Royal Restrictions on Trade.
Decree followed decree during the ensuing years, all pointing to the same end. In 1720 it was decreed that in future two galleons might annually be sent to Mexico, but these were to be of only 500 tons, and their cargoes to be valued at $300,000, made up of non-prohibited goods. Ecclesiastics and foreigners were forbidden to have anything to do with trade. In 1726 the prohibition on silks was removed, but only one galleon was permitted to cross. A protest arose from Spain against the Philippine trade in woven goods, which was declared to be ruinous to the Spanish weaving industries, particularly as the galleons took back Mexican coin instead of Spanish goods. As a result, the 1720 decree was restored in 1731, to the dismay of the Philippine merchants and the people of Mexico. For they had to pay higher prices for Spanish goods, while their coffers were drained to meet the Philippine deficit.
A Procession of Natives Carrying Fish.
Other Royal decrees were issued from time to time, favoring or injuring trade, and all with the general effect sure to arise from interference with the natural course of commerce. Among these were enactments intended to prevent Mexican capital from being invested in the Philippines. All was done that could be to keep the islands in a state of poverty and decadence.
To mention one further example of Spanish blindness—the priests. Their meddling proved worse than that of the King. Through their influence the non-Christian Chinese were expelled from the islands in 1755, and with them went an industry that caused a deficit of $30,000 a year in the taxes. Trade grew stagnant in consequence of the loss of these active shopkeepers, and the Philippines experienced what Spain had experienced when Philip II. banished the Moorish agriculturists and artisans. In both cases this concession to bigotry threw the country into a deplorable state, and years passed before prosperity returned.
