The story of Argentina is but another chapter in the history of the short-sighted attitude of Spain toward her colonies in the New World. The sole purpose of the colonial policy of Spain seemed to be to protect the trading monopoly which had been farmed out to the merchants of Cadiz, and to keep a record of the production of silver and gold, in order to insure the collection of the royal one-fifth. Every Atlantic port of South America was closed to traffic except Nombre de Dios, on the coast of Panama. Everything destined for that continent had to be taken there, transported across the isthmus and reloaded to vessels on the Pacific. Goods destined for Argentina also had to follow this route. They were carried by vessels to Callao, Peru, and from there were taken overland even as far as Buenos Aires. It was for this reason that the early settlers of Argentina mostly came in from the Andes side. To further enforce this monopoly of trade the governors of Buenos Aires were instructed to forbid all importation and exportation from that port under penalty of death and forfeiture of property to those engaged in it. It is little wonder that a system of corruption and an evasion of such iniquitous laws was developed. The several governors recommended modifications, but the Cadiz merchants were obdurate. Smuggling and surreptitious trading grew popular, and the officials soon became silent partners in the traffic. Although the laws remained upon the statute books nothing could keep the people from trafficking with their own products. Buenos Aires became a community of smugglers. English and Dutch ships landed their goods under the very noses of officials, took their pay in hides or money and then continued their way around Cape Horn to the west coast, where the same process was repeated. Mule trains carried these goods thus illegally entered across the plains to Cordoba and Tucuman; the officials along the way winking at this evasion of unpopular laws. The profits were distributed among officials and the soldiers were hired to shut their eyes. The abstract right of the government to enact such restrictive regulations was never questioned. They broke the laws without any qualms of conscience, but contesting them was not even dreamed of. The idea that the right to trade or to practise a profession existed only by sufferance of the government has not been eradicated even to this day. It is a relic of this age. It is not surprising that office holding became the popular vocation and has remained so even to the twentieth century.