[Endorsed: “To the royal Audiencia of Manila, in regard to the order given by the president of the Audiencia to the mother rector of the seminary of Sancta Potenciana of that city, that she should not receive therein any woman sent by the archbishop or his provisor.” “Ordering that the president take what measures appear most fitting, considering all ends.”]
Commerce of the islands with Mexico
The King. To my viceroy, president, and auditors of my royal Audiencia resident in the City of Mexico, of Nueva España: Don Juan Grau Monfalcon, procurator-general of the Filipinas Islands, has reported to me that the permission possessed by those islands of two hundred and fifty thousand pesos of merchandise, and five hundred thousand for the returns thereon, is very small, as that was conceded thirty-four years ago, when the citizens and inhabitants were fewer, the duties and expenses not so great, and the islands less infested by their foes. Because of this latter, their needs have increased so greatly that, if the said permission be not increased, it will be impossible to maintain them, or for their citizens to support themselves. He tells me that some illegal acts may have resulted from the present narrow limit of the permission, both in the lading of the merchandise, and in the returns of the silver. In order that those violations may be avoided, and those islands and their inhabitants maintained in a less straitened manner, he has petitioned me to have the goodness to concede an increase of the two hundred and fifty thousand pesos of the merchandise to four hundred thousand, and also of the five hundred thousand pesos of silver to eight hundred thousand. For, besides the above-mentioned advantages, my royal duties will thus increase, to supply the expenses of the said islands; illegalities and frauds will cease; and the inhabitants will increase in wealth. The matter having been examined in my royal Council of the Indias, inasmuch as I wish to know what permission the said islands enjoy, and that of the count and duke of San Lucar, and whether it will be advisable to enlarge the permission of the said islands; and considering their needs and expenses, and other advantages: I order you to inform me very minutely in regard to it all, so that, after examination, the advisable measures may be taken. Given in Madrid, December eight, one thousand six hundred and thirty-eight.
I the King
Countersigned by Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon, and signed by the members of the Council.
[Endorsed: “Don Juan Grau Monfalcon. To the viceroy, president, and auditors of the Audiencia of Mexico, ordering information as to the permission [of trade] for the Filipinas Islands, and that conceded to the count and duke; and as to the advisability of increasing the amount permitted to the islands.”]
Jurisdiction over seamen
The King. To Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, or to the person or persons in whose charge that government shall be: in a letter which I wrote to you on the second of last September, on various matters, there is a section of the following tenor: “I have considered the arguments that you bring forward for its being so expedient that the commander and the admiral of the ships shall have authority and jurisdiction in the port of Acapulco, when he is not on shore, to punish his sailors and soldiers; and that the warder of the fort there shall not interfere with them by undertaking to punish them on shore (regarding them as his subordinates, as hitherto they have been) as they are persons of ability and good qualifications—since from the time when the ships cast anchor, during all the time while they remain in port, the men do not respect or obey, as it is right they should, the said commander or admiral. Desiring to avoid this difficulty, so that those officers may punish the culprits in such cases, I have decided that what you propose may be done, with the conditions that you mention; and, by a decree of the same date as this letter, I am sending to the viceroy of Nueva España advices to that effect. [I have told him] that as this seems to be a general complaint, to judge from the instances [reported] here, he must give the necessary orders for the execution of this decree, unless some difficulty shall arise that may oblige him to defer it; for when those men commit any disorderly acts on shore complaint can be made against them, and the matter referred to the said commander and admiral.” And now a report has been made to me, on the part of Don Juan Grao Monfalcon, procurator-general of that city of Manila, that it is very advisable that the said commander and admiral of the ships possess all necessary jurisdiction for punishing the men aboard them—as is done at Cartagena, Portovelo, and other places; and he entreats that I be pleased to command that this be accordingly done. The matter having been considered in my royal Council of the Indias, I have thought it best to issue the present, for such is my will, that the usage which I have mentioned be put in practice in the islands, as well as in Nueva España, since that is advisable for my service. [Madrid, December 8, 1638.]