The fines and expenses of justice are committed to the care of the treasurer of the royal revenues, and are kept in the treasury.  They amount annually to three thousand pesos.

The three per cent duties on the Chinese merchandise of the Sangley vessels average forty thousand pesos annually. [249]

The two per cent duties paid by the Spaniards for exporting merchandise to Nueva Espana amount annually to twenty thousand pesos.  On the merchandise and money sent from Nueva Espana to the Filipinas, result eight thousand pesos more.  Consequently, in these things and in other dues of less importance that belong to the royal treasury, his Majesty receives about one hundred and fifty thousand pesos, or thereabout, annually in the Filipinas. [250]

Inasmuch as this amount does not suffice for the expenses that are incurred, the royal treasury of Nueva Espana sends annually to that of the Filipinas, in addition to the above revenues, some assistance in money—­a greater or less sum, as necessity requires.  For his Majesty has thus provided for it from the proceeds of the ten per cent duties on the Chinese merchandise that are collected at the port of Acapulco in Nueva Espana.  This assistance is given into the keeping of the royal officials in Manila, and they take charge of it, with the rest of the revenues that they manage and collect.

From all this gross sum of his Majesty’s revenue, the salaries of the governor and royal Audiencia are paid, as well as the stipends of prelates and ecclesiastical prebendaries, the salaries of the magistrates, and of the royal officials and their assistants; the pay of all the military officers and regular soldiers; his Majesty’s share of the stipends for instruction, and the building of churches and their ornaments; the concessions and gratifications that he has allowed to certain monasteries, and private persons; the building of large vessels for the navigation to Nueva Espana, and of galleys and other vessels for the defense of the islands; expenses for gunpowder and ammunition; the casting of artillery, and its care; the expense arising for expeditions and individual undertakings in the islands, and in their defense; that of navigations to, and negotiations with, the kingdoms in their vicinity, which are quite common and necessary.  Consequently, since his Majesty’s revenues in these islands are so limited, and his expenses so great, the royal treasury falls short, and suffers poverty and need. [251]

The proceeds from the ten per cent duties and the freight charges of the ships, which are collected at Acapulco in Nueva Espana, on the merchandise sent there from the Filipinas, although considerable, are also not always sufficient for the expenses incurred in Nueva Espana with the ships, soldiers, ammunition, and other supplies sent annually to the Filipinas.  These expenses are generally greatly in excess of those duties, and the amount is made up from the royal