Note 10 — Chapter VIII · The Philippines Three Hundred Years Ago.

The Payment of Tribute.—The tribute was introduced in 1570.10 It was supposed to be eight reales or a peso of silver for each family. Children under sixteen and those over sixty were exempt. In 1590 the amount was raised to ten reales. To this was added a real for the church, known as “sanctorum,” and, on the organization of the towns, a real for the caja de communidad or municipal treasury. Under the encomiendas the tribute was paid to the encomenderos, except on the royal encomiendas; but after two or three generations, as the encomiendas were suppressed, these collections went directly to the insular treasury. There was, in addition to the tribute, a compulsory service of labor on roads, bridges, and public works, known as the “corvee,” a feudal term, or perhaps more generally as the “polos y servicios.” Those discharging this enforced labor were called “polistas.”