José Maria Campas to The Emperor, January 28, 1867

[From the Diario del Imperio, February 4, 1867.—Translation.]

Sire: In the report which I had the honor to present to your majesty upon the resources on which you can rely to cover the public expenses, I made known the necessity of an extraordinary expedient for the formation of a fund wherewith to equalize, as far as practicable, the income and disbursements, while the laws for contributions are in progress of execution, and produce the result which I expect from them; since, for the moment, the want is seriously felt of the products of the maritime custom-house of Vera Cruz, which to-day cannot be disposed of. I indicate to your majesty the extraordinary recourse of a forced loan, not because this odious means of providing resources forms a part of my system, but because, after having endeavored to contract a small voluntary loan, to be promptly returned under sufficient guarantee, it was brought to my notice, in the name of several proprietors, that the exaction of a loan, with the character of a forced loan, would be well received, and would be collected without contradiction. Under this impression I adopted the means, although with repugnance, consigning at once the products of a branch of the treasury to the reimbursement of the contractors of the loan. But if, in fact, some few of the persons assessed have commenced to pay up the amounts assigned them, the generality resist and compel the government to adopt coercive means in order that its provisions may not prove illusory.

With the energy which the want of resources requires, the exaction of the loan will be able to be carried into effect, and the ministry in my charge would thus notify the executors of the measure, were there not another way of obtaining the end proposed with more certainty, greater generality in the imposition, and the absence of even the slightest motive of any well-founded ground of complaint. Inasmuch as the loan cannot be extended to a great number of persons, nor be partitioned in strict proportion, from the want of exact data, the end proposed can be obtained without their inconvenience by the products of an extraordinary contribution, which, falling upon the mass of contributors, will lessen the weight of the exaction, and its quotas be graduated from precise data already existing.

Frequently in Mexico recourse has been had to the imposition of a contribution equivalent to one fixed upon capital invested in real estate or in business; tax-payers were already habituated to it, and have always received it with less repugnance than, the loans; and although the basis is not in conformity with any rentistic system, and never would be, on account of the repetition of the impost, as has been done in former years, at present, when the ordinary contributions have diminished considerably, when they were at the highest rate, I resolve to propose to your majesty to decree its imposition, for this sole occasion, in preference to the loan, and calculating that even with its imposition the tax-payers will pay on real property less than in the past year.

As to those who pay upon industrial and mercantile establishments, they will be taxed more than the preceding year, because the license duty was extremely low; yet they will contribute extraordinarily less than the proprietors of real estate, in proportion to their respective capitals, in view of the fact that capital employed in mercantile pursuits incurs the risk of being lost or diminished, while that invested in real estate can only be temporarily unproductive, without diminution; and in respect to industrial establishments, they will pay less than the mercantile branches, because, besides the previous considerations, their profits proceed more from industry of man than from the amount of capital invested.

The annexed project of a decree, which I have the honor to submit to the enlightened examination and sovereign approbation of your majesty, unites brevity in the proceedings, which the circumstances demand, with the greatest possible equality in the apportionment,as flowing from the same bases which are actually serving for the collection of the ordinary contributions, and, as is just, contains the provision that the amount paid to date on account of the loan, by the persons among whom it was disbursed, will be credited to the one per cent. extraordinary.

Should the project meet the high approbation of your majesty, you will deign to sign the decree, or determine what may be your sovereign pleasure.

Sire, the under secretary of the treasury, charged with the ministry,