were to be paid in silver, and not in ore; and without deducting anything for expenses.

5. Afterwards by an edict of the 18th of August, 1607,* Philip III. premising that experience had shewn that it was necessary and expedient for the crown, and would be advantageous to the kingdom and its inhabitants at large, to extend more grace and favour to the discoverers of mines, than had been granted by the aforesaid ordinances of his father, in order to facilitate the payment and recovery of the said duties, and other matters; ordered, that during the next ten years, one fifteenth should be paid by way of duty; during the ten years next subsequent, one tenth; and thenceforth, one fifth.

6. From the alterations which appear, by these laws, to have been made in the rate of the duties in the space of so few years (and which were doubtless ordered with the view of stimulating the subject to work the mines, by leaving him a large return for his anxiety, expense and labour), the richness of the mines of Spain, in early times, is apparent; for the one third remaining after the payment of two third parts to the king (first deducting the expenses), must have given a profit; and it appears to have been regarded as no unusual thing for this one third part to amount to 100,000 or 200,000 ducats. And a similar remark will apply, even after the promulgation of the last edict, whence it is to be inferred, either that the ore was very rich (or at least of very fair quality), or that the important items of quicksilver, iron and steel, being produced within the kingdom of Spain, the expenses were smaller on that account, and admitted of a larger profit.

7. In the history of the Maccabees, where the great power of the Romans is described, it is mentioned as one of their mighty acts in Spain, that they had

Law 10, title 13, book 6, Collection of Castile.

made themselves masters of the rich ores of gold and silver.

From no other country (according to Fray Juan de la Puente, who cites Solinus, Pliny, Lucius, Florus, Strabo, Posidonius, Polybius, Aristotle, Diodorus Siculus, Herodotus and other Greek and Latin authors), could so great an abundance of these rich ores be procured.† He states, upon the authority of Strabo,‡ that during a conflagration on the Pyrenees, streams of gold and silver flowed down their sides; that all the mountains and hills of Spain afford the materials for money, and that that country is an inexhaustible source of metallic ore; that Plutus, the god of riches, holds his habitation beneath its surface, and that the Carthaginians, on their landing there, found the basins and even the mangers made of silver. And he likewise asserts, quoting Aristotle, that upon the ancient Phoenicians§ navigating to Tartessus, the Spaniards gave them, in exchange for oil and other ordinary merchandise, more silver than the ships were capable of conveying; and that upon setting sail, they not only made their common utensils, but even their anchors, of silver. But of all the writers on this subject, Don Antonio Carrillo Lasso is the most deserving of attention, he having collected, with admirable erudition, many most remarkable and wonderful instances,|| in reference to all the different provinces of Spain, and with the view of shewing, that as they yielded, in former times, such immense riches, so might they in these times be rendered equally productive. This subject has, in fact, been treated by so many authors, that it would be easy to compile volumes of such observations.

8. It is, however, quite enough to look at our laws and ordinances, by which it appears, that the reason of Philip II. annexing the mines to the royal patrimony was, that it had been understood from of cld, that they were very rich and abundant.** But the same laws also tell us, that these riches had, many years before their time, vanished into empty air, and that in later times, the greatest scarcity of money had been experienced. According to the laws of the title concerning provisions, in the year 1433, the expense of the king's provisions, when he came in person to any city,

*Machabeor, 1. c. 8, v. 3. "Et quanta fecerunt in regione Hispaniæ, et quod in protestatem redegerunt metalla argenti et auri quæ illic sunt."

† Fr. Juan de la Puente, Conveniencia de las dos Monarquias, lib. 3, cap. 6, §. 4, in cap. 16, §. 3.

Lib. 3, de situ orbis.

§ Lib. 1, de mirabilibus auscult. ad fin.

|| Carrillo Lasso, Descripcion de las antiguas minas de Espana, in all his three chapters. ¶ Carranza Ajustamiento y propercion de moneda, p. 1, cap. 1, per tot. P. Pineda, in Salom. lib. 4, cap. 14 and 15, Malvenda, de Antichrist page 333, Duarte, in Monarch. lib. 3, et cum bis Solorz Pilot. lib. 6, cap. 1, n. 3, and tom 2, de jur. Indiar. lib. 1, cap. 13, n. 47 and 48, and cap. 16, n. 77, and lib. 5, cap. unic. n. 10. P. Mariana, de reb. Hispaniæ, D. Pedro Peralta, Historia de Espana vindicada, lib. 1, cap. 2, page 59 and 60. Blasius Caryophil, de antiquis aur. argentique fodinis, part 10, et seq. et ex antiquis innumeri apud hos.

** Law 4, tit. 13, lib. 6, of Castile.

amounted to 600 maravedis,* or at most to 1200, those of the queen to 800, and of the prince to 600.† In the year 1368, John I. under the advice of all the great men and nobles of the kingdom, issued an edict, fixing the price of provisions and other articles at rates so low, as to shew, that a great want of specie must have been experienced before the discovery of America. This edict may also be seen in Mariana and Bordazar, and in the Memorial of the imperial city of Toledo, upon the equalisation of weights and measures, lately printed.‡

* A maravedi de plata is d. 0, 143 British; a maravedi vellon is d. 0, 076 British. Kelly's Cambist, vol. 1, p. 318. It is presumed the former are meant.-Trans.

† Laws 1 and 2, tit. 12, book 6, Collection of Castile.

P. Mariana, de ponderic et mensur. cap. 23. "Ex ea pecuniæ varietate, sed et minori copia argenti, factum est ut superioribus temporibus pretia rerum multo minora quam notro fuisse videantur, quod in historiis nostratibus maxime observavimus rerum gestarum in Hispania ante ducentos circiter annos, fanecam hordei, hoc est modios sex, duobus tantum marave. dinis emi consuevisse, at vero in summa caritate annonæ ad maravedinos triginta crevisse; cupretio aliarum rerum pretia respondebant proportione quadam." And he proceeds to insert the decree in Latin, verbatim. Antonio Bordazar de Artazu, Proporcion de monedas pesos, y medidas, trat. 1. de monedas, pag. 96, n. 258, recites the decree and says :-"I shall make a short digression in order to shew, in the varying condition of mankind, how great the value of gold and silver was in former times, compared with the present, if measured by the amount of goods given in exchange for them; which change of value may be explained, either upon the ground of the scarcity of the precious metals in former times, before the discovery of America, or by taking into view the calamities of the present times, the price of provisions having been increased by war and famine, or by reference to both these considerations. Father Mariana, in his work de ponder. et mensur. cap. 23, sets forth a law issued by John I. of Castile, in the year of our Lord, 1368, whereby, under the advice of the nobles and other great men, he fixed the price of provisions and other articles of trade, as follows;-The bushel of wheat to be sold at 15 maravedis; of farrago at 4; of barley at 10; of oats at 8; 4 half gallons of old wine at 3 maravedis; of new wine at 2; and when sold by the cask, a fourteenth part to be taken off. French cloth at 60 maravedis a yard; that of Flanders or England at 50. The purple cloth of Flanders at 100 maravedis; that of Ypres at 110 maravedis. And none but ladies were to dress in London, Brussels, Montpellier or Valencia cloth, without permission from the king. A day labourer was to have, from November to March, 3 maravedis per day; and a female 10 dineros, working from sunrise to sunset; from March to November, 4; and a female 2. For ploughing a whole day, each team, 10 maravedis. For getting in the vintage, a man and ass, 7. A domestic servant, 100 maravedis per annum; a female domestic servant, 50; and a housekeeper, 40. Shoes of goat hide, 6 maravedis. A horse's saddle, 100 maravedis; a mule's saddle, 20; a bit, I maravedi. To a silver-smith, for working plate, 15 maravedis per marc, or if very neat workmanship, 20. A shield or double target, 20 maravedis; if painted, 25; if gilt, 30. For grinding wheat, 2 maravedis per bushel, 1000 tiles, 60 Maravedis; 1000 bricks, 55. A bushel of plaster of Paris, 6; of lime, 5 maravedis. An ox, 200 maravedis, and a yearling calf, 180. A pound of good mutton, 2 maravedis. Hucksters were to sell a sucking pig at 8 maravedis, a hare at 3, a rabit at 2, a hen at 4, a goose at 6, a pigeon at 3, and a partridge at 5; but journeymen mechanics, and even master workmen, were not permitted to purchase them, except on the occasion of a wedding, or at Easter." The report of the imperial city of Toledo, on the equalization of weights and measures, page 109, sets forth the same decree, and mentions that Father Mariana must have been mistaken either in the date or in the name of the king, or in both; for that this edict or ordinance is one of Henry II.; and it gives, at page 113, a precise description of the king's banquets.