Circular. Alcabalas. En Real Orden de 3 Febrero de 1795 Cocedio S.M. a D. Joseph Ignacio de Inciarte por Premio de la Expedicion Que Ofrecio Hacer Desde Cadiz al Puerto de S. Blas y los de Californias... [caption title and first line of text]

Mexico City: January 26, 1797. Very good.. Broadsheet, 11.5 x 8 inches. Previously folded. Small loss at right margin, not affecting text; otherwise, minor wear. Scattered contemporary manuscript annotation. This evidently unrecorded broadsheet grants Captain José Ignacio de Inciarte of the Frigate Neptuno an exemption on alcabalas, or duties, for goods shipped from Cadiz to San Blas in Baja California and to elsewhere in the Californias. The proposed voyage is discussed in Bancroft's History of California, on page 627, as part of an effort to stimulate trade with the remote Baja California settlements. His goods would naturally have had to travel through Mexico or around the Horn to reach the Pacific, and this broadside would have been delivered to the tariff and duty offices to prove his exemption. The text defines the extent of his exemption, orders duty officers to comply, and asks for confirmation of the instruction. A fascinating document of efforts by Spain to induce trade with the isolated Californias in the late-18th century; signed in type by Juan Navarro with his manuscript rubric, and marked in manuscript with the alcabalas office in the city of Durango. Not in OCLC, Medina, or Palau; only this copy traced at auction. (Inventory #: 5545)