Real Tribunal General de Minería de Nueva España (1776-1783)

A self-governing corporation of miners in the Americas, erected by royal cédula of 1 July 1776 and codified in 1783: thirty-three territorial deputations electing the deputies who sat in Mexico City, its own court of appeal, its own development bank, and a technical school funded from a duty on its members' own silver. Humboldt thought the representative machinery its best feature; he also recorded the loans it never recovered and the war levies that broke it.