Salary was not the only financial consideration set down in the dispatch of title. A second important provision concerned the media anata, the requirement that all those taking the governorship post a bond amounting to one-half of their first year’s salary and one-third of any perquisites accruing to them by virtue of their office. [Note: Gov to king 4/20/1735] This deposit might be used later to pay fines in case of malfeasance or misfeasance in office and became a device to insure honest administration. Theoretically officials in Spain hoped that colonial administrators would avoid any type of misconduct in office, which might result in the forfeiture of this bond. The dispatches of title issued to Zuniga and Corcoles required a media anata of 1,000 ducats. From 1715 to 1753 the governor had to deposit 2,000 pesos; after 1752, 2,500. Sometimes the dispatch of title provided for payment of the media anata on the installment plan, but no matter what the payment plan, the media anata was a requirement set down in each title granted to incoming governors. [Note: Titulo del gobernador de San Agustin de la Florida para Francisco del Moral 9/17/1733 and Council for Indians 9/2/1738] In 18th century Florida, however, the media anata was ignored. No governor paid one peso of the required bond. He either disregarded the media anata provision of his dispatch of title or was excused from it by the king and the Council of the Indies. Since the governorship was a profitless, undesirable post, it appears that the king and members of the Council deliberately ignored the provision. Being released from payment of the media anata was at least a partial recompense for the administrator assigned to serve in Florida. In 1727 the king and the Council excused payment in cases where an official exercised authority that was purely military, evidence that they recognized the burden such a requirement imposed. [Note: Council for Indians 9/2/1738. This document quotes a royal decree of 9/23/1727, exempting all officials with purely military functions from payment of the media anata.] Theoretically Florida was more than a military outpost; practically, however, the governor had primarily military functions and was more like a commanding officer than a political official. It was improbable, too, that the soldiers chosen for the office could even raise the required sum. [Note: For each governor the procedure was the same. He took office without paying the media anata. He then wrote to the Council of the Indies requesting exception from the requirement, pointing out that his predecessor had been excused. A fiscal or legal adviser of the Council of the Indies determined the precedent—exemption in the case of Florida—and usually decided in favor of the governor. The king and the Council inevitably accepted the fiscal’s decision on the media anata.] (Tepaske GSF)