[38] Ibid., 16–18, 27–29, 31.
[39] Ibid., 46, and note.
[40] Ibid., 48–56, 59.
The report to the Council of the Indies of Pedro Aparici, general superintendent of real hacienda, on July 8, 1805, shows in detail the method of settlement in Spain. This report was submitted to cover the administration of the property of Alberto Reyes, who died in Manila in 1803. The statement was as follows:
| Total property left | 123,700 r. | ||
| Executor’s commission | 741 r. 16 m. | ||
| Administration | 1,237 r. | ||
| Expenses | 123 r. 18 m. | ||
| Total deductions | 2,102 r. | ||
| Balance to be distributed among heirs | 121,598 r. | ||
| Two-thirds left to brother as per will | 81,066 r. | ||
| One-third left to parents as per will | 40,532 r. | ||
Another illustration of the disposal of money left under slightly different circumstances may be noted in the Royal Order of February 14, 1800, to the juez de arribadas at Cádiz. The king ordered the transmission of 8024 pesos to the royal treasury because of the impossibility of finding the heirs of Antonio Manuel Pereda, who died at Manila in 1767. By the terms of his will, 2000 pesos had been left to the Third Order of St. Francis, 200 pesos to poor widows and orphans, and the balance was left to his mother. The lady had died, however, and as there were no heirs apparent, the money was ordered transferred to the royal treasury (A. I., 107–3–9).
These large sums, constantly on hand, intact and available, were always a source of grave temptation to governors and treasury officials. Loans were frequently taken from this fund for ordinary or unusual expenses of the government. At first the juez de difuntos objected forcibly to the governor’s seeming disregard of the royal instructions regarding these funds. The laws of the Indies had commanded that they should be held inviolable (Recopilación, 57, 70). As noted above, the practice had arisen of making deductions from the subsidy equivalent to the amount of bienes de difuntos produced in the Philippines, and of retaining the money in Acapulco. This practice worked havoc with the fulfillment of the law which had ordered that these funds be preserved intact. The governor and the treasury officials had fallen into the practice of appropriating such available funds as existed in the caja de difuntos for purposes of local administration, with the assurance that the money would be properly accounted for in Mexico. Governor Anda seems to have been a leading offender in this matter. In 1767 he borrowed 19,729 pesos from the juez de difuntos and in 1768 another sum of 30,000 pesos was taken (Landazurri to the Council of the Indies, May 22, 1770, A. I., 107–3–9). By the cédula of October 9, 1777, the king approved the action of Governor Anda in borrowing from these funds on three other occasions to the extent of 25,000, 14,206, and 24,477 pesos, respectively, for the fortification of the city. It was ordered that this should not be done again, however, except under extraordinary circumstances (A. I., 107–3–9).
After being permitted for a long period of time, the practice which the Manila authorities had followed of making these deductions was finally disapproved by the home government. In 1806, because of the non-arrival of the galleon with the subsidy, the governor (and superintendent) authorized an advance of 54,049 pesos from the bienes de difuntos, which sum constituted the entire amount on hand. On April 25, 1815, the fiscal of the contaduría general de las Indias handed down an adverse opinion on this action (A. I., 107–3–9). Although the practice of allowing small loans from the funds of deceased persons had been practiced in the Philippines in case of exceptional circumstances, it was his opinion that the whole proceeding had been contrary to the laws of the Indies (Recopilación, 2–32–57). He advised that in the future there should be no interference with this money until the deduction had been authorized by the juez de difuntos in Mexico, and the judge should act only after he had received the report of the corresponding official in the Philippines.
If the above advice were followed, at least a year would pass before the report of the Manila judge could reach Mexico, and be returned. It was not to be supposed that the officials in the Philippines would wait for any such formality when in need of money for the current expenses of government. This is another example of the cumbrousness and lack of expedition of Spanish colonial administration, as affected by time and distance. It will be noted, also, that this practice had been going on since the time of Anda (1768), and the Council of the Indies did not pronounce against it decisively until 1815. The particular litigation which brought about its condemnation arose in 1806 and continued throughout a period of nine years.
[41] Ibid., 60. See the articles on the Philippine situado by E. G. Bourne and James A. Leroy in the American historical review, X, 459–461, 929–932; XI, 722–723.