The Spanish peso is the universal money in the commerce among all the
nations of Asia; and, as therefore the exterior commerce is constantly
drawing it into circulation, the governments of all the colonies
in that part of the world have found themselves obliged to create
a colonial money, which on account of its provisional value cannot
be taken out of the country, and, being directed into the internal
commerce of the province, feeds and multiplies exchanges. In Filipinas
there was no need of adopting that measure while its commerce with
Nueva España lasted, because then those islands were receiving annually
a million of Mexican pesos, and the situado of two hundred and fifty
thousand; and, besides this, the business that was carried on during
that period in the natural and industrial products of the country
was almost insignificant. And if in Filipinas at this present time
enough money circulates to support the outside traffic, that results
from the fact that the profits which the colony has gained from the
commerce with all the nations of Europa (the balance of which is in
favor of Filipinas) are greater than the losses of money which it
experiences in its commerce with India and China. [This is of course
a very precarious situation; for the contingencies of war, diversion
of commerce from the islands, or poor crops may at any time compel
Filipinas to send out all its money to India or China for the supply of
its needed commodities; and this would ruin even the internal commerce,
"on account of the serious difficulties which the establishment of a
system of public credit there presents."] Besides that, considering now
the matter of giving a strong impulse to the agriculture and industry
of those islands, there would be needed for the former project many
millions of pesos in constant circulation in the provinces, and there
must be a great reversion of the capital employed in commerce to the
interior of the islands; and this cannot be practiced in a country in
which hardly enough money circulates to support the government and
the demands from without, and which had undertaken to promote its
interests by commerce before placing its agriculture and industry
on a sound basis. In almost all the provinces of the islands very
little money circulates, and in some of them there is not even what
is necessary in order that the natives can pay the government taxes;
and from this has proceeded the necessity of commuting the tribute
from money to kind. The Spanish pesos go from and return to the
provinces rapidly; and it can be said that the produce of the taxes
which has to be sent annually to the capital, and the importations of
the alcaldes and the mestizos, are equal. Most of the Indians trade
among themselves by means of simple barter, and the mestizos make
them pay dearly with their products for the money that they need for
clothing themselves and paying their taxes.
There is, then, nothing to hope for--either advance in agriculture
and the useful arts, or the great extension and progress of which
the consumption of monopolized articles is susceptible--without the
creation of a colonial money which will remain within the colony to
which it belongs, which will liberate it from the precarious dependence
on foreign commerce, which will afford to the Indian the just profits
from his labor, which by remaining with him in the provinces will
encourage him to obtain possession of it as an easy means of providing
him with the necessities of life at the time [when he needs them,]
and which likewise may be an allurement to his children--which up to a
certain point it is of great importance to encourage in the Indians,
as a powerful incentive to make them labor. [Lastly, this colonial
money would check the exportation of silver coin by the Chinese,
[150] who would then prefer to export from Filipinas its nature
products in return for their commodities. In China all the Spanish
pesos are, in order to keep them within the empire, disfigured with
so many marks that they cannot be used in foreign commerce.] We
have no knowledge thus far of there being silver mines in Filipinas;
but it is a positive fact that gold abounds there, of so low grade
and so mingled with silver that it has little more value than that
metal. This circumstance, aided by the introduction of some silver
bars from America, carried thither by foreigners, the recoinage of
the half-dollars, and of the silver two-real, one-real, and half-real
pieces which circulate in the islands, and the use of the great amount
of old silver in household articles--which is there sold at very low
prices, on account of being alloyed and manufactured in China--would
supply the government with easy means for the creation of a colonial
currency without need for expense, or for forestalling [the income
from] any fund, only by accepting from the persons interested their
respective materials in gold or silver, under assay, and returning to
them the value of the metal in the coined money which it would yield,
after deducting the necessary expenses. Likewise the government could
accept, in payment of all taxes, the gold which is obtained from
the placers, at the same prices at which the Chinese carry it away,
and after it was assayed at its mint--where the learned professors
who for this purpose would be sent from Europe would dictate the
necessary measures for carrying into effect an undertaking which is
the basis for all progress in the islands. I am therefore of opinion
that his Majesty should deign to issue the following orders: That a
colonial currency be immediately created for internal circulation in
the Filipinas Islands. That for this purpose a mint be established
there. That the standard for this money be the same as those of the
moneys of the same kind which have been adopted in the other colonies
of Asia. That the subdivisions of its value be made according to the
needs of internal trade. That all the gold and silver, in various
forms, which private persons offer for coinage be accepted at the
mint, returning it to them in the standard coin which it yields after
the expenses are deducted. That the government there be authorized
to accept in payment of taxes the gold from the mines of Filipinas,
after it is assayed. That regulations be drawn up by competent persons,
in which precautions are taken against any fraud in this matter.