This volume compiles translated primary documents focusing on events in the Spanish Philippines during the pivotal year of 1636, under the new Governor Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera. The documents reveal a colony dominated by the governor’s turbulent assertion of royal authority over entrenched interests. The central narrative is Corcuera's heated conflict with the religious orders and the Archbishop of Manila, which saw the governor challenge the jurisdiction and political power of the friars, whom he accused of insubordination and excessive influence over the native populace. Corcuera also undertook comprehensive administrative and financial reforms, including the reorganization of the military, cutting colonial expenditure, and addressing the burdensome practices of shipbuilding that exhausted the local native populations. Economic concerns are also prominent, with reports on the vital Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, the regulation of the Chinese population and their trade, and efforts to bolster the royal treasury. The collection thus offers a detailed, multi-perspective view of the political, religious, military, and financial administration of the Philippine Islands during a moment of profound internal struggle within the Spanish colonial government.
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol. 26, 1636)