Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 11).djvu/98

suit many inconveniences, losses, injuries, and diminutions to the royal exchequer; for formerly they paid the eight reals of tribute each year in kind, which they gathered on their lands. A short time ago they were given the alternative of paying it in coin if they wished; and since then they have ceased to cultivate the land, make linen fabrics, raise fowls and cattle, or obtain gold from the mines and rivers, with which articles they used to pay the said tribute. A great part of those articles usually remained with them, because they had all the year for trading and labor, by which the country was supplied with many provisions at a low cost, and clothing of various kinds of linen, with which they were dressed. The encomenderos sailed with these things to Nueva España; and it was not necessary to pay the Chinese what was brought thence in return, and have them carry it off to their country, as they now do, in exchange for the said cloths which they sell. There was a great quantity of gold which was also taken to Nueva España, and from that your Majesty was paid the tenths, which amounted each year to six or eight thousand pesos—not counting another larger quantity which was paid by the tributaries of the encomiendas which are under the royal crown. By reason of the said Indians not paying in kind, so little gold has come to be mined, that in the past year, ninety-eight, from tributes and tenths even, the amount which was collected on your Majesty's account was not a thousand pesos. From this there follows another inconvenience, in that, as the natives of these islands are inclined to laziness and to the vices attendant upon that, since they can easily pay the tribute for one year with ten reals in coin, they seek and pay it, and