send the registers to Méjico, as has been the custom, with all investigations made at the port of Acapulco, by a sufficiently trustworthy person, or by one of our said officials. In Méjico everything shall be again investigated, and the duties appertaining to us shall be appraised and collected; and all other investigations requisite to ascertain and discover what has come unregistered shall be made. All that shall have been sent without register and in violation of the prohibition shall be confiscated. No permission shall be given by this means, pretext, and occasion, to cause any unreasonable injury to the owners of the goods. [Felipe III—Valladolid, December 31, 1604; San Lorenzo, April 22, 1608; clause xi.]
Law LXIX
In the vessels that we shall permit to sail from Perú to Nueva España and the port of Acapulco or from Nueva España to Perú and its ports, no quantity of Chinese stuffs can be laden, sold, bought, or exchanged, even though it may be reported to be gratuitously as a gift or charity, or for the service of divine worship, or in any other quality or form, in order that the prohibition may not be evaded by such pretexts and frauds. In case that any shall be convicted of the above as chief factors, associates, or participants, or of aiding or giving advice, they shall, besides the confiscation of their goods and boat, incur on their persons the civil and criminal penalties imposed on those who handle contraband goods, and of perpetual banishment, and deprivation of the post that they shall have obtained from us in the Indias. In regard to the above we charge the conscience and care of our servants. [Felipe III—Valladolid, December 31, 1604 (?); San Lorenzo, April 22, 1608 (?); clauses 16 and 17.]7
Law LXX
If any quantity whatever of Chinese stuffs be found in any boat sailing from Nueva España to Perú or in the opposite direction, the inspector, royal officials, and the other persons who take part in the register and inspection shall be considered as perpetrators and offenders in this crime; so that, taking example from them, others may abstain from similar transgressions. The captains, masters, boatswains, and other officers whose duties extend to the management of vessels, shall also be considered as offenders and accomplices. [Felipe III—Valladolid, December 31, 1604 (?); San Lorenzo, April 22, 1608 (?); clause 18.]
Law LXXIV
We order the viceroys of Nueva España to maintain very special care of the observance and execution of the ordinances for the commerce of the Filipinas line, established by the laws of this titulo; and to keep at the port of Acapulco, in addition to the royal officials who shall be there, a person of great honesty and trustworthiness, with the title of alcalde-mayor, so that everything be done with very great caution, and justice be observed. He shall not permit more silver to be taken to Filipinas than that conceded by these laws, with or without license. [Felipe III—Valladolid, December 31, 1604.]
Law LXXV
The viceroy of Nueva España, and the governor and captain-general of Filipinas, all other of our judges and magistrates, and private individuals, each one in what pertains to him, shall observe, and cause to be observed and fulfilled, the ordinances regarding this traffic and commerce, and shall execute them exactly without remission or dispensation. In their residencias, especial attention shall be paid to their omission and neglect. We charge the archbishop of Manila to exercise the same care in what shall be specially entrusted to him, which is not repealed or altered by these laws. Of all, advice shall be given us. [Felipe III—Valladolid, December 31, 1604.]
Law LXXVI
We charge and order the viceroys of Perú to see that all the ordinances in regard to the prohibition of Chinese stuffs be fulfilled and executed exactly. For their execution and fulfilment, they shall appoint an auditor of our royal Audiencia of Los Reyes, in whom they can place entire confidence. They shall see that he proceeds thoroughly and executes the penalties with the required rigor, without any dispensation. The auditor shall privately try these cases in the said city and its districts in so far as he shall have cause to invoke the law; and all other justices in their territories shall do the same. [Felipe III—Valladolid, December 31, 1604.]
Law LXXVIII
Permission was given for two ships to go to Nueva España annually from Perú for commerce and trade to the value of two hundred thousand ducados; which was afterward reduced to one ship, with certain conditions. And inasmuch as the trade in Chinese stuffs has increased to excessive proportions in Perú, notwithstanding so many prohibitions expedient to our royal service, the welfare and utility of the public cause, and the commerce of these and those kingdoms; and a final decision of the viceroy, Conde de Chinchon,8 having preceded, and a vote of the treasury to suppress absolutely any opportunity for this trade: therefore we order and command the viceroys of Perú and Nueva España to prohibit and suppress, without fail, this commerce and trade between both kingdoms,9 by all the ways and means possible; and that it be not carried on by any other regions, for we by this present prohibit it. This prohibition shall be kept strictly and shall continue to be so kept. [Felipe III—Valladolid, December 31, 1604; San Lorenzo, June 20, 1609; Madrid, March 28, 1620, clause 1. Felipe IV—Madrid, November 25, 1634; Madrid, March 29, 1636, a clause of a letter to the Conde de Chinchon.]
Law XXIV
The inspection of ships sailing from Nueva España to Filipinas shall be made by our royal officials, according to custom. They shall examine in great detail the lists of soldiers and sailors of the ships, in order to abolish the places that shall be found without justification; and they may proceed by law, when they discover any infraction or fraud in this. Such shall be visited on the person causing it, with the greatest severity. [Felipe III—Valladolid, January 25, 1605. Felipe IV—Madrid, October 16, 1626.]
Law LXV
We order that the duties and freight customs collected in the port of Acapulco on the Filipinas merchandise, shall not be placed in the royal treasury of Méjico, but shall be expended in things necessary to those islands; and the sum lacking [for those necessities] shall be sent from the treasury of Méjico. The viceroy and the governor of Filipinas shall send us a particular report for each voyage of the amount of the duties and freight customs and what must be sent. [Felipe III—Valladolid, February 19, 1606.]
Law IX
We declare that in the five hundred thousand pesos granted by permission [to be sent] from Nueva España to Filipinas, must and shall be entered the amounts of legacies, bequests, and charities [obras pias], with the wrought silver and all other things carried thither; and nothing shall be reserved, except the pay of the sailors, as is ordered by the following law.10 [Felipe III—San Lorenzo, August 19, 1606.]
Law X
We grant permission to the sailors serving on the trading ships between Nueva España and Filipinas to carry in money the actual and exact sum of their pay, in addition to the general permission. Thus shall the viceroys of Nueva España provide, unless they perceive some considerable objection. They shall see to it that the said sailors or other persons shall not be allowed to exceed the amount permitted by this law. [Felipe III—San Lorenzo, August 19, 1606.]
Law XI
No wrought silver can be taken to Filipinas, even when for the service of those who shall go thither, or for any other purpose, unless bonds are first given to return it, or unless it shall have been included in the permission. [Felipe III—San Lorenzo, August 19, 1606.]
Law XLVII
The
The
Luis Geronimo de Cabrera, fourth Conde de Chinchon, became viceroy of Peru in 1628, holding that office until 1639. During his term there was made known the efficacy of a medicine—previously in use among the Indians—the so-called “Jesuit’s bark,” or “Peruvian bark,” obtained from a tree found only in Peru and adjoining countries, named
Whenever any ships sail from the port of Acapulco and other ports of Nueva España to make the voyage to Perú on the opportunities permitted, it is our will and we order our officials of those ports to visit and inspect those ships with complete faithfulness and the advisable rigor. They shall endeavor to ascertain whether such ships are carrying any Chinese silks or merchandise, or any from the Filipinas Islands. They shall seize such, and declare those found as smuggled goods. They shall divide them, and apply them as is contained in the laws of this titulo. [Felipe IV—Madrid, April 9, 1641. In
See note to law lxviii, p. 33.
