Note 54 — Chapter V · THE SEMI-JUDICIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS OF THE AUDIENCIA.

Aside from the activities of the magistrates as members of the juntas de hacienda, described earlier in this chapter, it would perhaps be safe to assert that the tribunal exercised general supervision over financial affairs in the colony until the time of the establishment of the intendancy (1785–87). Correspondence between the Council of the Indies and the Audiencia of Manila would seem to indicate that the magistrates were expected to transmit, and did send, in fact, reports on colonial finances to the Council of the Indies. Among the reports of the oidores about twenty of these periodical statements have been found, covering irregularly the period from 1609 to 1780. No doubt a complete set exists. These generally embody a detailed audit of the accounts of the oficiales reales. Numerous commissions were also sent to the audiencia from time to time, ordering the magistrates to give special attention to financial affairs, such as the collection of licenses from Chinese; to see that tithes were efficiently collected and reported, to see that the tax on metals (mined) was paid, and offering special rewards in case of apprehension. It has already been shown that the king on August 8, 1609, asked the audiencia whether the king’s fifth had been commuted to a tenth in the Philippines. On July 21, 1756, the audiencia reported on the number of ships that had entered the harbor of Manila during the year before. On May 4, 1760, Francisco Leandro de Viana, the fiscal, charged the merchants of Manila with wholesale fraud in the payment of the almojarifazgo, paying only 3% when the law of 1714, then in force, had ordered the payment of 8%. Viana’s report charged the oidores with responsibility for this deliberate violation of the law, alleging that the oidores had been profiting thereby. It was on this occasion that the fiscal recommended the establishment of a consulado at Manila, which would remove from the magistrates of the audiencia all temptation to use their positions for private profit in violation of the commercial laws of the realm.54 The part played by the magistrates in the administration of the trade with Acapulco may also be mentioned here. This will be discussed in a subsequent chapter.55