Renta del tabaco de Nueva España: the crown monopoly that became the largest payroll in the Americas, 1764-1790

A royal cédula of 13 August 1764 made tobacco a crown monopoly in New Spain. Planting was banned outside three districts, the independent cigar trade was extinguished by 1775, and by 1788 the branch paid 17,256 people, 12,028 of them factory hands. Its own accounts give 110.8 million pesos gross and 52.4 million net to 1790. The republic that replaced the empire kept the monopoly: its finance minister told Congress in 1829 there was nothing to put in place of it.