Royal Orders, 1632–33
Letter to Tavora
The King. To Don Juan Niño de Tavora of my Council of War, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia there. Your letter of June 20 of the past year 630, concerning the exchequer, has been examined in my royal Council of the Yndias, and an answer is given you in this concerning the matters thereof in which decision has been made, and those which require reply.
I have considered what you say in regard to the inexpediency of including these islands in the monopoly of playing-cards established in Mexico;[1] also the act which you issued to the effect that the [monopoly] contracted for with Don Francisco de la Torre, a citizen of that city, should be put into execution. You will order this to be observed and complied with, during the time that it shall last; for it is already agreed to, with this stipulation, and I have confirmed it. As for the future I wish to know the advantages or difficulties which may result to my royal exchequer from doing away with this income, and not including those islands in it, and whatever else in this matter may occur to you, you will inform me in regard to it very fully on the first occasion; and I likewise command, by a decree of this day, that the said Audiencia do this.
You say that the office of secretary of the cabildo of that city was sold for twelve thousand five hundred pesos in coin, with the condition of having a voice and vote in the cabildo—which you conceded because the greater part of the offices of regidor there of were vacant, as there was no one to buy them; and that the price of the said office should rise, as otherwise it would not pass six or eight thousand pesos. You also stated that it was sold under condition that, if I should find it inexpedient and for this reason should not confirm it, nothing should be returned to the buyer; and as the said condition of his having a voice and vote in the cabildo has appeared prejudicial and illegal, you will correct this immediately—supposing, as you say, that the contract need not be altered for this reason, or anything given back to the person concerned.
For repairing of the losses which result from the fact that the royal officials make the winning bids for the offices which are sold in those islands, without notifying you of the amount and the person to whom they are sold, I am sending a decree of this date to command them to comply with and execute, on all occasions which may arise, the act which you have issued to this effect, which I approve.
That the said royal officials may always be at peace with you and well disposed, letters are being written to them as to how they should conduct themselves; and you, on your part, will maintain friendly relations with them.
The additional pay of a thousand pesos which you set aside for the bishop of Cebú, during the time while he governs that archbishopric, has been approved, since the reasons which oblige you to it are so justifiable. [Madrid, January 27, 1632.]
I the King
By command of the king our lord:
Don Fernando Ruiz de Contreras
Decree forbidding secular priests from Eastern India in the Philippines
The King. To Don Juan Niño de Tavora, knight of the Order of Calatrava, member of my Council of War, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia therein, or the person or persons in whose charge their government may be. I have been informed that the secular priests who go to those islands from Eastern India with their trading-ships generally are those expelled and exiled; that they remain there, and are often employed in vicariates, curacies, and benefices, to the injury of the natives, and the patrimonial rights of the country. After examination of the matter by my royal Council of the Indias, I have considered it proper to issue the present, by which I order you not to permit any of the secular priests from those districts [of Eastern India] to enter those islands; nor shall you admit them to any exercise of office, for this is my will. [Given in Madrid, March twenty-six, one thousand six hundred and thirty-two.]
I the King
By order of the king our sovereign:
Don Fernando Ruiz de Contreras
Signed by the Council.
[Endorsed: “To the governor of Philipinas, ordering him not to allow any of the secular priests who might go from Eastern India to the islands to enter therein or admit them to any exercise of office.”]
Order to the city of Manila regarding the Mexican trade
The King. To the council, justices, and magistracy of the city of Manila, of the Philipinas Islands. In response to what Don Juan Niño de Tavora, my governor and captain-general of those islands, wrote me, in the former year of 1629, about your petition for the fulfilment of the decree of 1593 which permits the inhabitants of that island to go to sell their goods in Mexico, or to send them under charge of a satisfactory person—and not to send or consign them, except it be in the second place—in a section of a letter which I wrote on December 4 of the former year of 630 to the said my governor, I charged him that, if the encomenderos living in that city who had sent persons with their possessions to Mexico proceeded dishonestly, or formed trusts [ligas], or monopolies among themselves, they should be punished according to law; and that if, in addition to the inconveniences that should arise in the observance of the said decree, others should be discovered, he should advise me thereof, so that suitable measures might be enacted. I also had my viceroy of Nueva España ordered to watch carefully what the inhabitants of Mexico did, so that he might apply the advisable remedy. Now, Don Juan Grau y Monfalcon, your procurator, has informed me that the decree given in the said year of 593, ordering that the inhabitants of those islands might send persons to Nueva España to sell or take care of their merchandise; and that no one might consign them, except to one of the persons appointed for that purpose, who would reside in Mexico, was put into execution; but that, in violation of it, many of the inhabitants secretly send large quantities of merchandise to Mexico, entrusting those goods to the passengers and sailors without registering them, although that city has persons of credit and trust in Mexico. Thus result many embarrassments and frauds to my royal duties. He petitioned me to be pleased to have my royal decree issued, ordering that such unlawful acts be not permitted. The matter having been examined in my royal Council of the Indias, bearing in mind what my fiscal said there, I have considered it fitting to advise you of the aforesaid, so that you may understand it, and I order you, in so far as it pertains to you, to keep, obey, and execute, and cause to be kept, obeyed, and executed, what has been enacted in this respect. Madrid, March 25, 1633.
I the King
By order of the king our sovereign:
Don Fernando Ruiz de Contreras
[1] In 1552 Felipe II ordered a royal monopoly on playing-cards to be established throughout his western dominions. All cards were to be stamped with the royal arms. The manufacture and sale of them was sold in 1578 to Hernando de Caseres, who paid a royalty of one real for each pack. The value of the privilege gradually increased as well as the price of cards paid by the public. (Bancroft’s History of Mexico, iii, pp. 663, 664.)
This monopoly was established in the Philippines in 1591, by Gomez Perez Dasmariñas; see Vol. VIII, pp. 169, 271; and IX, p. 62.