Note 1 — Introduction

“This modest work, which does not pretend to be without mistakes, and perhaps other flaws, has a special interest in that it treats of a matter about which the historians of those islands had hardly occupied themselves. The chronicles written by the laborious ecclesiastics, the only books of history which may be consulted about the Philippines, contain nothing but descriptions of the campaigns against the Dutch, the wars against the infidels—in the Archipelago as well as on the continent of Asia—the rebellions of the natives in some provinces, so easily suppressed, the bloody encounters with the Chinese settled in the islands, portentous miracles, progress of the missions in China, Annam and Japan, famous conflicts between the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the civil power represented by the Governor General and the Real Acuerdo, great crimes, other notable events of different kinds and changes in the personnel and form of administration of the country.

“But in all these works, though useful and important, there is observed, among others, the absence of antecedents relative to economic and mercantile legislation, the scarcity of data to show the development of wealth of the country and of its commercial movement, the lack of a critical analysis of the legal provisions concerning such activities, and of their influence on the decadence or progress of production and commerce.” (Manuel Azcarraga y Palmero, Gobernador civil cesante de Manila, Alcalde mayor que ha sido de Cagayan y de Bulacan, Auditor honorario de Marina, etc., La Libertad de Comercio en las Islas Filipinas.—Madrid, 1872, pp. 9–10.)