Throughout Zapotecapan and Miztecapan landed property was invariably transmitted from male to male, females being excluded from the succession. No one had the right to sell his land in perpetuity; the law forbade its transfer out of a family either by marriage or otherwise; and if a proprietor was compelled by the force of necessity to dispose of his real estate, it returned after the lapse of some years to his son or his nearest relative, who paid to the holder the consideration for which it had been pledged or its equivalent.[152] In Miztecapan the first-born son, before taking possession of his inheritance, had to do penance for a year; he was confined in a religious house, clothed in rags, daubed with India-rubber juice, and his face and body rubbed with fetid herbs; during that time he had to draw blood repeatedly from his body and limbs, and was subjected to hard labor and privation. At the expiration of the year he was washed with odorous water by four girls, and then conducted by friends to his house with great pomp and festivity.[153]
ESTATES IN MICHOACAN.
Early writers say nothing about the tenure of lands among the Tarascos of Michoacan, but merely state in general terms that the sovereign's power over the lives and property of his subjects was unlimited.[154]
The tenure of lands in the republic of Tlascala had its origin in the division made at the time when the country was first settled; which was as follows: Any Tecuhtli who established an entail, called teccalli, or pilcalli, took for his own use the best and largest part of the lands that fell to his lot or were awarded to him in the partition, including woods, springs, rivers, and lakes; of the remainder a fair division was made among his servitors and vassals, or, in other words, his soldiers, friends, and kinsmen. All were bound to keep the manor-house in repair and to supply their lord with game, flowers, and other comforts, and he in his turn, was expected to entertain, protect, and feed them in his house. To these kinsmen, friends, and servitors, was given the name of teixhuihuan, meaning the 'grand-children of the manor-house.' In this manner all the nobles divided their land. All were greatly respected by their vassals. They derived their income from the taxes that their tenants paid them out of what they obtained from the chase, from the soil, and by raising domestic animals.[155]
No information has reached us respecting the provisions under which land was held in Cholula and Huexotzinco, or among the Totonacs. In the province of Pánuco, the eldest son was the sole inheritor of land and, therefore, the only one that paid tribute; the other sons had to rent land from those who were in possession of it.[156]
There can be no doubt that in all this there is, as so many writers have observed, a strong resemblance to the feudal systems of Europe. The obligation of military service, and other relations of lord and vassal smack strongly of the institutions of the Middle Ages, but, as Mr Prescott says, the minor points of resemblance "fall far short of that harmonious system of reciprocal service and protection, which embraced, in nice gradation, every order of a feudal monarchy. The kingdoms of Anáhuac were, in their nature, despotic, attended, indeed, with many mitigating circumstances, unknown to the despotisms of the East; but it is chimerical to look for much in common—beyond a few accidental forms and ceremonies—with those aristocratic institutions of the Middle Ages, which made the court of every petty baron the precise image in miniature of that of his sovereign." I have no inclination to draw analogies, believing them, at least in a work of this kind, to be futile; and were I disposed to do so, space would not permit it. Nations in their infancy are almost as much alike as are human beings in their earlier years, and in studying these people I am struck at every turn by the similarity between certain of their customs and institutions and those of other nations; comparisons might be happily drawn between the division of lands in Anáhuac and that made by Lycurgus and Numa in Laconia and Rome, or between the relations of Aztec master and slave and those of Roman patron and client, for the former were nearly as mild as the latter; but the list of such comparisons would never be complete, and I am fain to leave them to the reader.
SYSTEM OF TAXATION.
The people of Anáhuac and of the surrounding countries paid taxes to the crown and to the temples, either with personal service or with the productions or results of their labor; in short, with everything useful. We have seen that in the kingdom of Tezcuco twenty-nine cities were appointed to provide the king's household with everything requisite of food, furniture, and so forth, and were, consequently, exempt from all other taxes. Fourteen of these cities served in this manner during one half of the year, and fifteen during the other half. They likewise furnished the workingmen and laborers, such as water-carriers, sweepers, tillers of the palace lands, and gardeners. Boys who were too young to do men's work were required to provide annually four hundred armfuls of wood for the fires which were kept up day and night in the principal rooms of the palace. The young men of Tollantzinco, either themselves or through their servants supplied fine rushes for mats, stools, or seats, called icpalli, pine-wood splinters for lighting fires, other wood for torches, acayetl, or pipes with tobacco, various kinds of dyes, liquid amber both in cakes and in vessels, copal incense in their golden cylinders, and a large quantity of other articles, which it is unnecessary to specify.[157] Manufacturers paid their taxes with the objects produced by their industry. Journeymen mechanics, such as carpenters, masons, workers in feathers and precious metals, and musicians, were, according to Oviedo, exempt from such tax, and in lieu thereof rendered personal service to the sovereign without remuneration.[158] Merchants paid their taxes with such articles as they traded in. The last class of tribute-payers were the tlamaitl, tenants attached to a nobleman's land, who tilled the same for their own benefit. They were obliged to do a certain amount of work every year for the landlord, and to render military service when it was required of them by the sovereign. Brasseur says that these tenants paid no tribute to the king, but his statement is contradicted by Clavigero.[159] Taxes paid in fruit and grain were collected immediately after harvest; other tributes were collected at different times through the year. In each town there was a magazine for storing the revenues, from which supplies were drawn as required. In the vicinity of Mexico it was customary to convey the agricultural produce into the capital, in order that the inhabitants, who, being surrounded with the waters of the lake, had no land of their own to cultivate, might be regularly supplied with food. There was no uniform system of collecting taxes from the merchants and manufacturers. Payments were made by them in accordance with their circumstances and the nature of the articles they contributed. There were about three hundred and seventy tributary towns in the Mexican empire, some of which paid their taxes every twenty days, and some every four days, while others only did so once in six months, or even only once a year. The people of Tlatelulco, says Purchas,[160] "were charged for tribute, alwayes to repaire the Church called Huiznahuac. Item, fortie great Baskets (of the bignesse of half a Bushell) of cacao ground, with the Meale of Maiz (which they called Chianpinoli,) and euery Basket had sixteene hundred Almonds of Cacao. Item, other fortie Baskets of Chianpinoli. Item, eight hundred burthens of great Mantels. Item, eightie pieces of Armour, of slight Feathers, and as many Targets of the same Feathers, of the deuices & colours as they are pictured. All the which tribute, except the said armes and targets they gaue euery 24. dayes,[161] and the said armes and targets they gaue for tribute but once in the whole yeere. The said tribute had his beginning since the time of Quauhtlatoa and Moquihuix, which were Lords of Tlatilulco. The Lords of Mexico, which first enioyned to those of Tlatilulco, to pay tribute, and to acknowledge their subiection, were Yzcoatçi and Axiacaçi." Sometimes merchants' guilds or individuals did not pay their taxes at the regular assessment of the town in which they lived, but did so according to prior arrangement made with the revenue officers.
TAXES PAID BY CITIES.
TAXES PAID IN VERMIN.
In addition to the taxes levied upon private individuals, each town contributed a large number of cotton garments, with a certain quantity of breadstuffs and feathers and such other productions as were a specialty of the province in which it was situated. Mazatlan, Xoconocho, Huehuetlan, and other towns on the Pacific coast, paid, besides the cotton garments, four thousand bundles of fine feathers of divers colors, two hundred sacks of cocoa, forty tiger-skins, and one hundred and sixty birds of a certain species. Coyolapan, Atlacuechahuaxan, Huaxyacac, and other towns of the Zapotecs, forty pieces of gold of a specified size, and twenty sacks of cochineal. Tlachquiauhco, Ayotlan, and Teotzapotlan, twenty vessels of a fixed size filled with gold dust. Tochtepec, Otlatitlan, Cozamalloapan, Michapan and other places on the gulf of Mexico, besides cotton garments, cocoa, and gold, paid twenty-four thousand bundles of exquisite feathers of various qualities and colors, six necklaces, two of which were of the finest emerald, and four of the commoner description, twenty ear-rings of amber set in gold, and an equal number made of crystal rock, one hundred pots of liquid amber, and sixteen thousand loads of India-rubber. Tepeyacac, Quecholac, Tecamachalco, Acatzinco and other towns of that region of country, each contributed four thousand sacks of lime, four thousand loads of solid reed for building purposes, with as many of smaller reed for making darts, and eight thousand loads of reeds filled with aromatic substances. Malinaltepec, Tlalcozauhtitlan, Olinallan, Ichcatlan, Qualac, and other southern towns situated in the warm region, paid each six hundred measures of honey, forty large jars of yellow ochre for paint, one hundred and sixty copper shields, forty round plates of gold of fixed dimensions, ten small measures of fine turquoises, and one load of smaller turquoises. Quauhnahuac, Panchimalco, Atlacholoayan, Xiuhtepec, Huitzilac, and other towns of the Tlahuicas, paid each sixteen thousand large leaves of paper, and four thousand xicalli, or gourds, of different sizes. Quauhtitlan, Tehuilloyocan, and other neighboring towns, each gave eight thousand mats and eight thousand icpalli, or stools. Some cities paid their taxes with fire-wood, stone, and beams for building; others with copal-gum; others sent to the royal houses and forests a certain number of birds and animals, such as Xilotepec, Michmaloyan, and other cities of the Otomís, which were each compelled to furnish yearly forty live eagles to the king. After the Matlaltzincas were made subject to the Mexican crown by King Axayacatl, they were required not only to pay a heavy tax in kind, but also to keep under cultivation a field of seven hundred toesas[162] by three hundred and fifty, for the benefit of the army. As the Saxon king imposed a tax of wolves' heads upon his subjects for the purpose of ridding his kingdom of those ravenous animals, so did the Mexican monarchs exact from those who were too poor to pay the regular taxes a certain quantity of snakes, scorpions, centipedes and other obnoxious creatures. Lice, especially, were contributed in large numbers in Mexico.[163] It is related that soon after Cortés arrived in the city of Mexico, certain cavaliers of his force, among whom were Alonso de Ojeda and Alonso de Mata, were roaming through the royal palace, admiring its great extent and all its wonders, doubtless with an eye to plunder, when they came across some bags, filled with some soft, fine, and weighty material; never doubting but that it must be valuable, they hastened to untie the mouth of one of the sacks, when to their disgust and disappointment they found its contents to consist of nothing but lice, which, as they afterwards ascertained, had been paid as tribute by the poor.[164] Duties were levied upon property, manufactures, and articles exposed for sale in the market-places, in proportion to the wealth of the person taxed or the value of the merchandise sold. Produce and merchandise of every description, carried into the city of Mexico, was subject to toll duties, which were paid into the royal treasury.