The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 50 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

by Unknown

11. In each village there is a governadorcillo or headman, a deputy (and, if the village is a large one, two or three), a constable (and likewise two others, in large villages), an inspector of grain-fields [juez de sementeras], another of palm-trees, and a notary. In the visitas of the villages there are likewise deputies, constables, and inspectors of grain-fields. The large villages are more numerous than the small ones. If we allow for each one of the three hundred and sixty villages one headman or governadorcillo, only one deputy and one constable, one inspector of palm-trees and another of grain-fields, these make in each village, on the average, six offices which annually pay the half-annat, by a custom which was introduced into these islands in violation of the law of the Indias, which exempts the Indians from this royal impost. But in the settlement of its amount there is an unusual variation and difference, by which in the provinces of Tondo, Bulacan, Balayan, and Laguna de Bay (which are close to Manila) a governadorcillo pays twelve pesos, a deputy six pesos, and the constables, inspectors, and notaries four pesos [each]; while in the other provinces which likewise are close to this capital—Pampanga, Batahàn, and Cavite—a governadorcillo pays six pesos, a deputy four pesos, and the constables, inspectors, and notaries three pesos [each]. In all the other and remote provinces, a governadorcillo pays only one peso, six granos; a deputy, six and one-half reals; and the constables, inspectors, and notaries, three and one-half reals. From this it results that each village in the four first-named provinces pays thirty-four pesos, and each village in the three other provinces close by pays only twenty-two pesos; and in the thirty-seven villages of these three provinces the difference which there is between paying twenty-two pesos each and (as in the former) thirty-four, is four hundred and forty-four pesos—which is the increase for the said royal impost, if the payment is fixed at thirty-four pesos.

12. The seven provinces above mentioned have one hundred and eleven villages, and to fill up the complement of three hundred and sixty there remain in the remote provinces two hundred and forty-nine villages. Each one of these pays only five pesos, one tomin; and by ruling that they shall pay twenty-two pesos this impost will be increased by sixteen pesos, seven reals in each village. Multiplying this by two hundred and forty-seven, the number of villages, the said increase will amount to the sum of four thousand, two hundred and one pesos, seven tomins; and by equalizing [the payments of] all the provinces, at the rate of thirty-four pesos for each village, the aforesaid increase will rise to seven thousand, one hundred and eighty-nine pesos, seven tomins.

13. In my report of May 10, 760, in which I demonstrated the defective foundation of the commerce here, I proposed the increase of sixty thousand pesos every year, [in the amount of the permission?] his Majesty to permit the return of the silver from Acapulco with the impost of eight to ten per cent; and it is certain that the ten per cent will produce to the royal exchequer annually, on the average, one hundred thousand pesos, which is the amount in which the royal officials at Acapulco are interested.

14. In a report of June 25 in the same year, I proposed that the boletas should be applied to the benefit of the royal exchequer;[8] this increase would be at least fifty thousand pesos.

15. In a report of June 5 of the same year, I proposed to save the expense of one [university] chair of civil law [Instituta], which would yield an increase of four hundred pesos.

16. In a report of July 14 of the same year was mentioned the abandonment of the sale of [papal] bulls; and it was shown that this could produce at each publication at least one hundred pesos, which would be an annual increase of fifty thousand pesos

17. The contract for working the iron mine called Santa Ynes[9] was knocked down to the highest bidder at the royal auctions, before the late war, and afterward its operation ceased entirely. Consequently, by working the said mine on the royal account, on the terms which I proposed in the cited paper of suggestions, and in a written statement which I presented to the government (from which no action has yet resulted), the royal exchequer will gain the increase and profit of more than fifty thousand pesos.

18. By reëstablishing the farming or monopoly of playing-cards, either (preferably) by contract or by its administration or the royal account, as is commanded by the royal decrees of February 5, 730 and November 28, 1734, it could produce in all the provinces more than twenty thousand pesos, at the lowest estimate, in increase of the royal revenue.

19. By establishing the monopoly of cock-fighting[10] in these islands (as in Mexico), with the charge of one grano for each Indian who resorts to the said sport, and reckoning forty-eight granos (which make four reals) for forty-eight times[11] when each, at the least, would bet each year, four hundred thousand persons would share [in contributing to] the royal exchequer two hundred thousand pesos, at the least reckoning. For it is certain that there are more than eight hundred thousand souls who are able to bet on the cocks, and that, on account of their vicious dispositions and extraordinary addiction to this sport, it might be reckoned that each one would gamble more than eighty times a year; in that proportion the proceeds of this income, which here is estimated at only two hundred thousand pesos, would exceed four hundred thousand pesos.

20. By establishing similarly the monopoly of tobacco,[12] there would be an enormous increase in the royal revenue, since in the form of snuff [polvos] it is used by nearly all the Spaniards (both ecclesiastical and secular) in the islands. By establishing monopoly shops in the villages of the provinces, the consumption [of snuff] would be great; but that of leaf tobacco and cigars would be incomparably greater yet, on account of being used by more than a million of souls; for it is certain (as is the case) that even the boys and girls use the said tobacco before they [are old enough to] exercise their reason [antes de tener vso de razon]. It can be asserted without exaggeration that this traffic would produce more than four hundred thousand pesos.