Note 47 — Grau y Monfalcon’s Informatory Memorial of 1637

From the service rendered by the inhabitants of Filipinas, one may deduce how necessary it is to maintain the rich, or to give them capital sufficient for them to attend to their business. For that the only method (and the third point of the five arguments proposed), is the commerce of the islands with Nueva España, for in the proportion in which that shall increase, their possessions will increase, and with that the defense and security of the islands. For there is no more powerful argument than that which establishes the conservation of a province in the strength, that is, the wealth of its inhabitants, and depends on the abundance of that for its conservation. Commerce is a natural law of nations, by which they make common to all provinces what each one produces, grows, or manufactures—now by selling, now by exchanging. Although commerce ought to be free, and was in the beginning, when kingdoms and seigniories were less powerful (for as they had narrower territories, so they had fewer matters to which to attend), as the monarchies increased and extended it became necessary to limit the commerce in parts, prohibiting it with some, in order to oblige or cause it to be maintained or increased with others. If that of Filipinas with the Indias were free and absolute, as it was immediately after their discovery, it is evident that they would enjoy the greatest prosperity; while Nueva España would have greater abundance of what was necessary to it, and Peru of what it lacked. But the commerce of España, which would perish and be ruined, was opposed to that; for since the goods sent thence to the Indias were dearer than those of Filipinas, if merchandise entered from both parts without restriction it would be to the advantage of the consumers to seek that from Filipinas rather than that from España; and the former commerce would continue to increase, and the latter to decline. Accordingly, it was right and proper to restrain the one so that the other might endure, and that, heeding the principal thing, namely, the conservation of these kingdoms (the heads of the monarchy), trade to them might be free, and to the others restricted—maintaining such a proportion in this that in securing the prosperity of España the ruin of the Filipinas might not result; for natural laws influence us to concede what is to the advantage of another, when it involves no injury to one’s self. And thus it is no considerable damage that the kingdoms do not increase as much as is possible, if they maintain what they have; for the former is a matter of gaining, and the latter of not losing, until each one is left what is sufficient, if from conceding more results the lack to others of what is necessary. Accordingly, to Perù47 is conceded one ship annually for Nueva España; to Nueva España two for Filipinas; and to España the number that its commerce demands and is entitled to, in consideration of its amount—so that thus neither may the islands be lost nor Nueva España and Perú be deprived of all the freedom of their trade, nor España feel so much weakness in the trade of the Indias that it should lose that; and that all may remain in suitable relations [to each other], since they are members of the mystical body of this monarchy.