The fifth is the knowledge (as is evident) of the immense wealth which lies in the Filipinas, as I shall explain further in this treatise, and which hitherto has been unrecognized.
The sixth would be the loss of the most convenient and important post which your Majesty holds in all his kingdoms, not only for the extension of the holy gospel in so many kingdoms of idol-worshipers who are capable of receiving it, but, as these are in the neighborhood of the Filipinas, the hope, consequently, of enjoying the immense wealth which they possess through their trade and commerce—not to mention the risk which is incurred by the Western Indias through the South Sea.
Chapter II. Wherein those are answered who believe that the Filipinas should be abandoned, or traded to the crown of Portugal for Brazil.
The lack of knowledge regarding the Filipinas and the gains which may be obtained with them has been the cause for many of the servants of your Majesty, and other prominent persons, having a poor opinion of them. Accordingly it has seemed to such persons more expedient to be rid of those islands, and to others that they should be exchanged with the crown of Portugal for Brazil. All the reasons which they give for this may be reduced to five: The first is that there is a drain upon your Majesty’s royal patrimony for their maintenance, and you derive no profit. The second is to avoid the flow, through that method of maintaining them, of silver from Nueva España to Great China, by cutting off commerce with the latter country. The third is on account of the troops that are there consumed. The fourth is that since your Majesty is in such straits it is expedient to attend first to the relief most necessary, which is that of affairs here; and since you cannot attend to all, it is compulsory to abandon that country. Finally, your Majesty’s dominions are widely separated, and cannot be preserved except by withdrawing from those which are least necessary, for power united is the stronger. Or it is argued that, even though it be expedient to maintain the Filipinas, the commerce should be changed from Nueva España to these kingdoms, and ships should be sent from the city of Sevilla to the Filipinas, as is done from Portugal to eastern India; and that for this trade the ships should be laden with merchandise from this country [i.e., España], and in exchange for that should bring back the wealth of Great China and those regions.
In answer to the first, your Majesty expends much in the preservation of that country, it is true; but the objectors do not consider that those expenditures which are made are not for the purpose of preserving the Filipinas—at least since Don Pedro de Acuña, your governor, won the islands of Maluco, where cloves are obtained; for since that time the expense has been to maintain the war against the Dutch, who have been fortifying and making themselves masters there, and because we did not understand here, in the beginning and later, how important it would be to spend what was necessary to drive them out once for all, and to secure those regions. This has been the cause of spending so much in reënforcements, which have not served, and do not serve, more than to keep the forts which your Majesty holds in the islands of Terrenate and Tidore, and the friendship of the king of Tidore; and this is the cause of the expenses which your Majesty makes in the Filipinas, while the Dutch are taking away almost all the profits—although it is true that, if your Majesty had had ministers there zealous in your service, you might have obtained profit enough to maintain those forts without drawing upon your royal exchequer. The same thing could be done at any time when you wish, but the means for this are not at hand, and accordingly I defer them. If your Majesty should wish to know them, I will inform you of them. From this it may be concluded that the Filipinas are not the cause of these expenditures; and those which were made there before that time (as will be explained later, by themselves) exceeded the support with which your Majesty maintained the islands. This was done by the kings, your Majesty’s father and grandfather, for two reasons: in the first place, by their aiming at the glory of God and the spread of His holy gospel, since they enjoyed the title of patrons of the church, upon whom it would seem this obligation rests; in the second place, on account of the favorable situation of that post for obtaining from it more wealth than from all the rest of the Indias—and if this has not hitherto been enjoyed the blame is not upon the country, but, for reasons which cannot be here set down, upon those who have governed it.
To the second reason—that, as they say, much silver passes to the Filipinas and does not come to España—it may be answered that the fact is that, to obviate this difficulty, your Majesty has ordered that the citizens of the Filipinas Islands, in order to support themselves, be permitted, in return for the merchandise which they send to Nueva España, to have sent back to them 500U [i.e., 500,000] pesos of eight reals; and in the course of this, it is said, a much greater quantity passes. As it is an easy thing to increase the zeros in an account, in this manner they have increased it more than double and triple, basing their figures on what was written to this court by an auditor of the Filipinas, who was alleging services so that favors might be granted to him. He said that when he was going from Nueva España as commander, and the capitana in which he sailed was wrecked, he had placed the commercial silver in a place of safety, and there were three millions of it. The truth is that he exaggerated this to enhance the value of his service, increasing the sum by more than half; for from us, who were there, this matter could not be concealed, and there has never passed so much silver as in that year. If this service was placed at such figures, it deserved a heavy punishment, and not the reward which he seeks. Since that time it is true that as much more passes, to Filipinas, by the permission which your Majesty gives. The causes of this excess are two. In the first place, the necessity of the citizens, who are unable to support themselves with so small a quantity, or to gain profit in trade; since, if there are no more than five hundred [thousand pesos] they need all which is sent them for their living alone. Accordingly, even at a great cost to themselves, they seek means to get profits from their property. The limitation of this permission entails a difficulty which I have mentioned; for in the first place measures must be taken to enrich them, since it is of so great importance to kings that their subjects should be rich, while the poverty of the latter causes such diminution of their power. If this reason holds in all the kingdoms of your Majesty, it does so much more in that one which is so distant, where, when necessary, they lend to the royal treasury on occasions of need—as they did last year to Don Alonso Faxardo de Tença, your governor, whom they lent 200U ducados to lead an army against the Dutch, and likewise their slaves to man four galleys. They have done this same thing on other occasions, and expose their persons in war and lose their lives, as many of the best men of that city have done—their misfortune lying in this, that they were so far distant from the royal eyes of your Majesty, wherefore their services are not conspicuous.
In the second place, there is the greediness of the merchants from Mexico, to whom the greater part of this silver which passes to the Filipinas belongs; if this could be remedied, the difficulty of so much outflow of silver as is reported would be obviated. But the remedy is not to send thither judges and guards who are not to allow it to pass; for on the contrary, as our experience shows, they go to enrich themselves by the salaries which your Majesty gives them, and the profit which they there make. For in all countries ill-gained wealth is thus christened. The silver which goes there is of no less value to the royal exchequer than that which comes here, since the investment of it pays no fewer duties, but more; and at least it comes finally into the hands of our friends, and is not like that which comes to España—which for the most part is enjoyed by the enemies of your Majesty; and the fleets go more heavily laden with the enemy’s property than with that of your vassals.
The merchants of Sevilla complain that the trade with China has been destroyed by the Indias, but they do not understand the cause of its ruin. The Marquis de Montesclaros, who governed Nueva España and Piru, and understood this matter very well (as he did many things), wrote your Majesty a letter from the Indias, which is in your royal Council, where he says with clear and evident arguments: “But what strikes me is, that as the commonest and most universal means of working the mines is quicksilver, this loss is caused by giving that metal at so high a price to the miners. For in the first place, as most of them are poor, they cannot buy it, and therefore a great deal of metal is left unworked; and in the second place, because those who are able to buy it cannot work poor mines (for they would be ruined thereby), and as the greater part of those in the Indias are of this kind, double the amount of silver [obtained] is left unmined. If your Majesty would order the quicksilver to be given at cost and expenses, it would be of incomparably more profit than today; and the Indias would be in a better condition, more merchandise would be bought, the duties would increase, and the merchants would not feel the want of the silver which goes to the Filipinas—as they did not feel it in times past, although there came much more merchandise from there than at present. I would that there were so great an abundance of quicksilver in the Indias, and so cheap, that it could be bought, not only by the miners, but by other Spaniards and Indians, who would then have so much silver that their complaints would cease.”
If the trade were transferred to España, those who say that the merchandise from this country would be carried to Filipinas, to be exchanged for the goods of that country, are not aware that in those regions there is no one to use Spanish goods except the Spaniards, who with four pipas of wine, and other wares of little importance, would be quite sufficiently supplied; and that, if this were so, the Portuguese and Dutch would take the merchandise away, for nothing escapes their notice. Both of these take silver, and whatever else they take is of small importance; so that it would soon be necessary, in order to maintain the trade, to carry silver from España and risk it again. It is less trouble to carry it from the Indias, beside the incomparably greater risk from the sea and from enemies [by the other route]; and Nueva España would be ruined.