Pesos tomins The ecclesiastical estate receives from the king and from the Indians, as in the summary of statement iv 432,629 6 Deducting the amount of the savings which are stated in the preceding lines, 155,693 6 ------- - There remains, in favor of the ecclesiastical estate, a net balance of 276,936 Note The escorts which are furnished to the ministers are, at most, proper in the first years of a mission; but ordinarily this is a useless expense, by which the religious orders profit--or rather their missionaries, who take no other escorts than their own servants; nor do they need escorts, especially in the well-peopled missions. Most of these are such, because many Indians from the villages take refuge in the missions, either fleeing from justice, or for not paying the tribute. Thus could be saved the cost of the said escorts; and even the stipend for every mission after twenty-five years from its establishment, by causing the people to be brought into villages. STATEMENT VI Other increases and savings which the royal exchequer can make, in the various directions which are here stated. 1. It is assumed that there are, at the lowest figure, six thousand heads of barangay in the provinces of these islands; for although, by the ordinance, each headship ought to have forty-five entire tributes, it is certain that there are few which reach that number, and that there are many of five, eight, ten, and twenty tributes. Therefore, assigning to each headship, on the average, at most thirty tributes, they make the six thousand above stated, the number of tributes [in them being] one hundred and eighty-three thousand, three hundred and thirty, the lowest computation that can be made of headships and of tributes. As three persons in every headship are exempted [from paying tribute], the royal exchequer is deprived of the value of nine thousand entire tributes, which, at the rate of ten reals, make eleven thousand, two hundred and fifty pesos. Therefore, by abolishing the said headships, and making the governadorcillo or headman of each village responsible for the collection of the tributes therein (as is done in Nueva España), or by allowing the said headships and decreeing that those who hold them shall pay tribute (as they formerly did, by order of the visitor, Auditor Don Joseph Arzadun), this increase in the tribute will result to the advantage of the royal exchequer, by the sum of eleven thousand, two hundred and fifty pesos.