Number 85. Excess in the merchandise, over the amount permitted to the islands, cannot be what is stated.
In regard to the merchandise, the extravagance of the report is also recognized, namely, that what is carried in each of the two ships is worth four millions; for there is not another like sum in all the Filipinas, even though the cities be sold, with whatever possessions are owned by their citizens and inhabitants. And that such an excess is impossible is apparent for many reasons. First, because the opinion [proposed] regulates the merchandise by the silver that it assumes as the returns. Accordingly, on four millions, with a profit of one hundred and fifty per cent, it gives ten millions of silver; and if there is no foundation in this sum, as is proved, neither is there any in the other. Second, that there is not enough merchandise with which to increase the permitted cargo of the ships, some years, and fewer toneladas are sent than those that are allowed to be distributed. It is improbable that there should be a deficit in the [amount sent by] permission, and yet that outside of it there should be sent four millions, or one, or a half-million unregistered. In regard to that, the islands make now the ninth petition, which will be seen [later]. [In the margin: “In number 109.”] The third is the controversy in regard to the distribution of the toneladas—of which the citizens complain that some have been taken away from them, and given to those who are not residents. Thus it is ordered, by the general decree of 604, that no toneladas be assigned to the officers, captains, soldiers, sailors, and artillerymen, and that such cannot receive or buy them. A decree of May 29, 620, orders that there be moderation in the toneladas given for their clothing and ship’s stores to the commanders and chief officers. It cannot be believed that those who carry goods would go to law about two or four additional toneladas of allotment, if they were given as many as they wanted. The fourth is very much to the point. In the year 587, while the Englishman Tomas Candi[sh] was sailing through the South Sea to India and the Malucas, he pillaged the ship “Santa Ana” on the coast of Nueva España, which was one of the most rich and valuable ships that has left the islands for Acapulco [Capuico—MS.] The very report of the Englishman himself says that nothing was concealed, and that the valuable merchandise that it carried was worth 122,000 pesos[54] of four English sueldos [sc.: shillings] apiece, besides some bales of so little value that they were left to burn with the ship. And since that commerce was then free and unrestricted, they could carry more than now, when the commerce is reduced to a certain amount permitted. The fifth is almost evident, because this merchandise comes in two ships of 300 toneladas. Suppose that they are of 500 toneladas, and that they do not carry any products of the islands, nor any ship’s stores, or spices, or anything else but silk, of which every six boxes make one tonelada; accordingly, the thousand toneladas of the two ships would mean 6,000 boxes. Each box is worth 1,500 pesos, and therefore all would be worth 900,000 pesos. Now if from this amount supposed be deducted the toneladas occupied by the men, artillery, ammunition, and food, those toneladas that the ships have below 500, and those toneladas which are of other kinds and not of silk (for those containing cotton cloths are estimated to have a value of 100 pesos and less, and usually exceed [in all] 2,000 and at times 4,000), it easily follows how impossible it is to carry four millions in merchandise in these two vessels—if indeed the three and one-half millions do not come in gold, pearls, and diamonds (products of which 20,000 pesos’ value are not brought).
Number 86. Permission for the merchandise of the islands: how it is understood there
The sixth reason is founded on the truth regarding the commerce of the islands, namely, that in regard to the value of the two hundred and fifty thousand pesos allotted by the permission, the governors have granted favors in two ways. One is by admitting registers of more merchandise than is included in the permission, for certain reasons and motives that they have had, guiding themselves more by the burden of the ships and their toneladas, and by the volume of the goods, than by their intrinsic and real value. That has not been any fault or transgression in the citizens, nor in the government employees—of the former, because they are masters of what is allotted to them, but not of its restriction or its increase; of the latter, because it is clear that they must have had an order or sufficient reason for it—and even if such order or reason were lacking at the beginning, those who have succeeded and have found them in this practice and procedure, have not greatly transgressed in following it. The other method is by allowing the citizens to export more than the amount ordinarily allowed, in the products of their own land, which they get from their harvests or their encomiendas. Such are white and yellow wax, and civet; talingas, manteles, lampotes (which are cotton fabrics); and certain kinds of blankets [mantas] from Ilocos, Moro, and Bemben. Of these products, eight hundred piezas (which make one hundred toneladas) are generally sent; and they are declared and appraised at Acapulco, as will be told of the rest. [In the margin: “In numbers 96 and 97.”] That practice seems to have been introduced on the ground that it was considered probable that the permission was for the Chinese cloth and other foreign stuffs, and not for those peculiar to and native to the islands; these latter were always admitted, and never needed any permission to carry them to Nueva España—both because of their little value, and because, as will be said, they do no harm to the commerce of España. This is where the excess [over the permission] lies, and not where it is imagined by him who is not conversant with the facts. It is even to be noted that not eight hundred boxes of those products and commodities are always shipped, nor all of them outside the permission—but at times much less than is contained in the per mission, and sometimes very few, are sent; and these are registered and pay the royal duties, as do the others.
Number 87. Imposition of the two per cent, and the reason why it should be repealed
The seventh and last reason is that which is deduced from the imposition of the two per cent which an effort has been made to introduce, on the merchandise of those islands which is exported to Nueva España, and on the silver which is taken to them, by way of avería. It was ordered that this be collected, by the general decree for the permission of 604, and by another of April 22, 608. Governor Don Rodrigo de Bivero tried to execute the first, and Don Juan de Silva the second, and both found so many disadvantages that they suspended it. In the year 625, the royal officials again insisted upon its observance, during the governorship of Don Fernando de Silva, and later during that of Don Juan Niño de Tabora—who, recognizing that the motives that influenced their predecessors were more cogent than before, because of the greater decline in which they found that commerce, the poverty of the inhabitants, and the loss in their business, conformed to the earlier decisions. Licentiate Don Francisco de Roxas put forth more diligent efforts for the actual collection of the said two per cent, but he learned by positive evidence that that collection would mean the destruction of the trade of the islands. For their citizens were resolved not to export their goods, or to take advantage of the permission, as it was apparent to them that, if they paid this additional two per cent besides the three per cent that they pay and the other three per cent on the Chinese merchandise, with the freights and expenses of the ships, the duties in entering Acapulco, and afterward on the silver when they depart [thence]; and that, if without that two per cent, they are continually losing, with it they will be completely ruined, and will be able neither to advance, nor even to preserve their wealth for their support: therefore, the inhabitants have represented several arguments of not a little force to your Majesty. First, that although it was a fact that the profits made formerly on the Chinese trade were large, they were indeed quite small after the entrance of the Dutch into those seas; for by their plundering the Chinese merchandise its cost has so increased that the profit made on it is indeed very little, and there are so many risks in it that there are some years when the merchants lose everything. Second, Governor Don Juan de Silva, seeing that it was difficult to enforce this imposition, supplied its place by the three per cent duty that he ordered to be collected on the Chinese merchandise, whereupon its price again rose. Third, because the duties paid and the expenses incurred by the commerce of the islands are very large. For each thousand pesos the citizens there and in Nueva España pay 270 pesos; and on freight, expenses and costs, 280 more—a total of 550 to the thousand. Fourth, since the costs are so heavy, the profits cannot be large, while the perils are enormous; so that it is impossible for the inhabitants to maintain that commerce; and consequently, they will have to abandon it, and the result will be its total loss. Fifth, the visitor, Don Francisco de Roxas, understood this, and contented himself with getting four thousand ducados for that time, as a gift for suspending the execution [of the two per cent]. Sixth, if from the collection of the two per cent would result the sure and certain cessation of the commerce, or its so great decline that it will bring in less with the greater duties than now with the less, it is better to leave it as at present. Seventh, because of the decline into which the commerce has fallen since the Dutch began to frequent the Orient. Eighth, the services performed, past and present, by the inhabitants of those islands, for which they deserve this and greater rewards. These arguments, although more at length, were presented to your Majesty; and you regarded them as so cogent and sufficient that you were pleased to order that the execution of the decrees for the two per cent should be suspended, by another decree of June 13, 636—by which the inhabitants, on account of their shortness of means, should aid the crown with a gift, in accordance with the condition of the country and their funds.
Number 88. Scanty profits of the commerce of the islands
Two things are inferred from the above. One is the scanty profits of the commerce of the islands, which are so greatly exaggerated by him who is proposing measures for destroying that commerce; for, were its profits half of what is alleged, it cannot be believed that vassals so loyal and so liberal in your Majesty’s service would hesitate so much about paying two per cent, and gaining less, when there is so great experience of the love and good-will with which they offer you their possessions and lives. This was not the only time in which this imposition was considered, since Governor Gomez Perez Das Mariñas imposed an additional two per cent besides what was stipulated in Nueva España,[55] in the year 591, for the building of the walls of Manila; and although it was confirmed by a letter of instructions of January 17, 593, orders were given, on account of the opposition manifested to it by the inhabitants, that that duty cease when the work was finished, by decree of March 12, 597, which was put in force. For it is certain that considering the expenses, the risks, the hardships, the shipwrecks, and the losses of that voyage from China to Manila, and from Manila to Acapulco—so remote, so long, so troublesome, and so full of dangers, in which many ships have been wrecked, and the enemy have pillaged others, and not a few have put back in distress, and have suffered other disasters, as will be related [In the margin: “In number 93.”]—the profits become very small and the gains so limited. This is recognized in the amount of wealth possessed by the citizens of those islands at the end of sixty years, which is the best and most evident proof; since if it were not indeed ten million annually, as has been imagined, but only that which is permitted, without any illegal gain, and the profits one hundred per cent net, the islands would be found in a very different condition from what they are in at present.
Number 89. The new resolution incompatible with that for the two per cent
The second thing that is inferred from the proposed resolution for the two per cent is, that it seems to be incompatible with what it is claimed to introduce. For if there were so many difficulties in adding two per cent on the duties of the commerce, and its execution was suspended after forty-five years of dispute and attempt, and the arguments proposed were considered as sufficient for that step, and your Majesty, yielding to those reasons, approved and confirmed them, how can an increase of duties be suffered now, which will cause so great an innovation in the manner and despatch of the commerce, which will result in so increasing the duties that what is being attempted is exceeded by this way, and did not seem advisable by the other? And [how is it] that the reasons and arguments which were sufficient in order not to impose the lesser burden are not sufficient to prevent the imposition of the greater?