[439] Archivo de Simancas, Libro 40, fol. 57.
[440] Ibidem, fol. 74.
The Contratacion could furnish only the records of silver passing through it, which were always liable to seizure by the king. The great remittances of 1646 and 1648 were cautiously made in bills of exchange, and this was probably the rule.
[441] Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Lib. 40, fol. 77.
[442] Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Lib. 40, fol. 85, 139.
The letter-book of the tribunal from 1642 to 1649 is largely filled with minute instructions as to the sequestrations which accompanied arrests and the management of the property seized. Though called sequestration this was really confiscation for, without awaiting the conviction of the accused, the assets were converted into money as rapidly as possible, by auctions in which of course much was sacrificed. The proceedings were most arbitrary. In a letter of October 21, 1645, the commissioner at Vera Cruz is instructed as to some cocoa belonging to prisoners, either on hand or expected to arrive. Trains of pack-mules were to be seized, no matter under what engagements they might be, to hurry the goods to Mexico and no other cocoa was to be allowed to come, so that this might bring a better price. A few weeks earlier, on September 25th, orders were sent for the arrest of Captain Fernando Moreno of Miaguatlan (Oaxaca), who was claimed to be a debtor to the fisc. He was to be seized suddenly and hurried off, heavily ironed, to Mexico, while his property was taken possession of. He was engaged in large transactions of making advances to Indians for cotton yarn and cochineal and minute instructions were given as to gathering in the product of these advances, which would be an affair of time. All this work had to be gratuitous. When on one occasion a familiar and a notary charged for their labor, they were compelled to refund and were told that the honor of serving the Inquisition was sufficient payment.—MSS. of David Fergusson Esqr.
[443] Bibl. nacional, MSS., D, 150, p. 224.
[444] Archivo de Simancas, Lib. 40, fol. 218, 328.
[445] Archivo de Simancas, fol. 85, 139. In 1631 the vara, or wand of office of alguazil, was sold in Castile and, in 1634, the Suprema sought to extend this to the Colonies, under pretext of applying it to the repairs of the Castle of Triana, the home of the tribunal of Seville. The Council of Indies stoutly resisted it and a consulta of November 16, 1638, shows that the struggle was still going on (Ibidem, Libro 21, fol. 162). The Suprema finally won, but of course it absorbed the proceeds and the castle was repaired by means of the levy known as the Fabrica de Sevilla, which continued to be collected in the nineteenth century.
It is probable that the amount attributed to the sale of varas is largely exaggerated. In 1652 there came a remittance from Mexico of 2298 pesos, of which 1711 were the proceeds of sales and 587 for the media añata—a tax of half of the first year’s salary of those appointed to office (Ibidem, Lib. 40, fol. 295).