Note 8 — FINANCIAL AFFAIRS OF THE ISLANDS, 1766

Viana had said, in an official opinion rendered on January 14, 1765: “Notwithstanding these arguments [among which Viana mentions the frauds committed in the sale of these boletas], the royal junta of the exchequer would not have decided upon the application of the galleon’s lading to the benefit of the royal treasury if the necessity had not been most urgent, and this measure indispensable; and the distribution would have continued, in accordance with the favor bestowed by our kings and sovereigns to the commerce here—which has no right of justice to the boletas, nor is his Majesty under obligation to distribute them, since they have been assigned [to the citizens] by his royal clemency as a mere favor and benefit, and as alms. No one ought to be surprised that this favor, this benefit, and this alms should be suspended when there are no funds, and no means for paying it, and when it is applied in order to meet the unavoidable expenditures of the royal treasury, and to the payments which in justice must be made to the troops and other people employed in the royal service and the defense of these dominions. For it would not be just that for the sake of distributing the boletas, to which there is no obligation in justice, there should be failure in paying the claims which by every rule of law are due, and to meet the expenses which are unavoidable for the conservation of these islands.” (Respuestas, fol. 73.) It is evident from this that the above measure was put into force temporarily, at least, in 1764, as a necessary expedient in the distressed condition of the islands after the English evacuation; and that Viana now recommends it as a permanent regulation. ↑