Sire:
The heathen Chinese who live in these islands and come to trade with the vassals of your Majesty, pay annually nine pesos less one real for the general license which is given them for permission to live in your Majesty’s lands, and by way of recognition. They live in a place which has been built for them near the Manila walls, called in their language “the Parián.” Many of them have gone to live outside in the stock-farms and gardens of the inhabitants, and in other parts, because of their convenience, without permission of the government. At petition of the city, I ordered an edict to be issued, ordering that all of these Chinese should return to live in their Parián, and most of them did so. Afterward, they asked with many requests and petitions to be allowed to return to live at their posts. That favor was permitted them, on condition of the payment of ten pesos two reals in place of the nine pesos less one real for their general licenses, and, in addition to this, the half-annats for the favor—the even ten pesos being for your Majesty’s treasury, and the two reals for the printing of the said licenses, and for the judge, notary, chief constable, and other officials in the matter of the licenses, who issue them and collect the silver, in which your Majesty has a profit of nine reals from each one of those licenses. Those people have no room in their own land; and when they come in their ships to bring their merchandise to this city, many come who remain. In order that that number may not increase so much, it is ordered that they be returned in the same ships, after giving them the good usage and treatment that is shown them at present. They are so contented that, with but a message sent them by their alcalde-mayor [requesting] that they aid his Majesty with are being arranged, I preserve the authority of your Majesty, and free your conscience; and, provided that no one steals anything from your royal revenues, the support of these islands will be arranged for, without any help from Nueva España beyond the proceeds of the merchandise carried by the galleons. But by following this plan I have no need of anything else except that your Majesty be pleased to grant me permission to do this. May our Lord preserve your Majesty’s Catholic person, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of June, one thousand six hundred and thirty-six. Your vassal kisses your Majesty’s feet.
Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera
[Endorsed: “The governor of Filipinas to his Majesty, June 30, 1636. Revenue matters. June 10, 1638.”
“Let this matter be looked up, and see whether anything has been enacted concerning it; and take it to the fiscal, with whatever notices there are concerning it.”
“Nothing has been enacted.”
“The fiscal declares that it is written in this letter that there are four or five thousand Chinese who are now paying this duty, and that it can be increased to eighteen or twenty thousand pesos of income, while the additional sum that will be paid by each one will not amount to more than nine reals. That cannot be, except by admitting into the Filipinas Islands as many more thousand Chinese, as they say, as will amount to pesos. That will be running great risk, as is well known, especially in islands so remote and so sparsely settled. And if before, when there were so few Chinese, so careful provisions were made to have them remain shut up within their Parián, so that they could not make any changes in the condition of those islands, one would think that not without danger can this be changed, with the people who come in the ships, which they are commencing to do there. Besides that, to raise the impost on his own authority, without having informed the Council thereof until after it was executed, is a matter that furnishes a very bad example; and since the amount concerned is so small as thirty-six thousand reals (at nine reals apiece, on the four thousand pesos [sic; sc. Chinese] who he says are there), it is not desirable to risk for that sum the government—which, it has been found by experience, is without danger—and to expose it to the possibility of danger. Therefore he petitions that it be ordered that no innovation be made. Madrid, June 30, 1638.”
“July 28, 1638. Have the governor informed that, considering all the circumstances that he sets forth in his letter, the measure for benefiting the imposts for the royal treasury does not appear improper; but that it will be necessary to consider very carefully how this increase of duties may be attempted and obtained. For in order to obtain that increase we cannot risk the commerce, which must be considered with the coming of the Chinese, as it conduces to the benefit of those islands; nor also the security of the country, if their numbers be greatly multiplied. For it seems that this will be necessary, if the money were to increase to so great a sum as he mentions. Have the matter entrusted to the governor himself and to the Audiencia, so that, after weighing the advantages of this measure with the advantages which might occur in its execution, and considering all the above, the decision which shall be most to his Majesty’s service and that of his royal Audiencia may be made; and that they shall report whatever they do to the Council. Have the Audiencia notified to the same effect.”]
Sire:
A communal fund was established in the Parián or alcaicería of the Chinese, who are called Sangleys, in the time of Don Alonso Faxardo de Tenca, and with your approbation given April 8, 1622. Each Sangley pays into it three tostons annually, in two payments. The ministers of justice of the said Parián are paid from that fund, as are those who live there to administer the holy sacraments, in case that some [of the Sangleys] are converted—namely, two fathers of St. Dominic. That fund also takes care of the works that your Majesty needs; and the requisite sum is furnished from it for the payment of the laborers, so that they may go willingly, and so that no other assessment need be made. With the consent of the Sangleys, Don Juan Niño de Tabora assigned from this communal fund a salary for a minister to administer the holy sacraments to the Chinese living in the town of Santa Cruz, on the other side of the river, which is in charge of the fathers of the Society of Jesus; for the said Don Juan Niño deemed that necessary. But at his death, and when an attempt was made to collect that stipend belonging to the minister of Santa Cruz, the fathers of St. Dominic refused to pay it, but on the contrary went to law about it with him. And as if they were a party in this, they brought a very strenuous suit against him, before my predecessor, Don Juan Cereço Salamanca, who gave sentence in favor of the fathers of the Society. That sentence was appealed to the royal Audiencia, and although Don Juan Cereso judged, and rightly, that there was in this matter no appeal to the Audiencia, as it was purely a point of government, he did not dare to prevent the appeal, but allowed it to pass. Upon my arrival at this island, I found this suit in the stage of petition; and, esteeming it to belong to the government, I suspended the suit, and ordered that the sentence and decree of Don Juan Niño de Tabora be carried out. The fathers of St. Dominic were angry at that, but surely without any reason, as it was none of their business—although they had so possessed themselves of the communal fund of the Parián, and so controlled it, that in the fourteen years since it was established, they have used it to get more than one hundred thousand pesos from it for matters peculiar to their order. That has been an excess and irregularity that the governors should not have allowed, as is apparent from the accounts which I ordered the accountant Juan Bautista de Cubiaga to audit on this occasion. The Sangleys of Santa Cruz and of the jurisdiction of Tondo, seeing how small was the benefit that they derived from the communal fund of the Parián, and that it was converted only to the welfare of the Sangleys of the Parián and of the fathers of St. Dominic, petitioned me to be allowed to have a separate communal fund in Tondo. Considering that they were asking for justice, for Don Alonso Faxardo, who established the said fund, declared May 4, 1622, that whenever the said Sangleys thought that they could not endure the said fund, and whenever they should oppose it and petition that it be not continued or kept up, it would be proper to have it cease—in conformity with that, I, seeing that a number of the Sangleys of the villages of Santa Cruz and Tondo were opposing (and rightfully, as the fund of the Parián was of no use to them) the payment by them, as by the others, of three tostons annually for each person, and that they were asking for a separate fund for Tondo, which should be entrusted to the alcalde-mayor, I granted it to them. I was also influenced by the service which the Sangleys of Santa Cruz offered to perform for your Majesty, as I shall immediately relate—namely, that the alcalde-mayor of Tondo should be paid from this fund, and thus the salary paid him from the royal treasury would be saved; while in the works that offered, your Majesty would be better served by having two communal funds—one in the Parián, and the other in Tondo. Therefore will your Majesty be pleased to confirm this action accordingly, for it is beneficial to the royal treasury. May our Lord preserve the Catholic person of your Majesty, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of June, 1636. Your vassal kisses your Majesty’s feet.