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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 19 of 55: 1620-1621; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 19 of 55: 1620-1621; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

In answer to the first, your Majesty expends much in the preservation
of that country, it is true; but the objectors do not consider
that those expenditures which are made are not for the purpose of
preserving the Filipinas--at least since Don Pedro de Acuna, your
governor, won the islands of Maluco, where cloves are obtained; for
since that time the expense has been to maintain the war against the
Dutch, who have been fortifying and making themselves masters there,
and because we did not understand here, in the beginning and later,
how important it would be to spend what was necessary to drive them
out once for all, and to secure those regions. This has been the
cause of spending so much in reenforcements, which have not served,
and do not serve, more than to keep the forts which your Majesty
holds in the islands of Terrenate and Tidore, and the friendship
of the king of Tidore; and this is the cause of the expenses which
your Majesty makes in the Filipinas, while the Dutch are taking away
almost all the profits--although it is true that, if your Majesty had
had ministers there zealous in your service, you might have obtained
profit enough to maintain those forts without drawing upon your royal
exchequer. The same thing could be done at any time when you wish, but
the means for this are not at hand, and accordingly I defer them. If
your Majesty should wish to know them, I will inform you of them. From
this it may be concluded that the Filipinas are not the cause of
these expenditures; and those which were made there before that time
(as will be explained later, by themselves) exceeded the support with
which your Majesty maintained the islands. This was done by the kings,
your Majesty's father and grandfather, for two reasons: in the first
place, by their aiming at the glory of God and the spread of His
holy gospel, since they enjoyed the title of patrons of the church,
upon whom it would seem this obligation rests; in the second place,
on account of the favorable situation of that post for obtaining from
it more wealth than from all the rest of the Indias--and if this has
not hitherto been enjoyed the blame is not upon the country, but, for
reasons which cannot be here set down, upon those who have governed it.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 19 of 55: 1620-1621; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

In answer to the first, your Majesty expends much in the preservation
of that country, it is true; but the objectors do not consider
that those expenditures which are made are not for the purpose of
preserving the Filipinas--at least since Don Pedro de Acuna, your
governor, won the islands of Maluco, where cloves are obtained; for
since that time the expense has been to maintain the war against the
Dutch, who have been fortifying and making themselves masters there,
and because we did not understand here, in the beginning and later,
how important it would be to spend what was necessary to drive them
out once for all, and to secure those regions. This has been the
cause of spending so much in reenforcements, which have not served,
and do not serve, more than to keep the forts which your Majesty
holds in the islands of Terrenate and Tidore, and the friendship
of the king of Tidore; and this is the cause of the expenses which
your Majesty makes in the Filipinas, while the Dutch are taking away
almost all the profits--although it is true that, if your Majesty had
had ministers there zealous in your service, you might have obtained
profit enough to maintain those forts without drawing upon your royal
exchequer. The same thing could be done at any time when you wish, but
the means for this are not at hand, and accordingly I defer them. If
your Majesty should wish to know them, I will inform you of them. From
this it may be concluded that the Filipinas are not the cause of
these expenditures; and those which were made there before that time
(as will be explained later, by themselves) exceeded the support with
which your Majesty maintained the islands. This was done by the kings,
your Majesty's father and grandfather, for two reasons: in the first
place, by their aiming at the glory of God and the spread of His
holy gospel, since they enjoyed the title of patrons of the church,
upon whom it would seem this obligation rests; in the second place,
on account of the favorable situation of that post for obtaining from
it more wealth than from all the rest of the Indias--and if this has
not hitherto been enjoyed the blame is not upon the country, but, for
reasons which cannot be here set down, upon those who have governed it.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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