Benito Juarez to To the citizen Blas Balcarcel, November 19, 1867

Department of Fomento, Colonization, Industry, and Commerce.–Section 3.

The citizen President of the republic has addressed to me the following decree:

Benito Juarez, constitutional President of the United Mexican States, to the inhabitants of the same, be it known, that—

Considering that the impost known under the name of “peajes,” (tolls on the public highways,) is the cause, to those who are subject to it, of detention and injury, which weighs particularly on the poorer class of the population;

Considering that it is desirable to adjust, as early as possible, the collection of taxes in such a manner as to facilitate the future establishment of the complete liberty of interior commerce;

Considering, finally, that the effects which, by this law, are to be taxed, are those which really make the most use of the roads, and should, therefore, supply the means for their repair;

I have thought proper, in use of the faculties with which I am invested, to decree as follows:

Article 1. The tax known under the name of “peaces,” (road tolls,) is abolished in all the republic.

Art. 2. To provide means for the opening and repairing of roads, the following taxes are established:

1. Fifty cents per annum per thousand on the value of rural property in the republic, payable every four months in advance.

2. Fifty cents per annum per thousand on the value of all manufactories and mills, payable also every four months in advance.

3. A duty of one dollar on every two hundred pounds upon all foreign effects introduced at the maritime or frontier custom-houses of the republic.

4. Enterprises of carriages for the transportation of passengers shall pay one cent for each kilometer of road over which their carriages run. This payment shall be made at the end of every month, computing the distance run by the number of trips each carriage has made during the month.

Art. 3. The collection of the taxes imposed by this law on rural property, manufactories and mills, shall be made by the respective chief treasury officers, and in the federal district by the office of direct contributions.

Art. 4. The collection of the duty upon foreign effects shall be made also upon machinery and other objects heretofore excepted from duty by law, and such exemption shall hereafter be enjoyed only by such objects as are included in the special privileges heretofore given, or that may hereafter be conceded. Such collection shall be made by the collectors of the maritime and frontier custom-houses, who shall place the funds so received at the disposal of the department of fomento, without the right, in any case, of diverting them from the use to which they are destined.

Art. 5. The department of fomento is authorized to change, when it shall be deemed necessary, the manner of collecting the imposts herein referred to.

Art. 6. The product of these imposts shall remain exclusively destined to the construction of the roads.

Art. 7. The imposts established by this law shall commence to be collected from the 1st of January, 1868.

Transitory article.—In order that the department of fomento shall not be without the necessary funds for the repairing of the roads, the collection of the tolls heretofore established shall continue until the last day of January, 1868.

Wherefore, I order that the same be printed, published, and circulated, and that due compliance be given to it.