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Free versus Compulsory Labor: Mexico and the Philippines 1540–1648

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

John Leddy Phelan
John Leddy Phelan
Affiliation:
University of WisconsinMilwaukee
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Extract

Two irrevocable commitments of Spanish colonial policy were that the natives as “new Christians” merited some guarantees as to their property rights and the liberty of their persons and that colonizing based upon the services of Indian labor had to be made profitable for the Spanish colonists. The Spanish crown seldom vacillated in its sometimes quixotically pursued determination to reconcile these two cardinal commitments. Harmonized they sometimes were, but there are striking cases where the two goals seemed mutually exclusive. The aim of this essay is to examine some patterns of change and continuity which emerged during those periods of crisis when the general well-being of the colony apparently clashed with the specific welfare of the Indians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , January 1959 , pp. 189 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1959

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References

1 Cook, Sherburne F. and Simpson, Lesley Byrd, The Population of Central Mexico in the Sixteenth Century (═Ibero–Americana, 31) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1948), pp. 1–48. Hereafter cited as Cook and SimpsonGoogle Scholar.

2 Simpson, Lesley Byrd, The Encomienda in New Spain: The Beginnings of Spanish Mexico (2nd edition, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1950), pp. 145ffGoogle Scholar. According to the theory of the encomienda the king delegated his right to collect a tribute or head tax from the Indians to certain Spanish colonists and conquistadores who as encomenderos were obligated to defend and to protect those Indians placed under their care.

3 Horaci o de la Costa, S. J., “Church and State in the Philippines during the Administration of Bishop Salazar,” Hispanic-American Historical Review, XXX (August, 1950), pp. 314–317, 324CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Cook and Simpson, op. cit., pp. 1’48.

5 Simpson, Lesley Byrd, Exploitation of Land in Central Mexico in the Sixteenth Century (═lbero’Americana, 36) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1952)Google Scholar.

6 Ibid. Cook and Simpson, op. cit., pp. 1–48. Borah, Woodrow, New Spain’s Century of Depression (═lbero–Americana, 35). (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California PressGoogle Scholar). For a contemporary apocalyptical interpretation of the demographic-economic crisis see my The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World: A Study of the Writings of Gerónimo de Mendieta, 1525–1604 (— University of California Publications in History, 42) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1956), pp. 88–98Google Scholar.

7 de Morga, Antonio, Sucesos de las islas filipinas, Retana, W. E., ed. (Madrid, 1910), p. 211. 1st edition: Mexico City, 1609Google Scholar.

8 Schurz, William L., The Manila Galleon (New York, E. P. Dutton, 1939), pp. 342ffGoogle Scholar.

9 Blair, Emma Helen and Robertson, James Alexander, The Philippine Islands, 1493–1803. 55 vols. (Cleveland, A. H. Clark, 1903–1909), XVIII, pp. 169–188Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Blair and Robertson. This series is the single, most voluminous collection of primary sources dealing with the Spanish period in the Philippines. For a brief evaluation of this series see my "“The Philippine Collection in the Newberry Library,” in the Newberry Library Bulletin, III (March, 1955), p. 235Google Scholar.

10 Cedula of Philip III: May 29, 1609, in Blair, and Robertson, , op. cit., XVII pp. 79–81Google Scholar. Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias (4 vols. Madrid, 1681), Bk. VI, tit. xii, law 40Google Scholar.

11 Provincials-superiors of the religious orders to the fiscal of the Audiencia, 1616, Archivo General de Indias, Audiencia de Filipinos 20. Hereafter the Seville archives will be cited by the customary AGI.

12 Rios Coronel’s report of 1619, in Blair, and Robertson, op. cit., XVIII, 309Google Scholar.

13 The same as note 11.

14 Pedro, Murillo Velarde S. J.Historia de la provincia de Philipinas de la compañia de Jesvs (Manila, 1749), pp. 254–256Google Scholar.

15 The 1608 figure comes from a treasury report of August 18,1608, in Blair, and Robertson, , op. cit., XIV, pp. 247–248Google Scholar. The 1621 figure is in Rios Coronel’s report, Ibid., XIX, p. 285 The 1655 figure is another treasury report of July, 1655 in Francisco, Colin S. J., Labor evangélica, Pablo, Pastells S. J. ed. (3 vols. Barcelona, 1900–1902), III, p. 730Google Scholar. The 1686 figure comes from a letter of the Augustinian provincial-superior to the Archbishop Pardo: May 8,1686 in Ibid, Ill, p. 119. This figure is a rough estimate without pretension to statistical accuracy. The 1742 figure comes from Pablo Rodriquez de Berdozido’s report, Blair, and Robertson, , op. cit., XLVII, pp. 140–142Google Scholar. For the 1766 figure see Viana’s report to Chailes III: July 10, 1766 in Ibid., L. p. 78. The mid-century decline in the Filipino population can be further demonstrated by statistics relative to the population of the Jesuit parishes in the Bisayan islands (Samar, Leyte, Bohol and Cebu).

1662, 64,600 persons; 1659, 52,269 persons; 1679, 70,961 persons.

The 1622 figure comes from Archbishop Garcia Serrano’s report. Ibid., XX, pp. 230, 234. The 1659 and 1679 figures are the result of the extraordinarily detailed and evidently accurate census that the Jesuit prelates periodically made of their parishes for the benefit of the Society’s superiors in Rome. Archivum romanum societatis iesu, microfilm, St. Louis University, roll 158. The population decline was evidently less in the Bisayan area than in the Tagalog country adjacent to Manila, the center of Spanish power in the islands and the first to feel the pressures of the defense effort.

16 According to Spanīsh official calculations each full tribute represented one adult male (between the ages of 18 and 60), his wife and two minor children.

17 Governor Fajardo to Philip III, Blair, and Robertson, , op. cit., XVIII, p. 131Google Scholar. Pineda, Ibid., p. 182. The provincials-superiors to the fiscal, 1616, AGI, Audiencia de Filipinas 20.

18 Ibid., Domingo, Fernandez Navarrete O.P. Tratados históricos, políticos, ethicos y religiosos de la monarchia de China (Madrīd, 1676), pp. 304, 318Google Scholar. The author was in the Philippines circa 1650.

19 For a characteristic expression of this attitude see the correspondence of the regular prelates with the fiscal, 1616. AGI, Audiencia de Filipinos 20. The absence of vehement protests against the polo and the vandala in the voluminous correspondence of the Philippine clergy which I have examined substantiates my contention.

20 See my Millennial Kingdom, op. cit., pp. 93–98.

21 Cook and Simpson, op. cit.

22 Morga, op. cit., pp. 208–229. Governor Tavora to Philip IV, Blair, and Robertson, , op. cit., XXII pp. 261–262Google Scholar. Rios Coronel, Ibid., XVIII, p. 317.

23 Blair and Robertson, op. cit., L, pp. 199, 211.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., p. 104.

26 Governor Tavora to Philip IV: August 1,1629, ibid., XXIII, pp. 36–38.

27 Cathedral-chapter to Philip III: July 4,1603, AGI, Audiencia de Filipinos 77. Archbishopelect Benavides to Philip III: July 5,1603 in Blair, and Robertson, , op. cit., XII, p. 109Google Scholar.

28 Reliable statistics about maize production must await a careful examination of ecclesiastical tithes, the records concerning which are in the AGI. Occasional references in the printed sources indicate that maize production was not large. As of 1650 a bushel of maize was worth about ninety pesos, exorbitantly expensive in contrast to a bushel of rice whose price fluctuated between one and four pesos per bushel. Fernández Navarrete, op. cit., p. 322. Blair, and Robertson, , op. cit., XXIII, p. 36Google Scholar. Francisco Ignacio Alcina, S. J., Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas, ms. in the Library of the Palacio de Oriente, Madrid, Bk. Ill, ch. 6. Wheat could not be grown in the Philippines. Flour for the sacred host had to be imported from Mexico. Communion wine also was imported, shipped from Spain via Mexico and the Acapulco galleon. Blair, and Robertson, , op. cit., XVIII, p. 179Google Scholar.

29 By 1606 twenty years after the introduction of cattle there were some twenty-four ranches in the archdiocese of Manila. Ibid., XIV, pp. 156–157. Colin-Pastells, op. cit., Ill, pp. 125–126. Each of these ranches contained herds of one thousand head of cattle and some of them had as many as four thousand head. Cattle production was of a limited variety as indicated by the fact that in the fiscal year of 1632–1633 the income from ecclesiastical tithes collected from cattle ranches in the archdiocese of Manila amounted to the paltry sum of 300 pesos. Manila treasury accounts, Ibid, XXV, p. 81.

30 The principal Spanish sources on pre-conquest culture including the dependent class are Juan de Plasencia, O.F.M., “Tagalog Customs” (1598) in Blair and Robertson, op. cit., VII, pp. 173ff. and Loarca’s study of the Bisayans (1582) in op. cit ibid., V, pp. 143–151. All other Spanish accounts with the exception of Alcina’s unpublished ms. are derivative from Plasencia and Loarca.

31 For some characteristic critiques of the system from the ecclesiastical sources see the following: Ribadeneyra, Maicelo de, O.F.M., Historia de las islas del archipielago (Barcelona, 1601), p. 70Google Scholar. Pedro Chirino, S.J., Relatīón de las islas filipinas (Manila, 1890), pp. 148–149Google Scholar. First edition: Rome, 1604. Juan, Delgado S.J., Historia general, sacro-profana, politico y natural de las islas delponiente llamadas Filipinas (Manila, 1892), pp. 349–352Google Scholar. This work was completed circa 1750.

32 Bishop Salazar to Philip II : June, 1586 in Colin-Pastells, op. cit., I, p . 449.

33 Ibid., I, p . 435. Fiscal t o Philip IV: November 24,1630 in AGI, Audiencia de Filipinos 21. Alcina, op. cit., Bk. IV, ch. 5.

34 In 1599 the Audiencia became the final court of appeals for all litigations dealing with dependent status. Plasencia’s study of Tagalog customs received the status of customary law. Blair and Robertson, op. cit., XI, p p . 31–32. Fiscal t o Philip H I : July 10, 1610 in AGI, Audiencia de Filipinas 20. Fiscal t o Philip IV: November 24, 1630 in ibid, p . 21. Blair and Robertson, op. cit., X, p p . 303–304. Colīn-Pastells, op. cit., I, p . 435.

35 Blair and Robertson, op. cit., XVIII, 297–298, 316.

36 Ibid., Correspondence of t h e provincials-superiors with the fiscal, 1616, AGI, Audiencia de Filipinas 20.

37 Alcina, op. cit., B, IV, ch. 5.

38 Cedula of Charles II: June 12, 1679, Recopilación, op. cit., Bk. VI, tit. ii, law 16. Blair and Robertson, op. cit., L, p. 199.

39 Such is the testimony of one well-informed Jesuit observer writing circa 1750. Degado op. cit., p . 358.

40 Blair and Robertson, op. cit., LII, pp. 294–298.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid., XLVIV, pp. 142–143.

43 Ibid, XXIII, pp. 36–38.

43 Other comparative aspects of the Spanish regimes in Mexico and in the Philippines are discussed in my recent book, The Hispanization of the Philippines, Spanish Aims and Filipino Responses: 1565–1700 (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1958Google Scholar)