was free of _consumo_, so was oil, so was cheese, and shell-fish and chestnuts sold in the street were not taxed, so that they could be bought for much less than now, and the whole reason is because the Government lets the taxes instead of taking the trouble to collect them as was done in the time of Queen Isabella.” Whether this good lady, whose words I have translated literally from notes made at the time, was right or wrong in her supposition as to the interest of the Jesuits in this tax, and as to the quadrennial increase in the amount paid for it by the syndicate of farmers who exploit it, I cannot say. I quote her words as an instance of what is said on all sides by her class whenever the subject is mentioned, and as far as I can learn she is quite correct in her comparison of the prices of food now with those of forty years or so ago. Tobacco and sugar are Government monopolies, farmed out to companies, which also are popularly believed to be under the control of the Jesuits. I have never seen any accounts of the profits of the Tobacco Company, but their shares are quoted at about 390 to 400, which speaks for itself. The tobacco they supply is very bad, and outrageously dear. The estimated receipts from this source were pesetas 140,400,000 (£5,616,000). The sugar trust was created comparatively recently. A short account of the last annual meeting of the shareholders was published by the Press in November, 1909, from which it appears that the trust made a profit in the year, in round figures, of pesetas 8,400,000 on a gross income of pesetas 14,600,000 (say £336,000 on £584,000), and pays a dividend of 8 per cent. And during the past twelve months the price of sugar has been rising, and now stands at about 7d. per lb. Figures like these, relating to a necessary of life which is the one luxury of the poor, do not require comment, especially in view of the fact that enough cane and beetroot sugar for the entire needs of the population could be produced in the country, where both soil and climate are suitable in a great part of the southern provinces. But one company after another has been crushed out of existence, and only ruined factories remain to remind the traveller of what ought to be prosperous undertakings, beneficial to the whole nation. From this source the State gets pesetas 31,600,000 (£1,264,000). Matches are another monopoly, also farmed out. They are of course bad and very dear--½d. or 1d. for fifty matches, according to quality. The conditions under which the operatives work are, I am told on good authority, simply deplorable, and growing worse instead of better. The estimated receipts are pesetas 10,000,000 (£400,000).