654 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 



tention between Philippine officials, who sought to raise it, and 

 Spanish officials, who sought to lower it. 119 



But even with a fixed rate of wages, and permission to carry 

 goods for investment on his own account, the pay of the sailor 

 was by no means certain. In 1589 one of the Philippine officials 

 wrote to the king of grave evils existing in this matter. 



. . . They should be paid in Nueva Espana as this treasury is too 

 poor. As the money for their wages must be sent, sometimes it is not 

 brought, and at other times it is lost, thereby causing the sailors to 

 die of starvation. Therefore the sailors serve half-heartedly, and de- 

 sert; and there is great negligence in the dispatch of the fleets. 120 



A decree in accord with the recommendation was promptly 

 issued. 121 



Wages were not paid in money, but by a warrant, or voucher, 

 which was supposed to be convertible into cash and was, but 

 not when presented by the sailor. In 1621 the archbishop of 

 Manila wrote to the king as follows: 



One could not believe the injury that is done to the soldiers and 

 sailors, and to all the wage-earners, by not paying the vouchers earned 

 by their labor and sweat; and on the other hand, by buying these for 

 much less than their face value. For, being rendered desperate, they 

 sell vouchers valued at one thousand pesos for one hundred, and the 

 lamentable thing is that, if they did not sell them, they would never be 

 paid. Scarcely have they sold the vouchers when they are immediately 

 paid, and the purchasers even take the poor wretches to the office of 

 accounts, so they may be present at the payment, and that it may 

 appear justified, by their saying that they did it of their own accord, 

 for which they give a receipt. As it is the price of blood, and they see 

 that others take that price, it is a grief and sorrow that cries to heaven 

 for redress. . . , 122 



119 Ibid. 



120 Dr. Santiago de Vera, Carta del Presidente de la Audiencia de Filipinas, 

 Manila, July 13, 1589. Translation in Blair and Robertson, VII. 83-94. See 

 pp. 87, 88. 



121 Ibid., marginal note. 



122 Miguel Garcia Serrano, O. S. A., Estado del Arcobispado de Manila tocante 

 a las cosas de gobierno eclesiastico y segular, Manila, July 30, 1621. Translation 

 in Blair and Robertson, XX. 76-100. See p. 96. 



