Note 35 — Part II

1. By a royal decree dated at Sevilla on March 23, 1733 (in which the project was carried out which was approved by his Majesty on April 26, 1732), there was established by our lord Don Phelipe Fifth, of undying memory, a company with the name of “Royal Company of Philipinas,”35 under fifty-eight articles and stipulations. These were full of the most unusual privileges and liberties that can be granted, and were even more advantageous to the Spaniards than those which Louis Fourteenth granted to the French for their Oriental Company; but I do not know exactly for what reason—some attribute it to the loss of Torres’s trading-fleet—the paternal affection did not prove effectual with which our beloved king and sovereign took an interest in making the Spanish monarchy prosperous by the extension and promotion of commerce (the only means for securing wealth), imitating the examples of almost all the nations of Europa, who, in order to become rich, have established their companies in the Orient.