[57] The amount legally permitted to be taken to the Philippines at this time was 500,000 pesos (subsequently 1,000,000 pesos). The galleon, on the voyage from Manila to Acapulco, could carry merchandise to the registered value of 250,000 pesos (later 500,000 pesos). This regulation was first enacted January 11, 1593 (Recopilación 9–45–6, 9). On the same date residents of New Spain were forbidden to trade in the Philippines and the entire Philippine and Chinese trade was expressly reserved to subjects in the Philippines. The latter were given the exclusive privilege of sending goods to New Spain (ibid., 1). They were permitted to buy only from the Chinese merchants who came to Manila (ibid., 34).—See Martinez de Zúñiga, Estadismo, I, 266–270.
[58] Cédula of January 11, 1593, Recopilación, 9–45–44.
[59] Morga to Philip II, July 6, 1596, Blair and Robertson, IX, 271.
[60] Ordinance for the re-establishment of the Audiencia of Manila, November 26, 1595, A. I., 106–4–19; also in Blair and Robertson, IX, 189–191.
[61] The Archbishop of Manila, in a letter to the king, on August 15, 1624, stated that the principal motive which influenced Philip II to re-establish the audiencia at the time of Governor Tello, was that in a district so remote and distant from his royal presence the governors might not be so absolute, but that there might be a superior arm to check them, and to prevent their extortions from innocent people (Blair and Robertson, XXI, 95). It is certain, too, that the audiencia was also destined to champion the royal prerogative in the face of the encroachments of the higher officials of the church. This need was especially urged by Morga.
Grao y Monfalcón, the procurator of the merchants of Manila at the court in 1636, wrote on June 13 of that year: “In the year 590 the royal Audiencia of Manila was suppressed ... and its suppression must also be reckoned among the hardships of that city ... because of those which it suffered until the year 597, when the Audiencia was reëstablished (sic).” (Blair and Robertson, XXVII, 189).
[62] Pancada, the wholesale purchase of the goods brought to Manila by the Chinese. These goods were bought by a committee of two or three persons, acting for the governor and ayuntamiento, then sold or apportioned among the merchants of the city in proportion to the amount of money which they were able to invest. This arrangement was designed to give all the merchants a chance to buy and at the same time to prevent the Chinese from selling at exorbitant prices (Cédula of January 11, 1593, Recopilación, 9–45–34.)
[63] Cédulas of May 5, 1583, and May 25, 1596, Recopilación, 2–15–11. It will be noted that this authority was granted to the first audiencia established in Manila. This same faculty was conferred by the Ordenanzas nuevamente formadas para el régimen y govierno de la audiencia nacional de Manila, Art. I, Chap. 1, Sec. 1 (A. I., 106–4–19).
[64] Martínez de Zúñiga has this to say concerning the work and purpose of the tribunal: “The royal audiencia was established to check the despotism of the governor, whom it has never impeded, because its learned members were always the weaker, and the governor may send them as prisoners to Spain, exile them to the provinces to take census, or imprison them in Fort Santiago, as has been done” (Martínez de Zúñiga, Estadismo, I, 244).