Note 10 — [Part II]

In the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library), iv, pp. 335–408, is the transcript of an interesting document—“Information furnished by Don José Antonio Niño de Villavicencio in regard to the situation of the town of Zamboanga; its original subordination to the royal crown; its fortification, dismantling, and reestablishment; the condition in which it was in 1737; its expenses; and the amounts which it paid toward these.” After a sketch (illustrated by various official documents) of the early history of Zamboanga as a military post, he relates its dismantling, and its reestablishment by Bustamante; this latter is begun on April 5, 1719, under the command of General Gregorio Padilla y Escalante, and its fort is named “Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza.” Villavicencio carefully describes the fort, and presents an itemized statement of the expenses of maintaining it—which amount to 20,000 pesos annually, besides a reserve fund of 5,000 pesos which may be drawn upon for extraordinary and urgent expenses. The salary of the governor and military commander is 396 pesos a year. Two Jesuit chaplains are kept there, who receive each 100 pesos annually. There are eighteen other officers (commissioned and non-commissioned), and two hundred privates; also five other officials, including a surgeon. Besides this force of Spaniards is a company of Pampango soldiers—a hundred men and five officers; and a considerable number of men are also employed as rowers, builders, coast-guards, and seamen. Rations amounting to 9,855 cavans of rice are allowed in the budget of expenses; and the sum of 5,000 pesos is allowed yearly for ammunition and military supplies for this post. The rice and other provisions are mainly furnished from the provinces of Iloilo and Panay, on account of their fertility and their nearness to Zamboanga. A considerable part of the expenses of that post is obtained from the contribution made by the inhabitants of the subjugated provinces, each tributario giving annually a ganta of clean rice; this amounts to 109,503 gantas of clean rice—equivalent, at the rate of twenty gantas cleaned to 48 gantas of palay, to 10,950 cavans of the latter—which is estimated to be worth, at the prices paid by the royal officials, 5,356 pesos. Enumeration is made of the numbers of tributes paid in various provinces, as follows: Tondo, 5,606½; Bulacan, 4,963½; Pampanga, 8,067; Pangasinan, 10,896½; Ilocos, 8,665¾; Cagayan, 5,218½; Laguna de Bay, 6,795; Tayabas, 1,612½; Camarines, 7,512; Albay, 3,481; Panay, 6,170½; Yloilo, 10,406½; Island of Negros, 503½; Leite, 8,154¼; Cebu, 4,411½. All these are tributaries of the crown; to these are added the contributions made by “the tributaries and the encomenderos of the encomiendas independent of the royal crown,” which amount to 18,144 gantas. A deduction must be made from these of 1,105¾ gantas, “from those who in the number of the said tributes do not make this contribution, on account of being servants of the churches, and for other reasons;” the result is the total above given. The tributaries of the following provinces are exempted from the contribution: Balayan, Mindoro, Caraga, Mariveles, Calamianes, and Cavite. A further source of revenue for the expenses of Zamboanga is found in the monopoly on the wine of the country; this had formerly belonged to the crown, but had been surrendered at the petition of the city of Manila. Later, the citizens being called upon to make donations for the support of Zamboanga, the city petitioned that this be accomplished by renewing the above crown monopoly of wine. “This new monopoly having begun to be in force from the year 1731, the sum at which this contribution [to Zamboanga] may be estimated must be figured according to the successful bids [remates] at which the privilege has been leased;” it was farmed out—that is, sold at auction to the highest bidder for a term of three to five years. The first of these was Don Esteban Garcia de los Rios, for 1731–33, for the sum of 10,000 pesos a year; the second, Captain Pedro de Ceballos, for 1734–36, 15,500 pesos a year; the third, Captain José Ruiz, for 1737–41, 25,000 pesos a year. The proceeds of this monopoly, then, averaged during eleven years 16,833 pesos a year. This document is dated at Manila, February 4, 1738.

In regard to the contributions made by the Indians for the expenses (outside of ecclesiastical) of the Philippine colonies, Torrubia says (Dissertacion, pp. 98–103): “When the post of Samboangan was rebuilt in the year 1755, it was the opinion of the very reverend Father Juan de Bueras, provincial of the Society of Jesus, that the Indians of Pintados, as those most interested in the maintenance of the fort, should aid therein with a half-ganta of rice for each tribute. His opinion was accepted, but with the enlargement of the contribution to two gantas (which make one ganta of cleaned rice), and its extension to all the islands, which amount is paid up to this day. I have understood that this contribution amounts annually, on the average, to two thousand five hundred pesos. During the fifty and more years when Samboangan did not exist, it was paid just as when the fort was there, notwithstanding that the cabildo opposed it; and the Indians paid, without the motive for this imposition still remaining, at the least estimate, more than one hundred and fifty thousand pesos. The Indians are obliged to make other contributions. For the maintenance of the soldiers, they furnish rice to his Majesty at two reals a caban, and usually it is worth more; this is called the compra, and forty or forty-five thousand cabans (or fanegas) of rice are levied from them in compra, allotting it pro rata according to what each Indian sows. For these cabans (or fanegas) no more than two reals are paid, although that amount is worth four reals, or more; and it is to be noted that in the suburbs of Manila the price ordinarily does not go below three reals. The same practice is current in the compras of wheat, although it is true that in this the Indians seldom lose much. Besides this, the Indians do the timber-cutting for the ships, and do not receive more than sixteen reals a month, which they do not have even for their tools (which they carry with them); they are soldiers, they row in the galleys, and they are mariners, artillerists, calkers, and carpenters. And we know very well that in these occupations they serve in the Ribera of Cavite without pay, and likewise in the armadas, three, four, or five years, only to obtain a situation in the ship which goes to Nueva España or Acapulco. Here [i.e., in Madrid], without considering these contributions, all the expenses [of the islands] are summed up for the account of his Majesty.” He goes on to say that from the sum of expenses must also be deducted the voluntary contributions of the citizens; also that these military expenses have been unfairly laid at the door of the Zamboanga fort. The soldiers there and in the forts at Cebú and Iloilo are paid from the situado contributed by the natives themselves; and the fleets which are sent against the Moros, and the coastguard galleys at Zamboanga, are not an expense caused by the fort there; “even if they were, it is a necessary one, under penalty of the Moros eating us alive.”

Torrubia ends his Dissertacion, which is a plea for the maintenance of the fort at Zamboanga, with a scheme for the formation of a fund—to be formed by levying a small tax on each of the Christian Sangleys, and on every “tramp,” whether Indian or mestizo—which shall be regarded as an obra pia, and be placed in the management of the Misericordia; its proceeds are to be used for the support of the military posts and fleets which are maintained against the Moros, for the support of missionaries in the Moro provinces, and even for the extension of the gospel still further. This would relieve the natives from the oppressive “Zamboanga donation,” the citizens from the frequent contributions now expected from them by the government, and the royal treasury from the heavy burden of supporting the present list of armadas and forts; and the Moro pirates would be easily held in check, and the interests of both the Spaniards and the Indians protected. ↑