OM Catliolic Heritage in Texas
Price scleedules 011 tlee frontier. It will be remembered that one of the special matters which Rubi was to investigate was the price of commodities consumed by the garrisons of the frontier presidios in order to determine the changes that should be made on those fixed in 1729 after the inspection of Rivera. Although Viceroy Marques de Croix upbraided Rubi for not having made a special report on this subject, alleging that as a result of his negligence on a matter of such importance, the king's orders could not be carried out, the fact remains that Rubi gave the requested infor- mation in each of his reports. It was for this reason that the sensitive inspector was ruffled at the implied reprimand and replied with spirit: "As to recommendations concerning fair prices, I must admit that the regulation of the price of commodities is totally foreign to my calling, being subject to the subtle fluctuations of trade understood only by those initiated in the intricate mysteries of commerce." Rubi stated the facts and the changes made during his inspection, but he refused to draw up a series of recommendations similar to those concerning the presidios, because he felt it was beyond his official duty and beyond the limits of his knowledge of economics. 67 In the individual reports are found detailed lists of goods consumed in the different presidios in Texas from El Paso to Los Adaes. The quality and quantity of the goods and supplies being sold to the garrisons and their families give us an index of the standard of living and of the cost of life on the Spanish frontier in 1768. Let us take a few items as examples. Chocolate was of two grades, one sweetened and one unsweet- ened. The first cost twenty-five cents in Mexico and Queretaro, but it sold for a peso twenty-five ccntimos in El Paso, and two pesos in San Antonio. This was the price of the sweetened chocolate, but the captains of the presidio were buying the cheaper grade and selling it at the price of the better. Rubi ruled that the captains should supply one pound of sugar free of charge with each pound of unsweetened chocolate or credit the men with the value of seventy-five cents. The guns or rifles cost ten pesos in Puebla, but sold for thirty pesos from El Paso to Los Adaes. These guns were made in Mexico and were inferior to those imported from Spain. He ordered a reduction to twenty pesos and recommended they be purchased in Spain and that all should be of the same caliber. Swords cost four and a half pesos in Mexico and were sold for fourteen. They were of such poor steel that they had to 67Marques de Croix to Rubi, April 12, 1768; same to Arriaga, April 27, 1768; Rubi to the Viceroy, July 6, 1768. A. G. I., A11die11cia de Guadalajara, 104-6-13 (Dunn Tr., 1768-1772), pp. 69-73; 74-80; 81-83.
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