Before me: 

Pedro Hurtado Desquibel

An act decreeing that there shall be no hucksters.

In the city of Manila, on the twenty-fifth of June, one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, the president and auditors assembled in this royal Audiencia and Chancilleria declared that, whereas in this said city of Manila all sorts of provisions have become very dear, on account of the disorder that has existed, and does exist, through having allowed many Sangleys and native Indians to go through this city and five leagues round about it, trading and bartering the said provisions—­as, for instance, rice, wine, fowls, swine, cows, buffalo, game, eggs, geese, kids, cocoanuts, bananas, pullets, capons, fish, olive-oil, vinegar, and other provisions that are gathered and raised within the five leagues, or are bought from outside from the other provinces, islands, villages, and hamlets—­and act as hucksters and retailers of these provisions:  therefore, as it is advisable to provide the necessary remedy in this matter, in order that the said disorder be avoided, they ordered, and they did so order, that no person—­Spaniard, Sangley, native, or of any other nation, quality, and rank whatever—­shall trade or barter, now and henceforth, in the said provisions, or in any of them, in this said city or within the five leagues of its jurisdiction.  No huckster shall buy or retail for his own trade or profit any of the above things, under any condition, under penalty of confiscation of everything thus found in his possession which he has bought or traded for—­half to be applied to his Majesty’s treasury, and the other half to go to the informer or constable who exposes him, or to the judge who gives sentence.  Besides this, any person who shall be discovered not to have fulfilled this obligation shall, if he be a Spaniard, for the first offense be imprisoned twenty days in the common jail; and for the second he shall be banished for six months from this city and the five-league circuit of this court, to a prescribed residence.  If he be a Sangley or an Indian, he shall for the first offense be given one hundred lashes; and for the second shall serve in his Majesty’s galleys, or at the forge, or in the powder-house, for a period of two years without pay.  Those who obtain the said provisions by cultivation and labor within a circuit of five leagues, or who bring them from outside this city to sell them therein, may sell and bring them freely, so that it be not to the said hucksters or retailers; and provided that they bring them first to the public square of this city, or up the river in their vessels, in order that the inhabitants and dwellers in this city may be provided with whatever they may need, for the time and space of two natural days.  These being passed, whatever they cannot sell they may carry away, and sell in the other towns within the said five leagues.  Likewise, they ordered that no person shall go by way of the sea or the river