The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 25 of 55. Unknown

and other nations, with their persons and possessions, and are the first to take arms.

      Another thing is of great consideration, namely, that in the great necessities that arise in the royal treasury, which has not the wherewithal to take care of them, the said inhabitants have aided it; and they aid it very often with very considerable sums, depositing therein from eighty to one hundred thousand pesos, without receiving any interest. That money is retained in the said royal treasury, and the owners are not repaid for more than two years. The loss of interest on so great a sum for so long a period constitutes a great service, for merchants and men of business. They only think of the great desire that they have always had, and have, for the service of your Majesty; and that is so great that many poor inhabitants, not having any capital to allow them to make loans to the royal treasury as the other inhabitants do, beg for a loan in order to be enabled to attend to your Majesty’s royal service. In the assessments continually levied upon them by the governor, consisting of jars [of oil or wine], rice, and other things necessary for the relief of Terrenate and the island of Hermosa, the said inhabitants contribute very eagerly and willingly; and on the voyages made by the galleys, if slaves are needed (as often happens), they give their own. With the same willingness did they make the gift of the said four thousand pesos in the year 632.

      Since all above stated is so, and since the inhabitants are perpetually and continually serving your Majesty with their persons, lives, and possessions, and by the intolerable burden of always bearing arms; and since all that is related in this memorial is evident from the investigations made at the citation of the fiscal, and by what the governors and the orders write: therefore it is just for your Majesty to honor and reward the inhabitants, since their services are so worthy of reward and remuneration; and since the said imposition of the said two per cent would be only an affliction and punishment, to have its enforcement discontinued, so that there may be no further question of it—which, as can be understood by the reasons above stated, has been and is the royal intention and purpose of your Majesty. For during the so many years that its execution has been suspended, your Majesty having been informed by the letters of the governors and royal officials of the difficulty of its observance, it has been abandoned and repealed in order to avoid so many and so great dangers as above stated, and injuries to the said inhabitants and residents of those islands—an intent quite in accord with the first decree of the said year six hundred and four, in which, although it was ordered to impose the said two per cent, it commanded that this was to be done with the greatest mildness possible. Consequently, as this mildness was not and could not be exercised, the imposition occasioning only great troubles and difficulties, the decree itself intimates, as if by express statements, that the said collection was impracticable.

      Thus the request of the said city and its inhabitants, and of the said islands, is that your Majesty be pleased to have it so declared and ordered, not only for the future, but also for the past; since the said royal decree has not been put in force, nor has it been advisable at any time, for either the future or the past. The impossibility [of enforcing the decree] is even greater [at this time], because of the many years that have passed, and the many persons against whom it might be attempted, who have died; so that to undertake it would mean nothing else than a beginning of lawsuits, and the disquiet and revolution of all the inhabitants of the said city, or of most of them—for those who have trafficked here from the said year of six hundred and seven are many, and most of them have died, without leaving any property from which to collect the arrears of duty—in case that that effort is made. By that [concession] the inhabitants will receive an especial favor, as is hoped from the greatness of your Majesty. Madrid, September 6, 1635.

      Reply of the fiscal

      The fiscal declares that he has examined the documents sent with this memorial, and the other papers and letters from the Audiencia, the visitor, and the superiors of the orders; that the decision [of this question] demands close attention, and all that the council is wont to exercise for its sure action, for the great necessity of its inhabitants which the city represents, confronts us. We must consider not only the impracticability of enforcing the impost, but no less his Majesty’s lack of means (caused by the wars and necessary occasions for expense that have limited the royal incomes), which constrains him so that he can do no more—a course which, as so Christian and pious a king, he would avoid, if it were possible. Having considered everything, what the visitor writes has much force with the fiscal, and persuades him that it is expedient and necessary to consult with his Majesty regarding this letter—so that, having examined its contents, and that, besides, which the council shall advise, he may be pleased to order what may be most to the welfare of his vassals, in whose conservation consists his best service; and approving the mild method pointed out by the visitor (of which he availed himself, in order that the trade might not cease, with the obvious danger of greater loss), he concurs in everything, and thus petitions. Madrid, September six, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five.

      Don Juan Grao y Monfalcon, procurator-general of the distinguished and loyal city of Manila, metropolis and capital of the Filipinas Islands, in answer to what was said and alleged by his Majesty’s fiscal to the memorial and arguments which he has presented, in order that the effort for the collection of the two per cent may cease and be abandoned, declares that your Majesty, in heeding the arguments that he has presented in another memorial, does not give up nor is he excluded from what is alleged on the other side. On the contrary he expressly recognizes (a fact that cannot be denied) the justification and urgent reasons that are necessary and unavoidable, which strenuously oblige to what the said city has entreated. In the name of the city, he accepts what is said and alleged in its favor by the said fiscal. But inasmuch as the fiscal mentions his approbation of the method which the visitor approves—and of which he availed himself, so that the said trade might not cease, which, he says with good reason, would be of greater loss—and says that with the said method everything would turn out well, he excludes the condition that it will not provide for everything, but only for the effort to enforce the said duty of two per cent. The difficulty would remain present, and the reasons and arguments of the said city be as if they were not; and it and its commerce would be left without any remedy, or means to preserve itself. Nor is there nor can there be considered any difference of opinion in the necessity that is mentioned of the royal treasury; for, although this necessity is great, the contention of the said city concerns not necessity, but the limits of impossibility. Consequently, [the interests of] the city ought to prevail and be preferred. This conclusion was reached by experience, on the occasion of the former year 632, when the said visitor tried to put the said duty in force, in which he found himself confounded; for he beheld the cessation of commerce, and the resolve made by the said inhabitants that they would not export or risk their wealth, without receiving any profit—by which it resulted that the despatch of the ships which were being sent to Nueva España was delayed, the cause of which was the said visitor, because of the said collection that he was trying to enforce. The governors of those islands—of whom there have been many, very prudent and clear-headed, and eminent in their zeal for the service of your Majesty—never came to such a determination, in all these years. And the strength and resistance of the obstacles that they found, and which they were considering in person, compelled them to consult with your Majesty, as they always have done—regarding that as much more proper than to execute [a decree] and risk the condition of those islands, and considering the matter with mature judgment and prudent deliberation. Consequently, they never reached the said decision that the said visitor attempted. And although the latter tried to remedy it, by proposing the means (that he alleges as a counterbalance) of the payment of four thousand pesos, by way of gift and gracious service, that gift was not perpetual, as appears on the contrary, and as is given to understand; but it was only for that time, and until the decision of your Majesty should be made. That is well verified by the fact of what afterward occurred; for in the following year the said visitor—recognizing that the gift of the four thousand pesos had been limited, and for once only, and that by virtue of that the said inhabitants were not bound to anything—attempted to make again, through some of the regidors, the same suspension that he had already made of the execution of the said duty, until your Majesty determined with what they should serve, with some gift, even though it should be only a small sum. That which was finally assigned was from one to two thousand pesos, the visitor again with this new occasion placing the despatch of the said ships in peril, causing by the least delay more loss than the said profit. Therefore the royal