Note 46 — Chapter VIII · THE AUDIENCIA AND THE GOVERNOR: CONFLICTS OF JURISDICTION

In addition to the above representations, the governor laid great stress on the financial advantages which would be derived from a suppression of the tribunal. He stated that the colony was short of money, a condition of which the magistrates were well aware, yet they always insisted on being the first to collect their own salaries, to the exclusion, if necessary, of all other officials in the colony.46 With the money saved from the abolition of the audiencia, an armed fleet could be provided for the defense of the Islands. This was badly needed, and there was no other way of obtaining the necessary ships. The Chinese rebellion of the year before47 had caused a diminution of 46,000 pesos in the commercial duties collected,48 and the consequent shortage of money in the treasury of the colony furnished further reasons for the dismissal of this useless and burdensome tribunal. Acuña admitted that the institution of the audiencia might be successful in larger dependencies of Spain, where the people were prosperous and where the government had an assured income, but in the Philippines, where the citizens were poor, with scarcely any means of support, and harassed by many magistrates and their dependents, the audiencia had been a failure and a serious burden.