The new president renewed Murillo's policy of non-intervention. Colombia had begun to reap a benefit from the increasing foreign demand for tropical products. Exports grew in value, and with them, imports and revenue. But expenditures grew faster; the poorer states demanded and received subsidies from the federal treasury; public buildings and local improvements were planned beyond the nation's ability to pay; and a swarm of employees and pensioners battened on the public revenues. Under the concession of 1850 the Panama railway had agreed to pay three per cent. of its net revenue to the government, and the receipts from this source amounted to fourteen thousand dollars a year. Colombia had stipulated for the right to purchase the road in 1870 for the ridiculously low price of five million dollars, but Acosta's administration had no money to invest and was greedy for ready cash. So the franchise was extended until 1966 for one million dollars down and an annual subsidy of a quarter of a million. In 1880, under the pressure of poverty, the installments until 1908 were alienated. Under Gutierrez's administration (1868-69), when the governor of Cundinamarca gathered troops and assumed a dictatorship, the president deposed him. Even a liberal administration found it impracticable to carry out the theory of non-intervention. An attempt was now made to secure the nation's creditors by authorising the hypothecation of specific revenue--a measure which left the administration insufficient means to meet ordinary running expenses. Under Salgar (1870-72), the acknowledged deficits amounted to fifty per cent. of the total revenue. The increasing revenues had proved a curse instead of a blessing, for the demands of the states and officials were insatiable, and the sums spent in subsidies and internal improvements grew beyond all reason. Meantime the most extreme and unrestrained liberalism dominated the politics of the country. Congress passed a formal vote of condolence for the death of Lopez, Paraguay's unspeakable tyrant, who had just succumbed to Brazil and Argentina, after having devoted to destruction nine-tenths of his people. All honorary and useless military titles and employments were abolished, and the law on that subject contains the following curious provision: "In naming the eight generals spoken of by the Constitution, from whom must be chosen the commander-in-chief of the army, all Colombians over twenty-one shall be considered as generals of the republic."