Note 4 — COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINES WITH NUEVA ESPAÑA

189–190. [This memorial may be “reduced to five points: In the first it is proved that, for the preservation of the islands, and the propagation of the Catholic faith in them and in the adjoining regions, their commerce with Nueva España is necessary. In the second, it is declared that for the above result it is necessary that the commerce be carried on and allowed with a capital corresponding to the returns of 1,200,000 pesos every year. In the third, it is made plain that returns to that amount are impossible, if the traffic in the silken fabrics and goods from China, and their transportation, are prohibited to the merchants of Manila. In the fourth, it is demonstrated that no value should be attached to the exaggerated statement that damages will ensue to the commerce of España if that of Manila be allowed to embark and convey silk fabrics to Acapulco. In the fifth, it is explained how desirable is the continuation of the last regulation of the commerce, granted to the islands in the year 1726; and the advantages which result from that ordinance, notwithstanding the representations made by the viceroy.” This memorial presents a brief résumé of the various royal orders and decrees and the principal events connected with the Manila-Acapulco commerce during its history, from 1587 to 1726; another, of the investigations made by the viceroy of Mexico regarding the galleon of 1731; and another, of the proceedings of the junta which he called together for discussion of the measures to be taken regarding the galleon of 1734. Then the above five points are considered seriatim, and at considerable length—mainly by restating and enforcing the arguments formerly employed, rather than by adducing new ones. In section i, the king is reminded that the islands serve as a safeguard and defense to Nueva España, and have kept the foreigners, infidels, and pagans of the East from getting a foothold therein by way of the Pacific coast; and it closes thus: “Thus, Sire, if this commerce ceases—the only foundation on which rests the maintenance of these islands—the Spaniards will abandon them; without their protection, the [religious] ministers will be persecuted to the utmost; the works of piety and charity in which the holy house of La Misericordia and the other foundations in Manila distribute enormous sums will cease; the religious orders will be reduced to uselessness; those villages will be desolated, by which your Majesty will lose many vassals; the foreigners and infidels adjoining those countries will make themselves masters of the islands; and (which is most cause for grief), when the fortunate advancement of our religion which has been secured there ceases, those who had embraced the faith will go to seek their living in the lands of the pagans, with evident risk of relapsing into the errors which they had detested. These dangers are worthy of the profound consideration of your Majesty, and cannot be averted if the commerce of Philipinas with Nueva España fails.” In section ii, the deputies protest against the returns of 1731 being made the standard for the regular value of this commerce, as the gains of that year’s Acapulco fair were phenomenally large. They declare that in order to maintain themselves they need not less than 1,200,000 pesos annually, especially as the number of citizens in Manila is now larger than in former years—in view of which, the amount for which they ask is very moderate, being even less in proportion than it was then. The following statements of population are interesting: in 1636–37, the number of Spaniards in Manila was 230; in 1702, there were 400; and in 1722, 882, a number which has since increased [this memorial being prepared in 1733]. What Manila asks will barely allow to each inhabitant, on the average, an investment of 800 pesos, which is hardly enough for a decent mode of living. What encouragement does this give to Spaniards to settle in such a country, and how can they thus better their fortunes? The opinions of various high officials (including viceroys of Mexico) are cited in support of this claim. Not only the Spaniards who are citizens of Manila are to be considered in this question, but the two millions of Christian natives who depend on the Spanish power, not to mention the 1,500 ecclesiastics who are occupied in maintaining the Catholic faith in the islands. In section iii, it is argued that the people of Filipinas must be allowed the trade in Chinese silks in order to secure any profit from their commerce. Manila claims that the restrictions imposed by the decree of 1720 were procured by the efforts of Cadiz, without the consent of the people of Filipinas, to whom those restrictions brought much distress; that the Acapulco trade was granted to them in the first place in order to attract Spaniards as colonists, in order that intercourse with them might be the means of entrance and extension for the Catholic faith among pagans and infidels; that España produces hardly enough silk goods for its own consumption, and imports much from foreign countries, so that there is no just reason for prohibiting this trade to Filipinas. “Since what the Sangleys chiefly trade in is the silken fabrics and ribbons, if the shipment of these goods to Nueva España is forbidden that is the same as prohibiting intercourse with the Sangleys, because the consumption of the said silks and ribbons is very small, or not any, in Philipinas.” The customs duties and alcavalas on the silk trade at Manila amount to some 40,000 pesos a year, which would be lost to the royal treasury by the failure of that trade; it will also have no means with which to buy the rice produced by the Indians. No profit can be made on the linens and other common fabrics prescribed in the decree of 1720, as they are of little esteem in Nueva España, and the demand for them is small, as also is their value, “since in one bale of these goods only the value of sixty or seventy pesos can be contained.” If at the Acapulco fair these goods, even when the amount shipped is uncertain, bring prices so low that there is but little profit over the duties, freight-charges, and other costs, it may be imagined how unprofitable this sort of investment will be when (if that decree be enforced) the buyers there regard the cargo as composed mainly of these goods, “and the venders are not able to practice the maxim of concealing the [amount of the] merchandise, in order to secure the highest price for it, its abundance, which lowers the price, not being known.” The sayasayas and hose, the only form of silk fabrics permitted to Manila, are productive of but little profit; and even that would be entirely lost if they were shipped in large enough quantities to complete the amount of investment allowed to Manila, for the prices in Nueva España would thus be greatly lowered. Even if this were not so, one voyage of the galleon would so fully provide the warehouses of Mexico that no more would be needed for the next three or four years, which would ruin Manila’s market for these goods. It is impossible that of these bulky goods any adequate quantity could be shipped within the number of piezas at present allotted to the citizens of Manila, which, indeed, is all that their one galleon can carry. Manila claims that the viceroy had no right to give the order regarding the galleon of 1734, and that both he and the junta rashly assumed that the prosperous Acapulco fair of 1731 was the standard by which to judge the results of that commerce—when in reality that was an accidental and unusual success; nor did the royal officials of Acapulco propose that the trade in Chinese silks should be prohibited to Manila, but only that the number of 4,000 piezas allowed it should be reduced. Section iv refutes the arguments brought forward by Andalusia against the trade in Chinese silks as injuring Spanish trade and manufactures, declaring them to be exaggerations and misrepresentations of the real facts. “It has very recently been made evident by that very commerce [of Cadiz] that the fabrics of España are not able to supply those provinces [of America], by the fact that in the company which, with the name of ‘Philipinas,’ has been established in the city of Cadiz, by royal decree of March 29, in this present year of 1733, among the articles and agreements which have been set down therein is one providing that in each ship of those which (without limitation) may be allowed to them for their traffic the silken fabrics from China may be freighted, to the extent of fifty toneladas, a little more or less; and, bringing those goods to these kingdoms [of España], they may sell them therein—not for consumption here, for this is prohibited; but that they may export those goods to foreign countries and to America, where they may be sold and consumed. From this it is evident, in spite of the complaints which the commerce of Cadiz has so often repeated on this point—while the merchants of Manila have never consented to this company, rather, always protesting and speaking against it, and when what may be offered to them is found by experience to be prejudicial to the preservation and maintenance of those islands—that the silk goods which are made in España are of so small amount that they cannot supply America, nor can those of China injure the consumption and satisfactory disposal of the Spanish goods.”4 Manila claims that this new company will draw from the Spanish empire a much greater quantity of silver for the benefit of infidels than Manila can spend in buying the goods which have been sent thence to Acapulco; and that Cadiz has no room for complaints against the other commerce, since its own merchants are interested in this company—and all without the weighty motives which led to the concession of the Philippine commerce, the propagation of the Catholic faith, the preservation of the Spanish power in Eastern Asia, and the advancement of the Christian religion there. The establishment of this “Royal Company of Philipinas,” in which traders of Cadiz have shares, shows plainly that all their complaints against the injuries to Spanish commerce from the Manila silk-trade were “merely a pretext for their securing the slender profits which that trade yielded to the islands.” The trading-fleets and galleons which are sent out from Cadiz every two years are laden mainly with products made by foreign nations—English, Dutch, Genoese, Venetians, and others—and this traffic alienates from the Spanish crown each year more than eight millions of pesos; and even greater drain of money results from the traffic which those foreign nations carry on in the Indias.5 Much more money is taken out of Nueva España by the Spanish trading-fleets, laden mainly with articles produced by foreigners and shipped thither by the merchants of Cadiz, than by the Manila galleon which carries thither goods bought from the Chinese. In the former case, the money is used to injure and harass the Spanish power; in the second, it goes to the Chinese, who are able neither to invade Spanish territory nor to aid the enemies of the crown. These foreign trading nations, moreover, carry to China and other countries of Eastern Asia more than four millions of pesos of Mexican and Peruvian coinage, which they spend there for the purchase of silks and other commodities, “in order to introduce these goods into the Indias, either illicitly or through the agency of the traders of Cadiz.” In the junta convened by the viceroy of Mexico in February, 1732, one of the leading arguments for continuing the increased permission to Manila was, “that the returns of silver produced by the fabrics of foreign manufacture which the aforesaid [traders of Cadiz] send in fleets and galleons to the Indias were in tens of millions, which from the ports of España pass to foreign dominions, and from these to the infidels of the Orient.” The aforesaid Company of Philipinas has obtained permission that in each ship sent out by its members (the number of vessels not being limited) they may convey, besides the goods, the amount of 500 pesos fuertes in silver money—more or less, according to the needs of their business—to be invested in Oriental goods, with freedom to change for gold any surplus that may be left of that capital.6 This permission leads to the drain of much silver from the country, opens the door for great frauds, and is manifestly unfair to Manila if the latter is to be deprived of its China trade. As for the ruin of the silk industry in España, “the city of Sevilla itself openly confessed (in a memorial dated April 24, 1696) that the ruin of its looms and the deterioration of its commerce arose from the single cause of the manufactures which the French, English, and Dutch had, since the middle of the past century, introduced into their dominions, and from the lack of assiduous industry in the natives of these [kingdoms of España]; and that for this reason those peoples carried to their own countries our wools, in order to return them in the shape of cloths and other goods, which their industry was able to manufacture from those wools. The same thing occurs with the silks which (as we are experiencing) they are introducing into these kingdoms, [made] from the [raw] silk which they obtain here; and they sell in the Orient various stuffs and fabrics, with which usually the people of rank in these kingdoms are clothed; and such people in the Indias wear the goods which the merchants of España convey in fleets and galleons—as may be known by the books of the customs duties, in which appears all the above, and the increased amount of silken fabrics which the foreigners are introducing through the port of Cadiz, and others that open on the Mediterranean Sea.” Cadiz is reminded that its commerce penetrates into Peru, Buenos Ayres, Honduras, and other regions which are forbidden to Manila; that it has no more successful fairs in Peru than in Nueva España (indeed, obtaining even larger profits in the latter country); notwithstanding the alleged ruinous competition of Manila; and that the contraband trade carried on in the Western Indias by the foreign industrial nations causes far more damage to Cadiz than does the small amount of trade allowed to Manila. Cadiz has made no complaint against the shipment by Manila of stuffs from India and spices, doubtless because the prohibition of these would injure the trade of the English7 and the Dutch, from whom Manila buys those goods, and whom Cadiz favors and tries to enrich at the expense of the Philippine vassals of the crown, regardless of the injurious effects of such procedure on the propagation of the faith and the welfare of the former heathen who have been converted to it in the East. Manila asserts that the necessity of buying Chinese goods for the maintenance of the islands, and the increasing competition of the European nations in Eastern markets, have so raised the prices of those goods that Manila no longer can obtain the large profits which they formerly brought in Nueva España, but must now sell them at a very moderate advance over their cost (including of course therein transportation, duties, etc.). The prompt despatch of the Manila galleon from Acapulco has been caused mainly by the necessity of its sailing at certain times to secure favorable winds and weather; but this haste has been an injury to the Manila shippers, “for it hinders them from selling their goods at a higher value, so they often dispose of them, for this reason, at the prices that the Mexicans are willing to pay for them, and at other times leave them for sale on commission [en encomienda], with the danger of losing them, and with the evident arrearage which is caused to the shippers by the lack of the money [which should have been received] from their sale, for use in their investments in the following galleon.” The memorial concludes with section v, in which Manila urges, in view of all the foregoing, that the permission of 1726 be continued to the islands, and consequently, that the recent orders of the viceroy of Nueva España regarding the lading of the next galleon be revoked. These orders were at least premature, as the shipments from Manila under the new permission did not begin until 1730, so that the galleon of 1734 was entitled to a cargo of the sort allowed therein; moreover, the viceroy acted against the advice of the junta which he had convened to discuss this question. Manila claims that in 1732 the galleon did not carry back to the islands even what they needed for their maintenance, the returns from its cargo (although that contained the 4,000 piezas of permission) amounting to only 1,100,000 pesos; and in the present year of 1733 the returns will be hardly one-half of what the shippers received, on the average, in the years preceding the new permission—the Acapulco fair being a poor one this year, on account of the large cargoes brought by the fleet from Cadiz, and the large amount of fabrics brought by “the English ship.” Manila needs 1,200,000 pesos annually, at the least; and in order to secure that amount needs the extension of trade permitted in 1726. The returns of 1731, as has been proved, cannot be taken as the measure of its value, especially when allowance is made for the possibility of storms, shipwreck, or other disaster to the galleon. Manila also asks that if the returns should fall below 1,200,000 pesos, its annual contribution of 20,000 pesos to the royal treasury be dispensed with. The king is reminded of the great services which the people of Filipinas have always rendered to the crown, in opposing the encroachments of the Dutch and others against the Spanish power in the East, in defending the natives of the islands against the Moro pirates, in contributions for building royal ships and for meeting other pressing needs of the royal treasury, and always freely offering their lives and their property for the defense or aid of the crown—to say nothing of their devotion to the observance and extension of the Catholic faith, their support of missionaries, and their zeal in converting the heathen. Manila asks for the extension in perpetuity of the permission of 1726, with various minor concessions; if this be not granted, then it is asked for another five years, with the proviso that no change be made at the instance of Andalusia only, or without opportunity being given to Manila to express its wishes and set forth its needs.]