Cuban leaders had no conception of the democratic form of government which in the United States gave separate powers to the national, state or province and city administrations. The national government was closely linked with the provincial and with the city, and the functions were so intertwined that it was hard to say where one left off and the other began. The Captain-General always encouraged this close amalgamation of governmental functions because it enabled him to keep in close touch with all the branches of the government and to discover and put down any movements which would tend to diminish the power of the supreme officer. The Captain-General's power was civic, provincial, national and indeed international. This enabled him very easily to line his coffers, for he spent a great deal of time in signing papers of no especial significance, except that to obtain his signature it was necessary that he be paid a big fee. It was said that any Captain-General who remained four years in Cuba, and did not take away from the island with him when he departed at least a million dollars, was a poor manager. The Captain-General had all prisons under his control; and the fate of all prisoners, either those imprisoned for petty or state offenses, lay in his hands. This did not mean that he personally supervised the prisons, but that his creatures and officers were subject to his orders, and the offices were within his gift. Thus he was able to extort fees for various functions, as well as to demand largess for leniency extended to state prisoners. Under Tacon's administration this power was exercised to such an extent that it became a public scandal. The postal service also fell under the supervision of the Captain-General, and there were many ways in which he could make this office line his pockets. He acted as a police magistrate in the city of Havana, another fruitful source of revenue, particularly as the office was connected with that of president of the city council.