Note 15 — Character and Influence of the Friars

This note is as follows: “The obras pias are pious legacies, in which it was generally determined that two-thirds were to be loaned at interest for maritime commercial enterprises, until the premiums—which for the risk to Acapulco reached 50 per cent, to China, 25 per cent, and to the Indias, 35 per cent—had increased the original capital to a certain amount. Then the interest of that amount was to be applied to the good of the soul of the founder, or to pious or charitable ends (Arenas, Historia, p. 397). One-third was usually retained as a reserve, to cover chance losses. These reserve funds were long ago claimed by the government as compulsory loans, ‘but they are still regarded as existing.’

“When the trade with Acapulco came to an end, the capitals could no longer be employed in accordance with the request of the founder, and they were loaned at interest in other ways. By a royal decree, dated November 3, 1854 (Leg. ult. ii, p. 205), an administrative council is appointed to take charge of the money of the obras pias. The total capital of five foundations (or rather only four, since one of them no longer has any capital) amounts to a trifle less than one million dollars [i.e., pesos]. From that amount the profit obtained from the loans is distributed according to the amount of the original capital—which is, however, no longer in existence in cash, because the government has disposed of it.”