northern Luzon have come to take this view of its legitimate successor, the personal cedula. But the Spaniards always had trouble in collecting the tribute. Entire villages moved away, and many of the people preferred to flee to the mountains rather than pay for being civilized. The amount of the tribute was ordinarily not sufficient to be oppressive and was never as objectionable as the compulsory service on the public ways and works, which was known as the polos y servicio.

The encomenderos profited by the rise of prices, and the king, at the instigation of the friars, ordered that the natives might pay the tribute in kind or in money at their option. Morga says that this was a mistake. They could without too much effort raise the cash, but "now since they naturally dislike work they do not sow, spin, dig gold, rear fowls or raise other food supplies, as they did before when they had to pay their tribute in these articles . . and the country which was formerly well provided and well supplied with all products is now suffering want and deprivation of them."

Among the institutions developed by the Spaniards in the work of governing their colonies, none is more interesting than the system by which the countries were divided among the deserving friends of the king or governor, who, in consideration of the gift, assumed responsibility for the welfare of the natives, the collection of the tribute and the payment of a portion thereof to the government.

The repartimiento was at first a grant of land in a conquered country, but as the land was of no value without laborers it was soon extended so as to include the natives thereon. The word encomienda seems to describe a later development of the system. According to Helps, it was a right conceded by royal bounty to well-deserving persons in the Indias, to receive and enjoy for themselves the tribute due from the Indians who should be as

8

7 Morga's Sucesos, B. & R., XVI, p. 164. Originally personal service was due to Spaniards. Rizal in a note to Morga says that in 1890 it had disappeared from the law but continued to exist in practise. The amount then due the state was fifteen days' labor.

8 Spanish Conquest in America, III, Chap. 2. See also Moses, Spanish Rule in America, p. 93, and B. & R., II, p. 54.

signed to them, with the duty of providing for the good of the Indians in spiritual and temporal matters, and of inhabiting and defending the provinces where their encomiendas should be granted to them. It was simply a mild form of slavery. The grantees were supposed to maintain order, attend to the welfare of the people and protect them from oppression by soldiers and other Spaniards. In the event of any calamity or public disaster they were expected to care for the people. The amount of services they could require was in theory definite; in practise very much otherwise. They were required by the Laws of the Indias to build stone houses on their lands and otherwise develop the country.

One of the vessels which followed Legaspi carried an order directing him to divide the islands into encomiendas among the conquerors. As rapidly as the country was subjugated it was divided among officers and soldiers. The energetic Salcedo was given the encomienda of Vigan, and upon his death he left his property to the Indians who had been granted to him. A few of the encomiendas were reserved for the king. So rapidly did the work proceed that about twenty years after the system was introduced the entire island of Luzon, so far as it was ever occupied, had been granted in encomiendas.

From Morga's report it appears that there were then 266 encomiendas, of which only thirty-one were the king's, paying in all

Report of the Encomiendas in the Islands in 1591. Archivo del Bibliofilo Filipino, IV, p. 39, quoted in B. & R., I, p. 39.

In his Secesos (1609), B. & R., XVI, p. 157, Morga says: "All these islands and their natives so far as they were pacified were apportioned into encomiendas from the beginning. To the royal crown were allotted those which were the chief towns and ports, and the dwellers of the cities and towns; and also other special encomiendas and villages in all the provinces for the expenses and necessities of the royal estate. All the rest were assigned to the conquerors and settlers who have served and labored for the conquest and pacification, and in the war. This matter is in charge of the Governor, who takes into consideration the merits and services of the claimants. In like manner the villages that become vacant are assigned. There are many very excellent encomiendas throughout the Islands, and they offer many profits, both by the amount of their tributes and by the nature and value of what is paid as tribute. The encomienda lasts, according to the royal laws and decrees, and by the regular order and manner of succession to them, for two lives; but it may be extended to a third life, by permission. After it becomes vacant it is again assigned and granted anew."

166,903 tributes. It is estimated that each tribute represented five persons. This probably represents the population of the islands three hundred years ago, excluding what are known as the non-Christian tribes and the Moros.

In Spanish-America no one was permitted to hold more than three hundred Indians, but in the Philippines one thousand or more tributantes were often held by a single person. The grantees were supposed to live on their estates, but in practise they soon became merely collectors of tribute, non-resident encomenderos, or landlords who once a year went the rounds and made their collections. If payment was refused the headman was whipped or otherwise punished. Some of the royal decrees provided that only Christian Indians should be given to the encomenderos, but like other restrictive laws they were not always observed. Under the system all peacefully inclined Indians who accepted the government and were Christianized could be made the slaves of the encomenderos. Surely this was not much of a reward to offer an Indian who was hesitating between becoming a convert and a remontado.

The king attempted to regulate the forced labor of the Indians by just laws,10 but the laws were generally ineffectual. After making allowance for the possibility of exaggeration, it is apparent from Bishop Salazar's description of conditions that the institution of the encomienda, although an efficient instrument for establishing and maintaining order, was productive of much hardship and suffering.

During the first thirty years of Spanish occupation commerce with the coast of Asia was free and unrestricted. Hardly had Manila been established, when a ship arrived from China loaded with silks, porcelain, gunpowder, mercury, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, sugar, iron, copper, lead, wax, lime, and, as some assert, images of saints and crucifixes for sale to the Christians. The trade with China increased rapidly, and for some years Chinese goods were the only articles sent from the Philippines to Mexico and other Spanish-American ports. European coun10 See Law of Philip III, May 26, 1609, in B. & R., XVII, p. 79.

tries were not allowed to engage in commerce with the islands, but as ships from India and Siam could enter the Philippines, it was only necessary for the English, Dutch and French merchants to land in Manila and from there import their goods in ships under the apparent command of Asiatic captains.

But the merchants of Cadiz and Seville, who enjoyed a monopoly of the commerce with America, looked with disfavor on the trade in silks and Chinese products that had grown up between Manila and New Spain." At their instance, about 1593, the king issued a royal decree which restricted the trade between the Philippines and Mexico to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum for exports to Mexico, and five hundred thousand dollars per annum for imports to the Philippines, to be carried in two ships not to exceed three hundred tons' burden each. It was also provided that no ship should bring more than five hundred thousand dollars in money including the situado sent by the king to pay the cost of the administration in the islands. No one could directly or indirectly bring bullion from Mexico to the Philippines, and before an immigrant could bring in even his own money he had to give a bond guaranteeing that he would reside in the Philippines for not less than eight years. For a time these regulations were evaded, but in 1604 the cedula of 1593 was republished and thereafter strictly enforced.

The story of the trade which was carried on between Acapulco and Manila is one of the strangest in the history of commerce. The profits were enormous. It was a lottery in which, barring accidents, every ticket drew a prize, and it was as demoralizing as any other lottery.

Every Spaniard was entitled to a share in the voyage in proportion to his capital and his importance in the community. According to the regulations the ship's hold was divided into a certain number of spaces called boletas, and each boleta was arranged to hold a package of merchandise of a certain shape and

11 Commerce of the Philippines with Nueva España (1640-1736). This elaborate document contains the protest of the Manila people against the restrictive policy. B. & R., XLIV, p. 225 et seq., and XLV, pp. 29–88.

size. These boletas were about four thousand in number, and were subdivided into parts in order to provide facilities for the "small shipper." The right to participate was evidenced by tickets which were distributed by a board composed of the governor, attorney-general, the head of the audiencia, one alcalde, one regidor and eight prominent citizens. The tickets were divided into eighths. In the eighteenth century they were worth from eighty dollars to one hundred dollars in times of peace, and as much as three hundred dollars in war times. We learn that in 1766 the tickets sold for two hundred dollars each and that the galleon went loaded beyond the legal limit. All except favored officials had to prove that they were members of the Manila Chamber of Commerce, and that they had contributed their share of the twenty thousand dollars which had to be paid to the captain of the galleon for each trip from Manila to Mexico and return. Space was reserved for certain officials, widows in indigent circumstances, and others whom it was desired to favor.12

Bourne has drawn from Le Gentil and Zuñiga the following account of the manner in which this trade was managed.13 "The small holders who did not care to take a venture in the voyage disposed of their tickets to merchants or speculators, who borrowed money, usually of the religious corporations, at twentyfive to thirty per cent. per annum to buy them up, and who sometimes bought as many as two or three hundred. The command of the Acapulco galleon was the fattest office within the gift of the governor, who bestowed it upon 'whomsoever he desired to make happy for the commission,' and was equivalent to a gift of from fifty thousand dollars to one hundred thousand dollars. This was made up from commissions, part of the passage-money of passengers, from the sale of his freight tickets,

12 Tomas de Comyn says "that each shipper had to pay down twenty-five to forty per cent. for freight, according to circumstances, which money is distributed among certain canons, aldermen, subalterns of the army and widows of Spaniards to whom a given number of tickets or certified permits to ship are granted, either as a compensation for the smallness of their pay, or in the way of a privilege." Rojo refers to "having completed the distribution or allotments of the tickets in the best manner that this labyrinth of entanglements, complaints, and vileness permits." B. & R., XLIX, p. 196. 13 B. & R., I, Int., p. 64.