Fernando de los Rios Coronel, procurator-general of the Filipinas Islands and of all their estates, declares that, inasmuch as all that community insisted that he come to inform your Majesty of the distressed condition which it has reached, and of what was advisable both for the service of your Majesty and that community’s conservation and advancement, he has come, for that reason, at the risk of his life, after suffering so great hardships, to serve your Majesty and those islands, for both of which services he has made this memorial of the most necessary matters that demand reform. Although he thinks that your governor, Don Alonso Fajardo, will remedy many of these things (inasmuch as that whole community writes that he is proceeding as its father), yet, since men are so liable to the possibility of death that most often the good lasts but a short time, and (as we all know by experience, for our sins), another may succeed who will inflict many injuries; and since before the complaints could reach your Majesty through so long a distance and the relief be sent, the men concerned might be dead: it is necessary to prevent the wrongs ere they come to be irremediable, as have been all those that have placed that country in so wretched a condition. He petitions your Majesty to examine this memorial with great consideration, for in [heeding] it consists the welfare and conservation of all the kingdom; for that country, being so far away, has no other remedy for its protection except your royal decrees. The first ten articles of the memorial were approved by your royal Audiencia, so that you may have no doubt of them. He did not inform the Audiencia of the others for just considerations, as was advisable—the city having given him instructions for most of them, which are those that he presents. In the authority that he has presented to your royal Council, the great trust reposed in his person has been evident; for he has served your Majesty and that community for more than thirty years, with so great a desire of acting rightly as is well known, and has never tried to further his own interests, as all [are wont to] do.
1. He declares that having obtained two decrees from your Majesty some years ago (while acting in this capital as procurator-general of the kingdom), with regard to the trading-ships, ordering that your governor and captain-general despatch them some time in the month of June, as the greater part of their success in the voyage consists in that, and as that country has no other fruits and harvests except that commerce, for its conservation and increase, and also for the increase of your royal treasury: not only have they not kept the said decrees but have even done the very opposite. Thence have followed very many great wrongs and annoyances; and that community is greatly exhausted for that reason, and your royal treasury deeply in debt. [This affects the community] not only in material possessions, but also in the loss of your vassals, many citizens and sailors having perished for that reason. Although it is believed that your governor and captain-general, Don Alonso Faxardo, will (as is judged by his method of proceeding), correct this matter, because he has entered upon his office with so good beginnings, still, as he is mortal, and as a person may succeed him who may not attend to this—as others of his predecessors have failed to do, as has been seen hitherto:
He petitions your Majesty to order that this command be observed inviolate. The most efficacious expedient would appear to be to place the governors under a heavy penalty, which they would incur whenever they did not observe it, and that it be made an important clause in their residencias.
2. Item: That your Majesty issued a decree in the year 605, granting favor to the citizens of that community, and ordering your governors that the posts in the trading-ships be given to the deserving citizens for their profit, and that many be rewarded with this. Inasmuch as this is very advantageous to your Majesty’s service and to the profit of trade, and inasmuch as the ex-governor always gave them to his relatives, and thus enriched them greatly, and the latter became very arrogant; and since, as this was the affair of the governor, no one dared to bring suit against them; and since this is greatly to the harm of the royal treasury, because they lade quantities of merchandise without registering it, and commit many illegal acts, and will continue always to commit them, for no one dares to speak plainly:
He petitions your Majesty to order the observance of the said decree by ordering the officials of your royal treasury, that should the governor appoint to such offices other persons than those whom your Majesty has ordered, no account be made of it in the royal books, that no salary be granted them, and that those appointed to these offices have their residencias taken at the end of the voyage; and that, until these shall be taken, they cannot be appointed to other posts.
3. Item: That your Majesty has granted to the citizens the toneladas of the said trading-ships, and that your governors allot these, to each one according to his rank and wealth. The citizens have been greatly injured in this, as happened in the year 613, when the governor despatched two small ships, and did not give the citizens one single tonelada; and under pretext of granting gratuities to retired officers, the citizens were obliged to buy space for their freight from those officers, at exorbitant prices. Further, he apportions a considerable number of toneladas to charitable institutions, so that they may sell the space and use, and the price obtained for it; and thus these toneladas are given to the great injury of the common welfare. The further disadvantage follows from this (besides defrauding the citizens of the reward given them by your Majesty) that the toneladas are sold to whomever will pay most for them, and they are bought for this reason by merchants who have companies in Mexico. Consequently, it is quite common for such men to own a great part of the said merchandise of the ships, and thus the citizens are deprived of the profits with which your Majesty has rewarded them.
He petitions your Majesty to order that these be not distributed at will, but that the orders given in this regard by your royal decrees be obeyed, and that the violation of your royal will in this be made a clause of the residencia, with the penalty that may be assigned to it.
4. Item: That your Majesty has ordered that four vessels be built for the trade, of 200 toneladas’ burden; and that two of them make voyages each year, while the other two remain in port getting ready for the next year.
He petitions your Majesty that they be not employed in other matters by your governors, unless it be an urgent necessity, as happened last year, when they went out to drive off the Dutch enemy who had besieged us. In such case the citizens themselves shall go out in them to defend the city, since the profit of the citizens is so necessary in order that that community may be settled, and have the sinews with which to defend and preserve itself. They shall not be sent to Maluco or any other district, since thus your Majesty is no less defrauded of your royal duties.
6. Item: It happens that your governor and captain-general has to send to Great China for ammunition and other articles very necessary for your royal service. In order not to anger the Portuguese of the city of Macan, the ships go to its port, although they could go to another. There they are compelled to buy through the Portuguese, and are not allowed to buy from the Chinese in the city of Canton, the Portuguese alleging that the Chinese would charge them excessive rates. But they, as we have experienced, buy the articles needed, and afterward oblige our agents to take them at excessive rates, reselling them to your Majesty to the great prejudice of your royal treasury. That happened in my presence when Don Juan de Silva sent Captain Francisco Lopez de Toledo for that purpose. He brought back the supplies at prices more than thrice their value. While I was acting as the said procurator in China, I bought nails for less than sixteen reals per pico, or five arrobas, and Toledo brought them hither at fifty-six; and other things after this manner, because the Portuguese compelled him to buy through them.