The ramo de la nieve: the snow monopoly of New Spain

Snow cut on the Sierra Nevada and carried through Chalco to Mexico City was a farmed royal revenue. The treasury history of 1792 prints the auction conditions - a fixed price of one real the pound, selling hours, guards, house searches - and the yield, 632,171 pesos between 1765 and 1790. An auto acordado of 1656 bars drafted Indian labour from the snow contract on the ground that men paid well and punctually come of their own accord.