Note 3 — Manila Treasury Accounts, 1630–35

Mesada: a month’s pay or salary. The derecho de mesada was a tax of that amount levied (like the half-annat on civil offices) on ecclesiastical benefices and preferments which had been granted by the popes to the crown of Spain as part of its royal patronage of religion. Laws regarding this tax may be found in Recopilación de leyes de Indias, lib. i, tit. xvii; the first of these is dated 1629. See also Teatro de la legislación universal de España y Indias (Madrid, 1791–97). The mesada was to be collected on the basis of the receipts from each preferment during the five years preceding the new incumbent’s entry upon his office.—James A. LeRoy.