Christian name. In like manner illegitimate children were pronounced legitimate on payment of a specified sum. Other methods were employed to obtain ready cash which tended ultimately to dry up certain sources of revenue: the coinage was debased; portions of the government rents were disposed of; public offices and royal towns were granted in perpetuity; and the title of _hidalgo_ was sold to many persons, who thereby entered the non-taxpaying class. Other ways of acquiring funds were made use of, ranging from the high-handed to the shameless. Under the name of _donativos_ (gifts) the government resorted to forced loans, or even trickery, to exact money from the nobles and churchmen; confiscations of goods for offences against religion and for other delinquencies were frequently ordered; and most disgusting of all was the _limosna al rey_ (alms for the king), which was collected by gentlemen of the court, each accompanied by a parish priest and a friar, in a house to house canvass of the citizens, who were asked to give what they could spare. If the kings and their favorites thought of the most obvious way to accumulate funds, economy in expenditures, they at least did not try to put it into practice; the court _fiestas_ were held, even if the king’s gentlemen had to beg the money and the nation had to starve. [Sidenote: Taxes in the other kingdoms.] The above refers to taxes collected in Castile, but the other dominions of Spain, peninsula and otherwise, produced considerable amounts for the state. Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia yielded much less than Castile. The Low Countries were profitable for a time; Charles I procured 450,000 ducats a year (nearly $7,000,000) at the outset of his reign. Under Philip II, however, they were the scene of heavy expenditures. The Americas have often been considered as the principal financial resort of the Spanish kings, and although this is not certain and may even be doubtful they did yield vast sums. Prior to the conquest of Mexico the annual revenues were only some 70,000 ducats (about $1,000,000), but the conquests of Cortés, followed soon by those of Pizarro in Peru, resulted in an enormous increase. Under Philip II they amounted annually to about 1,200,000 ($18,000,000) according to some writers, and to as much as 2,000,000 ($30,000,000) in the opinion of others. Castilian taxes were applied in the new world, together with certain others arising out of the special circumstances of colonial affairs, such as the royal fifth on precious metals from the mines and the poll tax collected from the Indians. Data are not at hand for an accurate estimate of the entire revenues of Spain, but it seems clear that they increased enormously in the period. They may have reached their highest point under Philip III, when it was estimated that they were some 24,000,000 ducats ($360,000,000) a year, of which not more than half reached the Spanish treasury. An estimate made toward the close of the century gave the