[3] The values of shipments by law established were little regarded.
[4] The Obras Pias (i.e., Pious Works) funds were legacies left exclusively by Spaniards, chiefly pious persons, for separate beneficent objects. Two-thirds of the capital were to be lent at interest, to stimulate trade abroad, and one-third was to be a reserve against possible losses. When the accumulated interest on the original capital had reached a certain amount, it was to be applied to the payment of masses for the repose of the donorsʼ souls.
The peculations of the Gov.-General Pedro Manuel de Arandia (1754–59) permitted him to amass a fortune of a quarter of a million pesos in less than five yearsʼ service, which sum he left to pious works. On the secession of Mexico (in 1819) the Government took over the Obras Pias funds, to control their administration. There is reason to believe that many of the donations were the fruits of the corrupt practices of high officials, the legacies being for their benefit hereafter.
The funds were severally administered by the four boards of San Francisco, Santo Domingo, the Recoletos and Santa Isabel, controlled by one general board of management. In 1850 the Spanish Government, in the exercise of its right (Real patronato) to intervene in all ecclesiastical administrative affairs, ordered these funds to be transferred to a banking establishment entitled the “Banco Español de Isabel II.,” more generally known as the “Banco Español-Filipino” (q.v.). The Obras Pias funds constituted the original capital of this bank. The board, presided over by the Archbishop, still continued to control the manipulation of these funds by the bank, the income derived from the original capital having to be paid out in accordance with the wills of the several founders of the fund. Up to the close of Spanish rule, money was lent out of this fund on mortgages in and near Manila, at six per cent. interest per annum.
[5] It happened at this date that the dues, etc., equalled 17 per cent. on the anticipated 1,000,000 pesos, but they were not computed by percentage. The Royal Dues were a fixed sum since about the year 1625, so that when the legal value of the shipments was much less, the dues and other expenses represented a much higher percentage. The charges were as follows, viz.:—
| Royal Dues. | ₱160,000 |
| Port Dues at Acapulco. | 2,000 |
| Disbursements paid in Manila on the shipʼs departure. | 7,500 |
| Port and Anchorage Dues on arrival in Philippines. | 500 |
| ₱170,000 |
[6] “La Libertad del comercio de Filipinas,” by Manuel Azcárraga.
[7] Mr. John B. Butler, who was born in 1800, resided many years in Manila, and married a native wife. He died on October 4, 1855, in London, whence his mortal remains were brought to Manila in 1860, at the instance of his widow, and interred in Saint Augustineʼs Church, near an altar on the left side of the nave. The site is marked by a marble inscribed slab.
[8] The Peace of Utrecht, signed in 1713, settled the succession of Philip, the French Dauphin, to the Spanish throne, whilst among the concessions which England gained for herself under this treaty was a convention with Spain, known as the Asiento contract. This gave the British the right to send one shipload of merchandise yearly to the Spanish colonies of America. Nevertheless, many ships went instead of one. An armed contest ensued (1739–42), and although the Spaniards lost several galleons in naval combats undertaken by Admiral Vernon and Commodore Anson, the British losses were not inconsiderable.
So prejudicial to the vital interests of Spain was the abuse of the ceded right held to be that the earliest efforts of the first new Cabinet under Ferdinand VI. were engaged in a revision of the commercial differences between that country and England. England was persuaded to relinquish the Asiento contract in exchange for advantages of greater consideration in another direction.