Chapter XI: Section 1: of the said foundation spiritualized the properties and (1)

their future increases, so that use might be made of them under such concept for the ministry of the college, and the welfare of the souls of the three deceased testators, and of future benefactors. Section 2 entrusted the management to the then or future father provincial of the Order of Preachers of St. Dominic. Section 3 gave the government correction, and instruction of the college to the prior of the convent of that order in Manila. Section 4 allowed the provincial, as patron, to appoint the lecturers who were to give the instruction, and the workmen and helpers necessary for the good administration and for the temporal government, except that if any ecclesiastical or secular person were to endow the college with a large sum, the chapter of the province could give him the patronage, provided that he did not introduce any innovation, contrary to the authority of the father provincial in respect to the provision of lectures, or withdraw the college from the Order and province [of the Preachers], or deprive the prior of the management. Section 5 established that the arts and sciences should always be read and taught in the college by the religious of the province and Order [of the Preachers], and not by any other order, or by seculars. The same was true in regard to the religious pupils, and for the secular collegiates. Section 6 permitted the admission of bequests, gifts, and other aids weighted with charges of piety, which the convent was to fulfil and observe [levantaria]. Section 7 gave to the provincial chapter the power to make new rules and regulations, both in regard to the distribution and administration of the properties, and in what related to the ministry and instruction, and to appoint a rector. Those rules once made were not to be changed without the special authority and order of his Holiness. Section 10 says: "If at any time, any ecclesiastical or secular prince should try by act and right to exercise any power by way of patronage or in any other manner, in order to try to dispose of the properties and incomes of the said college, or to meddle with the administration and government of it, or hinder and disturb its effect in any way and manner whatever, and by means of any judge or powerful person, or by any other person who may do it, from that time and thenceforth, we apply the said properties and estates with which the said college is founded, and all the others which shall be augmented and applied, and which it shall receive in any manner, to the said province and to the religious of the said order, so that the latter may possess and enjoy as its own properties, acquired by just and right title, all of that property with the said houses and college, and their increases and improvements. We consider this foundation [under such circumstances] as null and void, and as if it had never been made. The said order is charged to be careful to say masses and other benefices and suffrages for the souls of the said archbishop and the others with whose alms and properties this foundation is begun, and all of those who, in the future, in any time and manner, shall leave and apply any other properties to it, so that by this way satisfaction may be given on the part of the said province, for the said alms, to the givers of those alms."

Although the writ of 1611 does not indicate that its signers thought of it, the royal license was inexcusable. According to law i, título iii, book i, of Recopilación de las leyes de Indias, it was ordered from the time of Felipe II that permission should be petitioned before the building of a church, convent, or hospice, for the conversion and instruction of the natives, and the preaching of the holy gospel. Law ii of título vi, devoted especially to the royal patronage, ordered that no cathedral or parish church, monastery, hospital, or votive church, should be erected, instituted, founded, or constructed in any other pious or religious place, without the express permit of his Majesty. However, law xliii, of the same título, rules that when any person wishes to found a monastery, hospital, hermitage, church, or other pious and charitable work in Indias, from his own property, the will of the founders shall be observed, and the persons appointed and summoned shall have the patronage. The attributes of the royal patronage which declare that "our permission shall be received beforehand for whatever is needed," shall always be reserved.

Royal permission, beyond any doubt, was obtained, although by an indirect method. For law liii, of título xxii, [book i] (which treats of universities and general and private studies in the Yndias) declares that "by the license of the ordinary and governor of the Filipinas Islands, and the decision of the royal Audiencia of those islands, the religious of the Order of St. Dominic in the city of Manila, founded a college where grammar, arts, and theology were read, in which they placed two religious of each branch, and twenty secular collegiates. Great gain resulted therefrom," and it is ordered that for the present and so long as his Majesty orders no other thing, "the religious make use of the license which the governor gave them for the foundation." That was not to be understood "to the prejudice of what was ordained in regard to similar foundations, so that they should not be instituted or commenced without express permission" from the king.

With such requirements, respect for the foundation is declared not only by the judicial force of the foundation itself, but also by the above-cited law xliii of título vi; for that respect is equally capable of being required from persons and authorities who are strange to the institution, and from the patrons, administrators, and ministers of the institution itself. The will of such patrons would have no power against the fundamental law whence proceeds their authority. Their end is to preserve and obey that law strictly, and to cause it to be respected by others without any change or violation of it by them. The admissible innovations in the institutions under discussion have the limit and form which were laid down by the foundation. Consequently, therefore, those innovations which might have been made in the patronage, in the administrative management, or in the academical order, provided that they respected that limit and observed the jurisdiction and formality laid down by the writ of 1611, could not be considered as violations, but as faithful applications of the peculiar law of the college.

The first part of the conference admits only the following categorical reply: "In the college-university, the ministry has no right to reorganize the instruction." It has a right, beyond any doubt, to organize the public instruction in Manila, in the manner which it considers most adequate for obtaining the ends of the same. One of the fundamentals which it may adopt could be the elimination [as teachers] of the fathers of the said order. But that will not fall within the college whose foundation we have before us, and the funds and properties of the same cannot be applied totally or partially to the university or college which the government may erect in such manner.

The section of reversion, literally copied above, will have its desired effect fully, in the case under consultation (unless permission is given to reconstitute the private institution in regard to the ruling of the writ of 1611), with entire independence of the academical institutions of the state. The disagreement [disyuntiva] would be between this and the reversion of the properties. Therefore, it is sufficient to call to mind the succinct but faithful review which has been made of the cardinal fundamentals of the foundation, in order to have proved that the reorganization of education, which the ministry of the colonies, laying aside all consideration of the community [i.e., of the Dominicans], might order, would wound and destroy in an essential manner, the will of the founders. If that should happen, the province of Santísimo Rosario and the Dominican religious of the province, would not only have the right to recover the properties, and give them the pious application assigned by the section, but also would not have the power to refrain from it, and consent that such properties remain applied to the needs of the teaching institution reorganized by the government. The patrons of a charitable fund, or any other permanent foundation, can never convert the authority of such contrary to the observance and purity of the institution confided to their care. The acts of the patrons, contrary to the foundation, possess the vice of nullity.

The lawyers undersigned have no exact and minute information of the vicissitudes which the college-university has experienced from 1611 to the present day. Comparing alone the royal decree of October 29, 1875, which reorganized the instruction of the said college with the writ of its primitive foundation, it appears that some rulings of the former are at variance with the latter: for example, article 3, which declares that the orders, plans, programs, and regulations, which emanate from the ministry and in that case from the governor-general, are obligatory for the organization and rule of education; article 6, and the following ones which allowed entrance to secular professors and defined their emoluments and fees; article 11, which reserved to the ministry the power of fixing the fees of matriculation, degrees, titles, and certificates; and article 13, which obliged the rector to render an annual account to the royal vice-patron of the emoluments and expenses of the university, the order supplying the deficit resulting. But we are not consulting as to the greater or less legal stability of the present condition of the institution or if we were treating of it, it would not be within our province to disavow that in other things of great importance, the government still respected the fundamentals of the foundation, and that the concessions which were made in 1875 in exchange for obtaining by entreaty the abolition of the decrees of November 6, 1870, [169] appeared practically corroborated by the lasting agreement of the patrons and of those summoned to obtain the properties by virtue of the clause of reversion, although in strict rigor of law the document of the foundation ought to take precedence over any act and any submission of its natural guardians.

For the concrete matter of our opinion, we have only to declare that we do not believe that the former more or less extreme mildness of the patrons in the presence of the interference, which rejected the foundation, weakens the actions of the patronage of the college and of the ecclesiastical province favored by the clause of reversion in order to demand the observance of the foundation, if, perchance, the ministry of the colonies, exercising powers which indubitably belong to it, reorganize the instruction of the university without considering the religious community of the Dominicans. Even in the hypothesis of considering as illegal the tolerances or concessions of former times, the foundation, pure and simple, is the criterion and only norm with which the dispute can be adjusted.

The second point of the conference offers no difficulty in whatever concerns the existence of a legal means for opposing a resolution of a government contrary to the native autonomy of the college. Leaving aside the attributes of the ministry to direct the services of education as it deems most suitable, whenever they are sustained by the public funds, the opposition, if it limit itself to the use of the properties and funds from private origin, which today endow the institution, would have a legal mean beyond any doubt, to demand the strict observance of the law of foundation.

What would this mean be, or which of the two possible means appears more efficacious? Would it be by bringing the complaint before the court of contencioso-administrativo [170] or before the ordinary justice?

The law of September 13, 1888, applicable to Filipinas, according to article 4 of its transitory rulings, marks the bound of the jurisdiction of the court of contencioso-administrativo. Perhaps the generic notes of article 1 of the said law would be found in a manner suited to the resolution of the ministry. That article would occasion a report [estado]. In what concerns the application of the properties and the incomes of the institution, it would emanate from powers subject to rule, and not discretional, and would wound a preëxisting right of a certain administrative character. For, besides the original royal permission and that of the protectorate general in regard to the foundations, the public administration has intervened, intertwining the public service of the instruction of that university with the private foundation. But article 4 of the law excepts the questions of a civil nature, and of the competency of the ordinary jurisdiction, the questions in which the right violated may be of a civil character, and also those which emanate from acts in which the administration has taken part as a legal person, or as one subject to rights and obligations. Of a character essentially civil would be the right violated by the hypothetical ministerial decision of which we are treating, reducing to accidental mixtures the ancient connections of the college founded by private persons, with the administration, which was advantageous to the opportunities which the college offered for the service of education. In strict terms one might add that the government, although it would perform judicial acts as a public power, in determining the future system of education, in exchange ought to be considered as a legal person, in so far as it should attempt to obtain by entreaty from the patrons of the college, the aid of the properties and incomes of the legal person incarnate in them. But the notoriously civil character of the laws which are involved in the observance of the foundation of 1611 are sufficient so that we might consider as definitive that the courts of justice would be those summoned to impose on the government respect for the will of the institutors, the owners of the properties with which the college is endowed.

But not because we do so understand it (as without vacillation we do understand it), can we advise that the contencioso-administrativo demand be left out of the claim. Action must be begun in its proper time and manner before the special court, with the intention that on that court rejecting the demand, as outside its peculiar jurisdiction, it would leave out of all doubt the jurisdiction of the common court. In this manner, it is probable that the attempt would be made to take advantage of the ambiguity, and maintain that the result of the deliberation had been consented to because of the lack of the other appeal, confusing with episodical and accidental discussions the controversy over the substantial and fundamental matter. The preliminary attempt of contencioso-administrativo appeal causes no disgrace to civil actions which have a longer life.

In conclusion then, the undersigned believe:

1. That, although the ministry of the colonies can alter at its discretion the system of public education in Manila, it has no right to apply the funds and properties of a private origin, today assigned to the college-university of Santo Tomás, to the establishment which it organizes, without considering the religious corporation of the Dominicans, or by infringing in any other manner on the foundation of the said college. Consequently, it cannot make any similar reorganization in that college.

2. That, if a ministerial decision shall be dictated contrary to the sacred and inviolable law of the foundation of the college, the most efficacious legal means to oppose the violation of the same and obtain its observance by entreaty would be to bring an ordinary civil suit before the courts of common law, but in order to free the road of the difficulties of this suit it would be advisable to try previously the contencioso-administrativo appeal, in the time and manner assigned by the law of September 13, 1888.

This is our opinion, but we will give place to any other that is better founded.

Madrid, October 29, 1890.

Doctor E. Montero Rios
Doctor German Gamazo
L. A. Maura

NOTES

[1] "All the New World was subjected to the alcavala. This is a tax levied only upon whatever is sold at wholesale, and does not extend to the articles for daily consumption; it is derived originally from the Moors. The Spaniards adopted it in 1341, and established it at the rate of five per cent. It was finally placed at ten, and forced up even to fourteen per cent; but in 1750 arrangements were made which brought the rate back to what it was at first. Philip II, after the disastrous end of that fleet so well known under the pompous title of 'invincible,' in 1591 resolved, on account of his needs, to exact this aid from all his possessions in America. At the outset, it was only two per cent; in 1627, it rose to four." (Raynal, Histoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens, ii, p. 310.)

[2] The italics in this and a few other sentences are the same as in the printed text of the Extracto.

[3] "This new despatch threw into consternation the commercial interests here." The governor asked advice from the fiscal, who, as the order came not as a formal royal decree, thought that it might be regarded as only the viceroy's expression of opinion, and the governor might take such measures as he deemed best. The citizens were informed of the viceroy's requirement, and asked the governor to investigate the foreign trade then carried on at Canton--saying that they were informed that "toward the end of the preceding year, 1731, various large vessels--French, English, and those belonging to the companies of Olanda and Ostende--entered the port of Canton in China with more than three millions in wealth, in silver and other commodities; and the presumption was that those goods [which they bought] could have no other destination than the Americas, to be introduced there by way of the Northern Sea [i.e., Atlantic Ocean]." Such investigation was accordingly made by official authority, and thirteen witnesses were examined--Armenians, French, and Portuguese. These agreed in their testimony, as eyewitnesses, that "in the city of Canton, in the kingdom of China, the French had maintained a factory for the space of seven years, as also had the English during two years; but these had been suppressed in the preceding year of 31 by the governor of Canton, on account of a controversy which the French and English had with the Chinese traders. Nevertheless, many of their ships, and [others] from Europa, remained there; and accordingly the witnesses had seen in the preceding year two French ships, four English, three Dutch, and one from Denmark, all of great burden and capacity, which carried thither a great amount of wealth in silver of Mexican and Peruvian coinage, and some small quantity in bullion. With this the foreigners bought silks--raw, in bundles, quiña, and others in colors, and woven fabrics--gold bullion, porcelain, and tea; and the witnesses were certain that they bought these commodities for the commerce with Perù and other parts of the Indias, as was evident from the money [that they used], and as the witnesses knew by having heard it from the foreigners themselves." The citizens also represented to the governor their objections to the proposed restriction on their commerce; they declared that it was not the Acapulco trade which was injuring that of Spain in America, as Cadiz had claimed, but the importation of Chinese goods by the European countries--fifteen or more ships at a time, with more than four millions of pesos, buying these at Canton, "with no other object than to introduce these into the Americas by the agency of the Spaniards themselves." "The truth was, that this complaint did not begin until the foreign ships found their way to Canton." The Spanish merchants ought not to complain of the small quantity of Chinese silk traded by Manila, when they themselves formed the channel for the far greater commerce therein of the other European nations, "in which the Chinese goods, made in imitation of the European goods, and folded double like them, occupy the same place." Moreover, the money returned to the Filipinas Islands did not all go, as Cadiz claimed, to foreign countries; but the greater part of it was invested in the obras pias, and in the fortunes of the citizens. It must also be noted that the Chinese champans carried home considerable cargoes of sibucao, sugar, and other products of the islands, in exchange for their stuffs. The royal officials at Manila, consulted by the governor, declared that the customs and other duties on the commerce would be greatly diminished by the prohibition of Chinese silks to the Acapulco trade--to the extent of more than 31,000 pesos a year, as was the case in the years 1719 and 1720, when the champans failed to arrive at Manila; besides which, the treasury lost 12,000 pesos, in the license-fees paid by the Chinese merchants who came to reside in the islands and sell their wares, and 6,000 more from other incomes dependent on the Chinese. The governor called together a conference of the religious superiors and the leading citizens; at which the matter was discussed pro and con; the sense of the meeting was expressed by the Dominican Fray Juan de Arrechedera, commissary of the Inquisition, who was asked to place his opinion in writing, and this was signed by those present, and attested by the governor, as president of the assembly. Arrechedera took the ground that the viceroy's notification was not a formal royal decree; that if carried out it would mean the ruin of the islands, which surely the king could not intend or mean; that the matter should properly be decided by the king himself, after Manila had opportunity to be heard before him; and the viceroy could only regulate the commerce according to the royal orders, and had no authority to change the present conditions without those orders. The Jesuit provincial did not sign this opinion, but rendered his own separately, warning the Manila merchants that the viceroy might be offended at their attitude, and confiscate their goods if they did not obey him. The royal officials advised the governor to allow the silks to be sent to Acapulco, and meanwhile to secure the good-will of the viceroy for intercession with the king in Manila's behalf. The matter was finally settled, however, by the royal decree of 1734, obtained through the efforts of the Manila agents at the court, which revoked the viceroy's orders and permitted the silk trade to continue. (Concepción. Hist. de Philipinas, x, pp. 254-303.) Cf. the sketch of the Manila-Acapulco trade by Manuel Azcarraga y Palmero in his Libertad de comercio en las islas Filipinas (Madrid, 1872), pp. 39-96. Malo de Luque outlines the subject briefly in his Establecimientos ultramarinos, v, pp. 217-234.

[4] "Although the silks which Spain furnishes are in general very choice, those of Valencia are far superior [to the rest]; and both are suitable for all uses. Their only defect is that they are a little too oily, which causes much difficulty in dyeing them." "The diversity of silks which Europe produces has not enabled us to dispense with that from China. Although in general it may be of heavy quality and uneven staple, it will always be in demand for its whiteness." "The whiteness of the Chinese silk, to which nothing else can be compared, renders it the only suitable kind for the manufacture of blondes and gauzes. The efforts that have been made to substitute our silks for it in the manufacture of blondes have always been fruitless, although not only dressed but undressed silks have been tried for this purpose; but the results have been somewhat less unsatisfactory in regard to gauzes."

"In the last century, the Europeans brought from China very little [raw] silk; ours was sufficiently good for the black or colored gauzes, and for the catgut gauzes [marlis] which then were worn. The taste which has prevailed during the last forty years (and more generally during the last twenty-five) for white gauzes and for blondes has gradually increased the consumption of this Oriental product; the amount of this rose in modern times to eighty thousand pounds a year, of which France always used nearly three-fourths; and this importation has so greatly increased that in 1766 the English alone took a hundred and four thousand-weight of it. As the gauzes and blondes could not consume that amount, the manufacturers used part of it in making watered silks [moires] and hose.... Besides this silk of unique whiteness--which is chiefly produced in the province of Tche-Kiang, and which we know in Europe under the name of Nankin silk, from the place, where it is especially made--China produces ordinary silks, which we call Canton silks. As these are suitable for only the wefts of some silk fabrics, and are as expensive as those of Europe which serve for the same uses, very little of them is imported; and what the English and Dutch carry away of this Canton silk does not exceed five or six thousand-weight." (Raynal, Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, pp. 660-662.)

"The Chinese are no less skilful in working up their silks than in producing them; but this praise ought not to extend to those of their stuffs in which gold and silver are woven. Their manufacturers have never known how to draw these metals into thread, and their ingenuity is always confined to rolling their silks in gilded papers, or in pasting [appliquer] the stuffs to those same papers; both methods are equally faulty." (Raynal, Étab. et com. des Européens, i, p. 662.)

[5] At the end of the atlas volume of Raynal's Histoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens (ed. of 1780, Geneva) are various supplementary sheets, containing tabulated summaries of the kinds and amounts of trade carried on by the leading European nations with their colonial possessions, chiefly those of America; from some of these we abstract items of interest which have some relation to the scope of our work. The first of these shows the amount and value of the commerce of the Company of Holland in the East Indies from 1720 to 1729 inclusive. In these ten years they sent out an average of 37 or 38 ships each year, manned by about 7,000 men; of these, 30 returned to Europe. The merchandise sold by the company amounted, in round numbers, to an average of 18,859,000 florins yearly, and the dividends distributed among the partners to 23 3/5 per cent (ranging, in different years, from 12 1/2 to 40 per cent); the amount of money sent to the Cape of Good Hope and to the Asian Islands averaged 6,560,000 florins. The average sales of spices yearly were as follows: Pepper, 4,500,000 pounds, at 11 sols, 2,475,000 florins; cinnamon, 400,000 pounds, at 5 3/4 florins, 2,300,000 florins; cloves, 400,000 pounds, at 4 1/4 florins, 1,700,000 florins; nutmegs, 250,000 pounds, at 3 3/4 florins, 937,500 florins; mace, 90,000 pounds, at 6 1/2 florins, 585,000 florins--a total of 7,997,500 florins. The original capital of the Dutch East India Company was 6,459,840 florins; about 57 per cent of this was held in Amsterdam, and about 21 per cent in the province of Zeeland. The number of shares was 2,153, each of 3,000 florins. During the period 1605 to 1777, the dividends annually distributed ranged usually from 12 1/2 to 40 per cent; in the following years they exceeded the latter rate--being in 1606, 75 per cent; in 1610, 50; in 1612, 57 1/2; in 1615, 42 1/2; in 1616, 62 1/2; in 1671, 45 and 15. During 1771-77, they were uniformly 12 1/2 per cent. These were paid usually in money; sometimes, in the earlier years, in cloves; and, in 1673, 1679, and 1697, in bonds or in contracts. In the period 1723-74, the prices of shares ranged from 788 per cent (in 1733) to 314 (in 1771).

Another table shows similar figures for the years 1679 to 1774--apparently for the new organization of the company in 1674. The capital is stated at 8,071,135 florins; there were 1,345 shares, of 6,000 florins each. The dividends, during the above period, ranged from 10 per cent to nothing, the yearly average being 1-21/32 per cent; neither these figures nor the prices of shares agree with those of the first table, but the reason for the discrepancy is not obvious.

[6] In 1731 and 1733 Sevilla and Cadiz "both imagined (and it is rather surprising that this had not been sooner evident) that it would be an advantage to Spain to take part directly in the commerce of Asia, and that the possessions which it had in that part of the world would be the center of the operations which it would conduct there. In vain was the objection made against them that, as India furnished silk and cotton fabrics that were superior to those of Europe in their finish, in their colors, and (above all) in their cheapness, the national manufacturers could not support competition with those goods, and would infallibly be ruined. This objection, which might have some weight among certain peoples, seemed to them utterly frivolous, in the position in which their country stood. As a fact, the Spaniards use for both their clothing and their furniture foreign stuffs and cloths; and these continual needs necessarily increase the industry, the wealth, the population, and the strength of their neighbors--who misuse these advantages, in order to keep in dependence the very nation which obtains these for them. Would not Spain behave with more wisdom and dignity if she would adopt the manufactures of the Indias? Resides the economy and satisfaction which she would find therein, she would succeed in diminishing a preponderance [of other nations] of which she will be, sooner or later, the victim." (Raynal, Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, p. 606.)

[7] "The settlements, commerce, and conquests of the English in the East Indies" are related by Raynal in his Établissemens et commerce des Europeens, i, pp. 261-398. The English East India Company was founded in 1600, and made a promising beginning in the Oriental trade; but the opposition of the Dutch and Portuguese, already intrenched therein, was so great and persistent that the English company--which was compelled to encounter also, in turn, competition from other English traders, hindrances arising from the duplicity and avarice of Charles II of England, losses arising from the civil war in that country, hostilities (originating from the greed and treachery of one of the company's own directors) with the Mogul emperor Aurungzebe, and the capture of many English trading vessels by French privateers--was several times almost ruined, and all English commercial prestige in the East was greatly injured. Finally, in 1702, the two rival East India companies in England united their funds and enterprises, and thereafter the affairs of the new organization prospered, in the main; and in 1763 the French were driven out of Asia, leaving the English masters of both political and commercial interests in India. In 1774 the latter drove out the Mahrattas from Salsette Island, and founded Bombay, which, although at first an insalubrious locality, on account of its fine harbor soon became the emporium of English commerce and center of that nation's power.

[8] Formerly the fardo was 1 1/3 varas long, 3/4 vara high, and 3/4 vara less one pulgada (nearly one English inch) wide; but for a long time previous to 1726 the bale of this size had not been used, because it became necessary to break it open at Acapulco, in order to transfer the goods from the ship to the land, and it was replaced by the half-bale and half-chest, in order not to break open the package before selling it or transporting it across the country. These smaller packages were then called "bales" and "chests" (fardos and caxones); their dimensions are given in the decree of 1726 (fol. 118 verso of Extracto, or VOL. XLIV, ante, p. 311). This information appears in the informatory report furnished by Gabriel Guerrero de Ardila, accountant of the bureau of accounts in Mexico, to the viceroy, on March 6, 1730. (Extracto historial, fol. 193 verso, 194.)

[9] Perhaps alluding to the Ribera (i.e., "shore") or navy-yard of Cavite--that is, the standard of measure used in shipbuilding and other industries there.

[10] "With this, it may be said, finally came to an end the celebrated controversies which so persistently and for so long a time were waged by the merchants of Cadiz against the commerce of Filipinas, the standard of the [permission of] 500,000 dollars [duros] remaining permanent until the emancipation of the Americas [from Spanish rule] put an end to that traffic. It had the same effect on all the restrictions which for the space of almost three centuries had weighed down the Filipino commerce--for even in the year 1810 (as Comyn tells us in his Estado de las islas Filipinas, speaking of the Acapulco galleon) only one ship, commanded by an officer of the navy, could make these expeditions, once a year; and in order to share in that commerce a merchant must have a vote in the consulate, which presupposed property to the amount of 8,000 dollars and several years of residence in the country. He was [also] obliged to contribute, in the same proportion as the other shippers, to the allowance of 15,000 or 20,000 dollars made to the commandant of the galleon, besides paying 25 to 40 per cent for freight charges, according to circumstances. [Meanwhile,] the shippers were not able to make any examination of the condition of the ships in which they risked a great part of their fortunes; and there were many other impediments, which now we would suppose could not possibly have ever existed, if we were not so habituated to stupid proceedings of this sort." (Azcarraga y Palmero, Libertad de comercio, pp. 64, 65.)

When the galleon of Acapulco ceased its voyages--the last one sailed from Manila in 1811, and returned from Acapulco in 1815--the commerce fell into the hands of individuals, to whom in 1820 permission was granted to export merchandise from Filipinas to the value of 750,000 pesos a year; and their voyages were extended from Acapulco to San Blas, Guayaquil, and Callao. (Montero y Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 462, note.)

See Raynal's account of the policy pursued in the New World by Spain, its results on both that country and the colonies, and the elements of weakness in it, in Etab. et com. des Européens, ii, pp. 290-356.

[11] Spanish comercio, a word which has numerous meanings, according to the context; here evidently meaning a chamber of commerce, or an executive committee to look after the interests of the shippers.

[12] At the outset, Pintado makes some statements to the effect that the Council of the Indias had taken the action which led to the decree of 1734, without consulting Cadiz, and had made certain inquiries and consultations with the Manila deputies alone. A marginal note by Abreu corrects this, saying, "Not only with the deputies; for the fiscal of the Council was heard [on the subject], who is impartial between the two commercial bodies."

[13] The Manila deputies, however, claimed that the decree of 1726 did not reach the islands until 1730, so that it was first put into practice in that year, the five years' term, therefore, including the shipment of 1734. (Extracto, fol. 150, 185 and verso, 190 verso.)

[14] One of the tables at the end of Raynal's atlas volume gives an itemized list of the cargoes carried by the "last eight Spanish trading-fleets to Vera Cruz"--that is, the last eight preceding Raynal's work. Their cargoes were of the following amounts: in 1733 (under command of Torrez), 618,595 cubic palmos; 1735 (Pintado's), 620,000; 1757 (Villena's), 618,557; 1760 (Reggio's), 841,717; 1765 (Idiaques's), 486,943; 1768 (Tilly's), 452,282; 1772 (Cordova's), 914,807; 1776 (Ulloa's), 934,366. But one of these fleets carried cinnamon, that of 1735; and cloves appear only in the trifling amount of 50 quintals, in 1768. The chief articles enumerated--which appear in every year's list--are paper, wax, iron, steel; brandy, wine, and oil; and unbleached stuffs [linens?] from Brabant. Quicksilver was carried in only 1765 and 1768, 7,506 and 8,000 quintals respectively. Wrought iron was sent in five of these shipments, but in no considerable quantity except in 1765, when also was sent 2,724 barrels of tin-plate (in other cargoes, in but trifling amounts). Silk ribbons made a solitary appearance in 1757, to the extent of 1,000 pieces--as did 1,000 "swords to be mounted with hilts," in 1765. The last two fleets carried consignments of gun-flints, respectively 650 and 386 thousand-weight.

It is evident, however, from another table (which follows the above), that Spanish commerce had much activity outside the trading-fleets; this shows the amounts of "merchandise which left the ports of Spain each year from 1748 to 1753 for its colonies on the continent of America; duties which they have paid; their current value in the New World; expenses which they have borne; their net product for the metropolis [i.e., Cadiz]." Of these goods, the only one monopolized by the crown was quicksilver, to the amount of 3,600,000 livres' worth. The greater part of this merchandise consisted of cloth and stuffs, of silk, linen, and wool; there was a considerable amount of iron, paper, wax, brandy, wine, and oil; and to Nueva España was sent 1,000,000 livres' worth of cinnamon, and to Caracas 10,000 barrels of flour. Of the goods sent to Nueva España (not counting the quicksilver), 6,367,297 livres' worth were of Spanish production, and 14,401,815 of foreign. The import duties levied on the latter at Cadiz amounted to 1,185,343 livres, and the export duties on both Spanish and foreign to 1,245,059; and admiralty and avería duties besides came to 419,623. The goods on board, then, cost 23,619,137 livres, to which must be added the following charges: transportation to America, 3,617,623; import duties and alcavala in America, 4,327,473; commissions on sales and return freight, 3,231,296--a total of 34,795,529 livres. The value of this merchandise in America was arbitrated at 43,274,787 livres; deducting the above costs, a profit of 8,479,258 livres remains from the merchandise sent from Spain to Nueva España. On the return voyage, the main part of the cargoes was in gold and silver--6,480,000 livres' worth for the king, and 37,716,047 for the merchants; the crown monopolized copper and cacao, 259,200 and 12,960 respectively; the cochineal was worth 6,426,000 livres, and the indigo 4,160,160; and various drugs, dyes, etc. made with these a total of 56,216,533 livres (all these values being those estimated in America). To this cost must be added freight charges, 1,491,543 livres; and various duties to the crown (including customs, admiralty, church, etc., the largest being for "indult and coast-guards"), amounting to 6,428,987. Consequently, when the ships arrived at Cadiz the value of the gold and silver had been reduced to 5,625,607 livres for the king, and 32,775,345 for the merchants; while the cost of the other commodities had increased from 12,020,486 livres to 14,145,922. The current value in Europe of these goods (not including the gold and silver) was 18,465,419 livres, a gain over the entire cost of 4,319,497 livres (30 1/2 per cent)--of which 124,527 belonged to the king, and the remainder to the merchants, as the net proceeds on the commerce between Spain and Nueva España, outside of the precious metals, in both the outward and return voyages each year.

[15] Churlo (or churla; from the Latin culeo, ablative of culeus): a sack made of pita (i.e., agave) fiber-cloth, covered with another sack of leather, for carrying cinnamon and other articles from one region to another without losing their strength (Echegaray).

[16] Palmeo: measure by palmos; evidently referring to the usual estimate of lading-space in a ship by cubic palmos.

[17] That is, the spice trade with Nueva España, offered by Cadiz to Manila as an equivalent for the latter's traffic in Chinese silks.

[18] This letter appears to have been directed against the Jesuits, who founded their college of San José in 1601, through the efforts of Diego Garcia, their visitor. See post.

[19] See also Colin's statement regarding the college for 1656, VOL. XXIII, pp. 83, 84; and San Antonio's brief remarks on the college, in the same volume, pp. 134, 135.

[20] The congregation of the Virgin, which was promoted by the visitor, Diego Garcia. It was formed from six students on St. Francis's day, 1600. So many people soon joined that it became necessary to split the congregation into two parts, one of students and the other of laymen, the latter of which had one hundred members in two years. Their objects were charity and devotion. The first to initiate the congregations of the Virgin in the Jesuit order was Juan de León, a Flemish priest, who established the first in the Roman college in 1563, giving it the title of Anunciada. It was given papal approval in 1564. See Colin's Labor evangélica, pp. 411-413; and Pastells's Colin, ii, pp. 243-246.

[21] See VOL. XI, p. 225, note 44.

[22] See VOL. XIII, pp. 64-71.

[23] Luis Gomez, S.J., was born at Toledo, in 1569, and entered upon his novitiate in 1588. In 1598 he reached the Philippines, where he professed theology, and became rector of the college of San José, and afterwards of the college of Cebú and Antipolo. He died at Manila, March 1, 1627, or 1628, according to Murillo Velarde. See Sommervogel's Bibliothèque.

[24] See VOL. XXXIV, pp. 366, 367. This refers rather to what became known afterward as the San Ignacio college than to the college of San José. Of the so-called Jesuit college of Manila, known as Colegio Máximo [i.e., Chief college] de San Ignacio y el real de San José, Archipiélago Filipino says (i. p. 346): "In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there also existed in Manila the university directed by the fathers of the Society of Jesus, who had arrived in Filipinas for the first time in 1581. It was elevated to a pontifical institution by a bull of Gregory XV in 1621, and given the title of "royal" by royal decrees of Felipe IV the same year, and in 1653. It conferred degrees on the pupils of the colleges of San Ignacio and San José; and there was also in it, in addition to the school for reading and writing, two chairs of theology, one of philosophy, one of rhetoric and the Latin language, one of canons, another of civil law, and from 1740, one of mathematics. It existed until May 21, 1768, when the Jesuits were expelled from these islands by a royal decree of Carlos III, which placed the edifice and the furnishings at the disposal of the State." See also VOL. XXVIII, pp. 123, 131-134.

[25] Original decree in Calderon's El Colegio de San José (Manila, 1900), appendix, document no. 1, pp. vii, viii.

[26] Nozaleda's Colegio de S. José, p. 43.

[27] See this will in Pastells's Colin, ii, pp. 483, 484, note; Nozaleda's Colegio de S. José, appendix, document no. 1, pp. iii-v; and Senate Document, no. 190, 56th Congress, 2d session, p. 29. The portion of this document (pp. 26-46) treating of San José college has been reprinted in pamphlet form under the name San José College Case.

[28] Nozaleda's Colegio de S. José, p. 44, and appendix, document no. 2, pp. v, vi; and Pastells's Colin, ii, pp. 482, 483, note.

[29] Pastells's Colin, ii, p. 253, note; Nozaleda's Colegio de S. José, p. 45; and Senate Document, no. 190, pp. 29, 30.

[30] This decree is given by Colin; see ante, pp. 108-110.

[31] See this confirmation, ante, pp. 105-107; see also Pastells's Colin, ii, pp. 482, 483, 486; and Senate Document, no. 190, p. 30.

[32] Pastells's Colin, ii, pp. 254, 255, note.

[33] Pastells's Colin, ii, p. 487.

[34] Nozaleda's Colegio de San José, p. 46.

[35] See post, pp. 170-181.

[36] Nozaleda, ut supra, pp. 48, 49.

[37] See also Concepción's Historia, vi, pp. 282-293.

[38] Pastells's Colin, ii, pp. 494-496.

[39] Nozaleda's Colegio de San José, pp. 49, 50.

[40] See Pastells's Colin, iii, pp. 759-763.

[41] Nozaleda's Colegio de San José, p. 53.

[42] Nozaleda, ut supra, appendix, document no. 6, pp. xi, xii.

[43] This decree is taken from Nozaleda's Colegio de San José, appendix, document no. 7, pp. xii, xiii. It is also given by Pastells in his Colin, ii, pp. 496, 497.

[44] Pastells's Colin, ii, p. 496.

[45] Census of Philippines, iii, p. 610, an extract from the report submitted by the Dominican friars at the exposition of Amsterdam, 1883.

[46] Pastells's Colin, ii, pp. 491, 492.

[47] Montero y Vidal, ii, p. 163.

[48] Montero y Vidal, ut supra, p. 185; Nozaleda's Colegio de San José, pp. 53, 54.

[49] Nozaleda, appendix, document no. 9, pp. xiv, xv; and Senate Document, no. 190, p. 30.

[50] A document in the Archivo-historico Nacional, Madrid, bearing pressmark, A. 18-26-8, from the archbishop of the Philippines, Basilio Sancho de Santa Justa y Santa Rufina, dated Manila, January 1, 1770, is as follows: "Sire: Although I have recounted to your Majesty in extenso the measures which I have considered most suitable for the erection of a general conciliar seminary for all these most excellent islanders, and of such seminary being in the college called San Joseph which was under the charge of the now expelled Jesuits, provided that I could incline the superior government of these islands to allow me to go ahead with it, until your Majesty ordered otherwise; and although hitherto seventy and more seminarists have been supported in this college, which is elevated to a seminary ad interim, who are being reared and canons for the exercise of the parish ministry, in addition to the not small number of those who have already gone forth from it to occupy themselves in that ministry, with manifest profit even in the short space of two years since its creation: yet although today, according to the new measures and plan approved by your Majesty for the fortification of this place, it is indispensable to demolish, if not entirely, yet in a very considerable part, the above-mentioned college, since its location is next the walls and in a district where, as it is more suitable and better defended, the principal gate of this city is to be opened; and in order that there may be an open and free passage to it, as it is the place of most traffic and trade, nothing else can be done than to level the site occupied by the said college. On this account, the grace which I have implored from your Majesty will be frustrated. In consideration of this, I have recourse a second time to the charity of your Majesty, and humbly petition, that since the college called San Ygnacio is left alone in this city, which belonged also to the above-mentioned expelled ones, that your Majesty will deign to admit my first petition as it was directed for this end; or should it, perchance, be your royal pleasure that the said college of San Ygnacio become a public university, which has been, until the present, maintained in the college of Santo Thomas, under the direction of the religious of Santo Domingo, those religious passing to the college of San Ygnacio because of its greater size and its better arrangement for a public university, and that of Santo Thomas be used as a conciliar seminary. The consideration that the college of Santo Thomas, besides being suitable for a seminary, is almost at the very doors of this holy church, and, consequently, best suited for the assistance of the seminarists at the choir and functions of the altar, moves me to this petition. May God our Lord preserve the holy Catholic person of your Majesty the many years that I petition, and that Christendom finds necessary."

[51] The Order of the Piarists or Fathers of the Pious Schools, was founded in 1597 by San José de Calasanz. Their schools resemble those of the Jesuits, and many of the latter entered the Piarist order on the suppression of the Society of Jesus. See also VOL. XLVI, note 49.

[52] Nozaleda, ut supra, p. 55; and Senate Document, no. 190, p. 31.

[53] Calderon's Colegio de San José, appendix, document no. 3, pp. ix-xiii.

[54] Nozaleda's Colegio de San José, appendix, document no. 10, pp. xv-xix.

[55] Nozaleda, ut supra, pp. 61, 62; and Senate Document, no. 190, pp. 31, 32.

[56] Census of Philippines, iii, pp. 610, 611.

[57] See post, pp. 163-165, note 81.

[58] Senate Document, no. 190, p. 32, and Montero y Vidal, iii, pp. 542-547.

[59] Census of Philippines, iii, p. 611.

[60] James A. LeRoy writing in the Political Science Quarterly (p. 674) for December, 1903, says: "The Dominicans promised to devote the income of this endowment [i.e., of San José college] to courses in medicine and pharmacy, never before taught in the islands. In a report on the medical college made to the American authorities last year, a German physician of Manila stated that it had no library worth considering, that some textbooks dated back to 1845, that no female cadaver had ever been dissected and the anatomy course was a farce, that most graduates never had attended even one case of confinement or seen a laparotomy, and that bacteriology had been introduced only since American occupation and was still taught without microscopes."

[61] Calderon's Colegio de San José, appendix, p. vi; and Senate Document, p. 34.

[62] Senate Document, no. 190, pp. 27, 28.

[63] St. Joseph's College (Statement of Most Rev. P. L. Chapelle), p. 50.

[64] Colegio de San José, p. 3.

[65] Ut supra, p. 5.

[66] Senate Document, no. 190.

[67] Two pamphlets, each entitled: El Colegio de San José (Manila, 1900).

[68] See a concise statement of the arguments of each side in Senate Document, no. 190, pp. 34-39.

[69] See Senate Document, no. 190, pp. 41-46.

[70] We are indebted for considerable material regarding the San José College case to James A. LeRoy, now (1906) United States consul at Durango, Mexico, formerly secretary to Hon. Dean C. Worcester in Manila, and a notable worker in modern Philippine history and conditions.

[71] See also San Antonio's sketch, VOL. XXVIII, pp. 136-139.

[72] Signatura: a tribunal of the Roman court, composed of several prelates, in which various matters of grace and justice are determined. See Novísimo Diccionario.

[73] Hernaez (Colección de bulas, pp. 471, 472) prints a bull by Clement XII, dated September 2, 1734, granting authority for the teaching of both canon and civil law to the university established in the college of Santo Tomás of the Order of St. Dominic at Manila, in which portions of Innocent's bull are inserted. This bull (translated by Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.) is as follows: "Clement XII Pope. In future remembrance of the affair. Long ago at the instance of Philip IV, of renowned memory, and during his life Catholic King of the Spains, letters in the form of a brief, of the following tenor, were issued by our predecessor, Innocent X, Pope, of happy memory, to wit: [Here follow the portions of Innocent's bull which are quoted, and Clement continues:]

"Since moreover, as has been represented to us lately on the part of our very dear son in Christ, Philip, also Catholic King of the same Spains, in the academy or university of general study of the said college, two new chairs have been erected, one indeed of the canons, to be held by a religious of the said order, the other, however, of the institutes of civil and canon law, to be held by a doctor in both laws, the afore named King Philip desires very earnestly that the letters above inserted be extended by us ... to the two chairs just erected as said....

"Accordingly as requested, by the said authority, in virtue of these presents, the form and arrangement of the same letters inserted above being maintained however in the others, we extend ... the letters or indult above inserted to the above-named two new chairs also, until in the said city of Manila another university be erected. Given at Rome, at St. Mary Major's under the seal of the Fisherman, September 2, 1734, the fifth year of our pontificate." A note by Hernaez reads as follows:

"Pope Clement XII conceded authority to grant academical degrees in the college of the Society of Jesus in Manila, December 6, 1735, as is mentioned by Father Murillo [Velarde] in his Cursus juris canonici (Madrid, 1763), book v, título v, no. 62."

[74] The position of these two Latin clauses (Proverbs, xvii, 6) is reversed in the Vulgate edition. The translation, according to the Douay version, is: "Children's children are the crown of old men: and the glory of the children are their fathers."

[75] See VOL. XXXV, pp. 203-208.

[76] Perhaps a reference to the Jesuits, who were expelled in 1768.

[77] See also the following documents regarding the college and university of Santo Tomás: Foundation of the college, April 28, 1611, VOL. XVII, pp. 155-171; Royal permission, November 27, 1623, VOL. XX, pp. 260, 261; and University of Santo Tomás (royal letters in regard to its elevation into a university), November 9, 1639, VOL. XXIX, pp. 175-177.

[78] See this brief, ante, pp. 146-147, note 73.