Volume 49 — SYNOPSIS OF LETTER FROM ANDA TO CARLOS III
Reading edition
June 22, 1764, Don Simon Anda y Salazar sent a letter to the king, in which he showed the measures adopted by him during or in the time of the war with the English, in regard to economic matters of police and public order. They were as follows.
[The tariff was ordered] so that the coins of two and one-half tomins, one and one-half tomins, diminished by waste, from the value of their stamp, might be received at their intrinsic value; in order that in a determined time, the Sangleys might present themselves under penalty of two hundred lashes, and confiscation of their property, as it was learned that many of the dwellers in the Parián of Manila had entered Pampanga, and had united with those who resided in the villages of the province, and were preparing arms. The object was to disarm them and send them to the Parián. But many of them presented themselves armed and offered to give bonds that they were peaceful and that their arms were employed in the service of his Majesty.
He ascertained that the agreement that they had made with the English was that one thousand Chinese should enter from the Parián of Manila, and distribute themselves through the villages, so that they might fire them at that hour of Christmas eve when the natives should be in the temples, in order that by reason of the confusion, free entrance into the province might be secured for the English. He proceeded to imprison and punish many of them, and gave orders to maintain a suitable guard at the entrances of the bars and villages from the twenty-third to the twenty-fifth of December, 1762; and the religious ministers of the doctrine were not to open their churches or celebrate the divine offices, and to act with all manner of precaution.
Seeing that the Chinese aided the English in their expeditions, and that the chief Sangleys were censuring such conduct as well as that of others of those who plotted the insurrection in Pampanga, he suddenly pardoned them on condition that they would not reside in the provinces without license from the governing Audiencia, not to reside [there] longer than the time he would set, pay a tribute, and not carry food or aid the enemy.
He ordered the arms collected for the use of the soldiers.
He forbade more wine than was necessary to be taken from the province of Laguna, because of the disorders produced by drunkenness. In Bacolor the sale of nipa wine was by retail.
In the province of Pampanga, he permitted the free circulation of the barrillas (money made of pinchbeck and tin which the ayuntamiento of Manila coined for purchase at retail, and whose value was that of one grano of a tomin), but since the Sangleys introduced many counterfeit ones, he had to prohibit their circulation.
He ordered Don Francisco Javier Salgado to investigate the extortions and losses caused in the villages of Tondo and Cavite by the militia of Laguna and Tayabas who were assigned to oppose the English, because the leaders of such militia could not make them observe the due subordination. But no injured one presented himself, and accordingly he says that there is no one against whom to proceed, in spite of the fact that the order was published by edict.
He published an edict in regard to weights and measures, in order that they might not be made less or clipped.
He forbade the seculars who had fled to the provinces to obey the summons of the archbishop that they return to Manila.
He ordered the Indians not to go out of their villages without a passport from the gobernadorcillo to villages within the province; and from the governing Audiencia to Manila and its environs, so that they might not carry provisions to Manila.
That order not being sufficient, he issued other edicts making the prohibition more strict especially against the Spaniards.
He prosecuted and punished several spies sent by the English to ascertain what Anda and the loyal troops were doing.
He permitted free trade among the provinces, so that they might have food in abundance. He ordered that all the lands of Pampanga be planted, so far as possible, with rice, sugarcane, etc., and that land in the village of San Ysidro be given to the Tagálogs who had fled from Manila.
He arranged that the food for the provision of the warehouses be bought by the parish priests, and that they be paid in cash instead of demanding them through apportionment.
He granted general exemption from tribute, polos, and personal services, in view of the fact that the English said that they had gone to the islands to free the people from them, which measure proved very useful.
He ordered that in Bacolor and surrounding villages, the bell be rung at nine o’clock at night for all people to retire, and not to be seen on the streets, in order to avoid disorders.
He forbade the sending of skins to Manila in order that the English and Chinese might not use them.
[He forbade] illuminations at night, on the eve and day of the anniversary of birth and the saint’s day of the king and prince of Asturias.
He prohibited by edict the Pangasinans from living with their herds on the lands of San Ysidro in order to avoid disorders with the inhabitants of the village over the pastures.
He prohibited games of dice, cockfighting, and cards, in order to avoid the excessive thefts and robberies that were committed. He ordered whoever committed a theft of the sum of one peso to be punished with the capital penalty.
He published a judicial defense in reply to the considerations of father Fray Antonio de las Huertas, of the Order of the Preachers, to a memorial which was presented in the royal Council of the Yndias by Father Luis de Morales, of the Society of Jesus, provincial of his order for the province of Filipinas.