When the news of this murder reached Spain, the king ordered an
investigation and the punishment of the guilty, and in 1721 Governor
Torre Campo arrived to put these mandates into execution. The culprits,
however, were so high and so influential that the governor did not
dare proceed against them; and although the commands of the king were
reiterated in 1724, the assassins of Bustamante were never brought
to justice.
Treaty with the Sultan of Jolo.--In spite of the cowardly policy
of the successors of Bustamante, the presidio of Zamboanga was not
abandoned. So poorly was it administered, however, that it was not
effective to prevent Moro piracy, and the attacks upon the Bisaya and
Calamianes continued. In 1721 a treaty was formed with the sultan of
Jolo providing for trade between Manila and Jolo, the return or ransom
of captives, and the restitution to Spain of the island of Basílan.
The Moro Pirates of Tawi Tawi.--To some extent this treaty seems to
have prevented assaults from Jolo, but in 1730 the Moros of Tawi Tawi
fell upon Paragua and the Calamianes, and in 1731 another expedition
from the south spent nearly a whole year cruising and destroying
among the Bisayas.
Deplorable State of Spanish Defenses.--The defenses of the Spaniards
during these many decades were continually in a deplorable state, their
arms were wretched, and, except in moments of great apprehension,
no attention was given to fortifications, to the preservation of
artillery, nor to the supply of ammunition. Sudden attacks ever
found the Spaniards unprepared. Military unreadiness was the normal
condition of this archipelago from these early centuries down to the
destruction of the Spanish armament by the American fleet.
The Economic Policy of Spain.--Restrictions of Trade.--During the
closing years of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the
eighteenth, commerce seemed to have been actually paralyzed. That
brilliant trade which is described by Morga, and which was at its
height about 1605, was a few years later defeated by the miserable
economic policy of Spain, pandering to the demands of the merchants
of Cadiz and Seville.
Spain's economic policy had only in view benefits to the
Peninsula. "The Laws of the Indies" abound with edicts for the purpose
of limiting and crippling colonial commerce and industry, wherever it
was imagined that it might be prejudicial to the protected industries
of Spain. The manufacturers of Seville wished to preserve the colonies,
both of America and of the Indies, as markets for their monopoly wares;
and in this policy, for two centuries, they had the support of the
crown. The growing trade between Mexico and the Philippines had early
been regarded with suspicion, and legislation was framed to reduce
it to the lowest point compatible with the existence of the colony.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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