The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; 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, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 36]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 36

lecting a thing. It must be well known that cheapness in articles proceeds only from collecting those articles and this proceeds only from abundance, and
abundance only from freedom in the market; and
the assigning of a low price to any article by schedule is the most direct method of restricting its production and heightening its price.
After all that we have set forth, one can well say
that the department of the administration of justice
is what needs the most prompt and speedy reform.
From that, then, it is obvious that all the alcaldesmayor ought to be jurisconsults. The custom of
allowing governors to trade is not suitable for the
age in which we live, surely, although there are some
who do not abuse their position, and today there are
some who can be presented as models of honor and
nobility, especially Don Juan Castilla who governs
in Samar, and Don Francisco Gutierrez de los Rios
in Laguna. Not only is the latter free from the avarice and other faults which are so common to other
alcaldes, and does not make use of the permission to
trade, but also recognizes the defects of the present
administration, and declaims in the bosom of his
friends against them, since he is imbued with the
sane principles of justice and political economy.
But in such matters one must not reckon on virtue
but always with human nature. One day happening
to question one of the most judicious and kind persons whom I have known in the islands, how Alcalde
Pefiaranda had happened to lose his money, he
answered me: "He gave it to an agent to use, he
to share in the profits, and then paid no attention to
it for three years after. He gave up his time very
greatly to the building of bridges and roads, and