Note 45 — Chapter XXXII

See Concepción’s account of this enterprise (xiv, pp. 167–171). The amount of capital raised was 76,500 pesos, in shares of 500 each; with this, the company began to buy goods (ropas) to supply the public necessities, and sold these in their own shops, in each of which were two Spanish agents, no Sangley having anything to do with these shops. It was planned that the company, having bought goods at wholesale—they found that they could purchase thus at sixteen per cent less than they paid for the same goods at retail—should sell at only thirty per cent above the first cost; “of this [gain] eight per cent must be paid to his Majesty to make up to the royal treasury the deficiency arising from the loss of the licenses that the infidels had paid; ten per cent went to the shareholders; and the remaining twelve per cent was kept for the payment of salaries, and for a public fund for the promotion of the industries and products of the country.” Their capital was found insufficient to make their purchases; indeed, this lack had always been felt when the Sangleys conducted the trade, but their industry had supplied it; the directors therefore applied to the Misericordia and other administrators for the loan of the reserve funds held in the obras pías. The latter were at first disposed to aid the company, but later declined to do so, following the advice of certain theologians whom they consulted. The auditor Pedro Calderon Henriquez gave an opinion contrary to this, saying that the obras pías had gained great profits through the voluntary concession and tolerance of the citizens, who ought not to be the only ones to make sacrifices for the public good; and that “in these islands they had winked at the business transactions of the confraternities, which are not carried on in other regions, on account of the convenience which the merchants found in having money ready for investment in their commerce.” The governor therefore demanded from the Misericordia 100,000 pesos of their reserve funds, and from the Third Order (of St. Francis) 30,000; and with these funds the company was for the time floated. (Among the advantages expected from this enterprise were: lower prices than the Chinese asked for goods, the same price the year round, the retention of all profits within the country, and the certain support of the twenty-one families belonging to the company’s employ.) Another great hindrance was found in the general practice of using clipped money in this trade, which caused great losses. This and other difficulties caused the dissolution of the company within the year, and it was unable to do more than save the capital invested therein. ↑