The actual property of this establishment has been variously estimated since the earliest period in which Mexican institutions have been described by European writers. The church in Mexico is known to be immensely rich, and that its real and personal property has been carefully managed by the large body of intelligent men who control its affairs. They prudently make no public or statistical expositions of their interests.
In 1807, Abad y Quiepo, in a communication to Don Manuel Sexto Espinosa, estimated the wealth of the church as follows:
| Real Estate, from $2,500,000 to | $ 3,000,000 |
| Personal Investments for secular clergy in 9 bishoprics, | 26,000,000 |
| Obras Pias in the church, of ecclesiastics of both sexes, | 2,500,000 |
| Total Fund of the churches and communities of ecclesiastics of both sexes, | 16,000,000 |
| Total | $47,500,000 |
In 1831, Don José Maria Mora, a Mexican writer, estimated the property of the church at a valuation of at least $75,000,000.[27]
In 1844,—and we may consider it nearly the same in 1850,—the church property was calculated as follows:
| Real estate—urban and rural, | $18,000,000 |
| Churches, houses, convents, curates' dwellings, furniture, jewels, sacred vessels and other personalities, | 52,000,000 |
| Floating capital, various funds in ecclesiastical treasuries, and the capital required to produce the sum annually received by the Mexican clergy in alms, diezmos, dues, &c. &c., | 20,000,000 |
| Total, | $90,000,000 |
The real estate of the church is estimated by Señor Otero,—from whose work on the social and political condition of Mexico, this calculation is taken,—to have been worth at least 25 per cent. more before the revolution; and, to this increased value must be added about $115,000,000 of capital founded on contribuciones, derechos reales, and other imposts which were laid on the property of the country for the benefit of the clergy.[28]
It is not to be supposed that the 2,000 nuns are of ecclesiastical importance except for charitable and educational purposes;—if we deduct their number, therefore, from the 1,700 monks and 3,500 secular clergy, we shall have only 3,200 men devoted to the spiritual wants of more than seven and a half millions or, 2,383 individuals assigned to the ecclesiastical charge of each priest, monk or curate. And yet, among these men, chiefly, the avails of probably more than $90,000,000 of property are to be annually distributed or consolidated in a country from which they are constantly asking alms instead of bestowing them.
The value of their churches, the extent of their city property, the power they possess as lenders and mortgagees in Mexico, where there are no banks, and the enormous masses of church plate, golden ornaments and jewels, will swell the above statements and estimates of the church's wealth to nearer one hundred millions than ninety, or to about $88,000,000 less than it was before the rebellion against Spain; at which period the number of ecclesiastics was about 10,000; or 13,000, if the lay brethren and subordinates are included in the ecclesiastical census.[29]