Note 71 — Chapter VI · THE AUDIENCIA AND THE GOVERNOR: GENERAL RELATIONS
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In the same manner the acuerdo came to be recognized in governmental and administrative matters. The enactments of these legislative sessions of the audiencia were known as autos acordados. They ultimately came to embrace a wide field. The audiencia passed laws for the regulation of the provinces; it made rulings which the alcaldes mayores and corregidores were to follow in the collection of tribute; it prescribed their relations with the parish priests; it issued regulations for the conduct of the friars and the ordinary clergy relative to the royal patronage. Laws were passed for the encouragement of agriculture and industry and the regulation of commerce. Rice, tobacco and silk culture, the production of cinnamon and cocoanuts, the breeding of fowls, the regulation of cock-fighting, cloth-making and ship-building all came in for their share of attention in the acuerdo.71