Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1493 Beiyang Expedition ([-])
【This chapter will write about the "entrusted guardianship system" implemented by the Spanish in the colonies. 】

On the Portuguese galleon "Grandura", the Beiyang Expeditionary Fleet held a somewhat modern negotiation with the Philippine Governor's Palace.

The main commanders of the two sides held talks on various matters of the war on this Portuguese ship. In addition to the expeditionary fleet commander Gao Zhenxin, the Philippine Governor Santiago de Villa, and the representative of the Ming Dynasty’s nobles Zhu Yingfeng, And the missionary representatives of the five Spanish missionaries in the Philippines: the Augustinian Order, the Franciscan Order, the Dominican Order, the Jesuit Order, and the Augustinian Order of Redemption: Priest Santos de Gutierrez from the Jesuit Order.

In addition, the captain of the Portuguese "Grandura" Pedro de Difradis acted as a third-party representative as a witness to the negotiations.Because of the language exchange and other relations, the negotiating parties also brought an attache and several interpreters, but the Beiyang Expeditionary Army Army Division did not send personnel.

On the long oval table, Gao Zhenxin sat calmly and listened to the interpreter relay a piece of nonsense about Governor Devilla, and then said indifferently: "Are you willing to readjust the tax rate? Unfortunately, it is too late."

He paused for a while and continued: "Earlier, you occupied Luzon and other places by force. In nature, this is already invading my Ming Dynasty. Due to the long distance and the fact that Luzon did not have time to report to my court General matters, so Da Ming did not interfere too much with this..."

Governor Devilla over there can understand a lot of Chinese, and he immediately defended himself after hearing the words, but he seemed to be able to understand only, and he still spoke French.The interpreter had no choice but to follow up immediately, and said: "Your Excellency, Commander Gao Zhenxin, the war between the Luzon Kingdom and our side has nothing to do with the Ming Empire, and the kingdom cannot be counted as destroyed, although the royal family is almost destroyed. , but we have been actively looking for other blood relatives of the royal family...

At present, in the Philippines or Luzon, the administrative system implemented is the 'entrusted guardianship system', which means that we still recognize the existence of the Kingdom of Luzon.In this regard, we believe that it is unreasonable for your Excellency Commander to launch a war against us based on the fact that our subordinate country has been invaded. "

Gao Zhenxin didn't know what the so-called "entrusted guardianship system" was for a moment, he pondered for a while, and said: "I ask to adjourn the meeting, I need to know some information about your so-called 'entrusted guardianship system' from my entourage."

Governor De Villa immediately said: "There is no need to adjourn the meeting. I will be happy to explain this system to you personally."

"No need." Gao Zhenxin didn't believe him at all, and of course he wouldn't listen to his explanation, so he waved his hand and said, "We have information on this, so please intervene." He got up straight away, and took the people back to the place that the Portuguese had prepared in advance. lounge.

Then, the entourage sent by the Nanyang Fleet to help them understand the situation in Luzon explained to him the entrusted guardianship system.

The "entrusted guardianship system" implemented by Legazpi, a colonizer of the Kingdom of Castile, in the conquered areas of the Philippines was actually copied directly from the Americas. Notorious" to describe.

In fact, this system began to sprout as early as when Columbus discovered America.When Columbus made his first western expedition in 1492, the frankness and generosity of the American Indians aroused the greed of the Spaniards. Columbus and his accomplices showed racial discrimination vividly. Apart from the concept of "master and slave", there is no concept of any equal relationship.

Although Columbus was superficially polite to the Indian chiefs who received him, he did not respect the Indians in his heart. On the one hand, he enthusiastically made friends and gave gifts to the Indians, and on the other hand, he thought about how to enslave these friendly Indians.

Therefore, in the "Logbook" written to the Spanish double kings (referring to the Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon at that time), Columbus clearly wrote that he planned to enslave the weak and kind Indians:

"Your Majesties may trust that this island and all other places belong to them as well as Castile. Nothing is needed here but a colony, and you may direct them to do what you will. Everything. For with the few men on board I was able to go around all the islands here without encountering hindrance.

I have seen that when I sent only three crew ashore, there were so many Indians fleeing in all directions, that no one dared to do anything wrong to these crew.They have no arms, no self-defense, and are so cowardly that a thousand men cannot stand against three men.Hence they are fit for obedience, for forced work, for sowing, and for anything else we need to do. "

In addition, Columbus also vigorously advocated the weakness of the Indians in many letters to the Spanish court, saying that as long as the Indians are simply trained, they can become the best source of labor for the colony:
"I know that they (the Indians) are a people who have received emancipation well, and it is amazing how kind they are to us. They don't carry weapons, and they don't know what they are for, because I showed them to them, and they In ignorance they seized the edge of the knife and cut their own hands. They had no iron.

They are generally quite tall and good-looking, with a strong physique.I believed at first, and I still believe that the people who come to this island from the mainland can use them, and they will make good servants and excellent journeymen. "

In fact, the idea of ​​the Spanish enslaving the Indians did not come out of thin air. European society had already had the phenomenon and policy of enslaving others long before the discovery of America.The Spaniards' master-servant concept and race relations to the Indians were formed on the basis of concerns about the enslavement of African blacks by the Portuguese and the enslavement of the Canary Islands by the Spanish in the mid-15th century.

At that time, most Europeans believed in the concept of innocence in enslaving other peoples, and European society was very tolerant of this, so neither the Spaniards nor other Europeans who came to colonize the Americas would feel that there was anything wrong with enslaving Indians. .

But according to the Bible, Christians do not have the right to enslave others. Therefore, a Spanish priest who was contemporary with Columbus also criticized Columbus's enslavement of Indians with harsh words:

"Note here that the simplicity and friendly dignity of the Indians, and their modesty, and their want of arms and defenses, make the Spaniards look upon them with insolence, contempt, and the best they can find. The harshest and most difficult jobs were forced upon them, and they were oppressed and condemned to ruin.

Columbus exaggerated himself too much with language, and what he imagined here and what he said was the beginning of the cruel treatment he later inflicted on the Indians. "

But most of the Spaniards ignored the Bible and the priest's advice in order to plunder the benefits. The Spaniards headed by Columbus began to use force to massacre the Indians and captured the Indians as slaves.Even if Queen Isabella ordered many times to ask the Spanish colonists to treat the Indians well, it would not have the slightest effect.The days of Columbus' "discovery" of America thus became the beginning of the suffering of the Indians.

In 1494 AD, in order to suppress the resistance of the Indians and plunder the wealth, Columbus led the army to conduct a careful search on Hispaniola (Haiti Island), attacking any Indian villages that dared to resist the rule of the Spanish colonial government, and wantonly plundered Indian property, and about 1500 Indians were brought back to the colony as slaves.

In order to obtain funds for the development of the colony and prove the future of the colony, Columbus also specially selected 500 "best men and best women" to be sold in the slave market in Spain, starting the notorious American slave trade.

In addition, Columbus also pulled the remaining more than 1000 Indian slaves to the square, allowing all Spaniards to choose at will and give as much as they want, in order to promote the development of the colony and bribe those Spanish colonists.

But because there were not many Spanish colonists at that time, and many of them had enslaved some Indians before, there were about 400 Indians, old and weak, left unselected.Only then did the Spaniards spare them, let the rest of the Indians go away, and ended the tragedy.

Colonial officials at the time recorded that some Indian women even gave up their children in order to escape the clutches of the Spanish colonists as soon as possible:

"They (Indian women) were afraid of being caught again, and in order to escape us better, they dropped their babies on the ground and started running like desperate people. Some people escaped like this over mountains and rivers Far away, flee to a place seven or eight days away from Isabella's colony."

After the Spanish colonists acquired Indian slaves, they would let them cultivate the land, serve themselves, or perform all kinds of hard work, such as gold panning and mining.

During this process, a large number of Indians died painfully. In order to make up for the shortage of labor in the colonies, the Spanish colonists continued to capture or force Indians to be slaves as supplements or sales. As a result, many Indian villages were razed to the ground. Indians were forced into slavery.

Columbus, who tasted the sweetness of enslaving the Indians, formally implemented a cruel tribute tax system to the Indians in 1495 in order to obtain gold and prove to the Spanish court the prospect of colonizing the Americas.

Columbus announced that all Indians on the island are under the rule of the Spanish colonial government, and every adult Indian must pay a certain amount of gold or cotton yarn to the colonial government as a condition not to be killed.This system of forcing the Indians to pay gold and property is the tribute tax system, which was the main means for the Spanish colonists to collect gold at that time!

The tribute tax system is very cruel. According to regulations, every Indian who has reached the age of 14 has to pay the colonial government every three months. month to the colonial government to pay a gourd full of gold.

If there are no gold deposits on the land where the Indians live, they must pay 25 pounds of cotton yarn or cotton cloth every three months as a substitute for gold, otherwise they will be severely punished.

When the colonial government weighed the taxes paid by the Indians and ensured that they were qualified, they would give the Indians who paid the tribute a stamped bronze medal to wear around their necks to prevent new extortion or taxation Personnel executed.

This kind of tribute tax system is very unreasonable. The tax standard set is too high, and it is difficult for the Indians to complete it on time.The Spaniards used the gold and cotton cloth they originally collected from the Indians as the source of planning tax standards, but the problem is that these gold and cotton cloths were accumulated by the Indians after several generations, so they appear to be rich in wealth.

When the property accumulated for several generations was handed over to the colonial government, the Indians had no more gold and cotton cloth, so they could only pan for gold in rivers or streams or weave cotton cloth day and night.This obviously led to a series of catastrophes and revolts that forced the Spaniards to lower their standards by half, but it was still impossible.

Although the Spaniards used the tribute tax system to the Indians in the American colonies, the Spanish colonial government spent several years slaughtering a large number of Indians and failed to obtain a large amount of gold due to the lack of gold and other property in the area.

Not only did it fail to earn back all the funds spent in colonizing the Americas, it could not even guarantee the stability of the most basic material supplies in the colonies. More benefits and powers.

In the end, as the number and scale of rebellions grew, the colonial government headed by Columbus had to meet their demands in order to win back the support of the rebels. In 1498, a colonial system called the distribution system was formally established in America. system, which gave each Spanish colonist many benefits and powers.

This system can roughly be regarded as the origin and predecessor of the "entrusted guardianship system".

However, a very important contradiction appeared at this time: the tribute tax system and distribution system implemented by the Spaniards in the early Americas were actually implemented privately by the colonial government and the colonists, and it was an unofficial system.Without any communication with the Spanish court, they divided up the land and subjects that belonged to the Spanish king, and turned the Indians into slaves.

In this process, the Spanish court not only did not get any benefits from it, but the colonists’ measures to enslave the Indians also affected the taxation of the Spanish court—because according to Spanish law, only free people have the obligation to pay annual tribute.

Therefore, there were differences and contradictions between the Spanish court headed by the Spanish king and royal family, and the American colonists and colonial governments. Although both exploited the Indians, the specific methods and methods of exploitation were very different. .

The Spanish court wanted to turn the Indians into their direct subjects through some peaceful means, just like ordinary Spaniards, and then exploit and rule the Indians through political and economic means.

The colonists wanted to turn the Indians into their own private property, and then enslaved, traded and killed them at will, or plundered all the fruits of labor created by the Indians, and did not want to share the benefits of the Indians’ labor output with the Spanish court.

Regarding the attitude towards the Indians, the Spanish court advocated mild treatment of the Indians.Especially in order to promote Catholicism and develop more Christians, the Spanish court often ordered the colonists to treat the Indians well and guide them to convert to Catholicism and become believers of God and subjects of the Spanish king.

For example, the Spanish kings sternly emphasized in the decree written to Columbus on May 1493, 5: "The primary purpose of the exploration voyage is to change the beliefs of the Indians, and the explorers must treat the Indians with great kindness and love, and promote The friendship between the Indians and the Spaniards, we will punish anyone who mistreats the Indians."

But the Spanish colonists had no motivation to change the beliefs of the Indians. They were only interested in squeezing and exploiting the fruits of the Indians' labor.Moreover, if the Indians convert to Catholicism and become Christians, then according to the doctrine that Christians cannot enslave Christians and that everyone is equal before God, the Spanish colonists can no longer wantonly exploit the Indians.

Therefore, for a long time, the number of Indians who converted to Catholicism was very small: it was not that the Indians were unwilling to believe, but that the Spanish colonists did not care about promoting it at all.

This led to policy changes such as the Spanish double kings and their successors continuously sending determined missionaries to the colonies for missionary work.Priest Santos, who appeared at the "Manila Peace Talks" today, is the representative of the "Five Major Denominations". From the fact that he can participate in talks of this level, it can be seen that the influence of the church on the colonies has grown a lot at this time.

All in all, after the tug-of-war between the Spanish court, the colonists, and the American Indians, the Spanish colonists and the colonial government had to change and compromise the existing policy of enslaving the Indians, so as to promote the new colonial system - "entrusted guardianship" The production and application of "system".
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(End of this chapter)