Note 11 — Character and Influence of the Friars
Reading edition
The former alcaldes who bought their posts, or obtained them through favor, and who had no previous training in official business, and often no education and intelligence, and who did not possess the necessary mental and moral qualities for so responsible and influential an office, received a nominal salary from the State, to which they paid a commission for the right to engage in trade. According to Arenas (p. 444),11 this commission was regarded as a fine on the alcaldes for transgressing the law; “for since all kinds of trading were forbidden to them by various laws,12 yet also his Majesty was pleased to grant a dispensation for it.”13 This irregularity was first suppressed by royal decrees of September 10 and October 30, 1844.