Note 13 — Commerce between the Philippines and Nueva España (continued 2)

Under the rule of Felipe III and Felipe IV, the economic and financial affairs of Spain fell into a ruinous condition. The indolence and incompetency of those monarchs, the influence exercised over them by unscrupulous favorites, the rapid increase of absolutism and bureaucracy, the undue privileges accorded to the nobility and clergy, costly and useless wars, the extravagance and corruption which prevailed in the court and in the administration of the entire kingdom and the expulsion of the Moriscos—all these causes quickly brought on an enormous national debt, the impoverishment of the common people, depopulation of large districts, almost the ruin of manufacture and the like industries, the oppression of the poor, the trampling down of the national liberties, the decline of Spain’s naval and military power, and many other evils. The treasures of the Indias did not suffice to maintain the nation, and even caused some of its woes; and the reckless mismanagement of its revenues caused enormous deficits, which its rulers attempted to meet by imposing more and heavier taxes, duties, and contributions upon a people already staggering under their grievous burdens. The impositions named in the text are but a few of those levied at that time; and the colonies were compelled to bear their share of the burden carried by the mother-country. See the excellent survey of this period in Spanish history, and of conditions political, administrative, social, and economic, with bibliography of the subject, in Lavisse and Rambaud’s Histoire générale (Paris, 1893–1901), v, pp. 649–682.