Bucareli reached Vera Cruz from Havana on the 23d of August, 1771, and took possession of the viceroyalty on the 2d of the following month. During his administration the military character of the colony was still carefully fostered, whilst the domestic interests of the people were studied, and every effort made to establish the public works and national institutions upon a firm basis. The new mint and the Monte de Piadad are monuments of this epoch. Commerce flourished in those days in Mexico. The fleet under the command of Don Luis de Cordova departed for Cadiz on the 30th of November, 1773, with twenty-six millions two hundred and fifty-five dollars, exclusive of a quantity of cacao, cochineal and twenty-two marks of fine gold, and the fleet of 1774 was freighted with twenty-six millions four hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars. Nor was the accumulation of wealth derived at that time from the golden _placeres_ of Cieneguilla in Sonora less remarkable. From the 1st of January, 1773, to the 17th of November of the year following, there were accounted for, in the royal office at Alamos, four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-two marks of gold, the royal duties on which, of tithe and _senorage_, amounted to seventy-two thousand, three hundred and forty-eight dollars. The custom house of Mexico, according to the accounts of the _consulado_, produced, in 1772, six hundred and eighty-seven thousand and forty-one dollars, the duty on pulque alone, being two hundred and forty-four thousand, five hundred and thirty.