58. [CALIFORNIA PIOUS FUND]. MEXICO (Republic).
VICE PRESIDENT (Anastasio Bustamante). [Bando announcing a
decree of May 25, 1832, on the Pious Fund, commencing]:
Miguel Cervantes, general de brigada, y gobernador del
distrito federal. Por la secretaría de relaciones se
ha comunicado al gobierno del distrito el siguiente
decreto...El Escmo. Sr. Vice-Presidente...se ha servido
dirigirme el decreto que sigue. El
Vice-Presidente...à los habitantes de la
república, sabed...Art. 1. El gobierno
procederá al arrendamiento de las fincas
rústicas pertenecientes al fondo piadoso de
Californias, por término que no pase de siete
años.... Mexico, June 1, 1832. Double folio
bando. Very fine, with only two slight original voids at
left blank margin. Official seals on verso. Provenance:
Roberto Valles-Eberstadt-Jenkins-Pingenot.
First
edition, Mexico City issue of a rare and important
bando on the California Pious Fund. These large folio bando
issues are rare, because they were printed in oversize
format on recto only, in order to be posted in public
places. Eberstadt 158:288. Not in Cowan. Miguel Cervantes,
Governor of the Federal District, announces the decree by
Vice President Bustamante authorizing the Mexican
government to proceed with liquidation of the great
properties belonging to the California Pious Fund over a
seven-year period. The Pious Fund had been created in the
seventeenth century to fund the work of the Catholic
missions. Secularization of the missions radically changed
California. The seizure of the rich, cultivated monastery
lands resulted in the empresario system, which allowed
Mexican and Anglo colonizers to settle on Native American
lands. Mexican authorities, by regulations such as this,
intended to replace the old monastico-missionary regime in
California. The importance of this decree may be inferred
by the fact that it was one of the decrees presented as
evidence in the Pious Fund case that came before the
International Court of Arbitration in 1899. This decree
makes a most excellent accompaniment to Zamorano
Eighty, Carillo’s Exposición dirigida
á la Cámara de Diputados del Congreso de la
Unión por el Sr. D. Carlos Antonio Carrillo,
diputado por la Alta California, sobre arreglo y
administración del Fondo Piadoso [Mexico,
1831].
($500-1,000)