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INTRODUCTION |
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Spain attained the height of its glory during the reign of Charles I and Philip II, both of the House of Hapsburg (from Austria). In its golden age, Spain ruled and dominated a great part of western and southern Europe (from the present day Spain, Netherlands, Milan, Naples, Sicily and later Portugal); and the colonies in West Indies, African and America. The Crown of Spain had exclusive control over its colonies. Although in the beginning they were directly administered by the King and his advisers, Charles I in 1524 established a "Council of the Indies" to manage colonial matters. Large colonies were organized into viceroyalties and ruled by a viceroy in the name of the Crown. Smaller colonies were into captaincies-general. The first viceroyalty to be established was the Viceroyalty of Nueva Espaņa in 1534. This had jurisdiction over Mexico, Central America and the Philippines. In 1542, the Viceroyalty of El Peru was also established to administer the territory of Peru, Upper Peru (Bolivia) and Chile. By the 18th century, two additional viceroyalties were added -- Nueva Granada, temporarily established in 1717-1724 and permanently in 1740 (which would comprise the present-day Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama); and Rio de la Plata (present-day Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) in 1776. The Philippines became a Spanish colony in the expeditin of 1565 by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and Fray Andres de Urdaneta. From 1565 to 1821, econonic and political relations between Mexico and Philippines were very close. Annual galleon convoy cross the Pacific to bring goods from Asia to Acapulco (Mexico), and vice versa. In 1700, the ruling House of Hapsburg ended its reign in Spain. Charles II died without an heir to the throne. There was a great war on who was to rule Spain, between France on one side and Austria, Holland and England on the other. Without consulting the Spanish people, the Peace of Utrecht installed Philip of Anjou, a Bourbon from France, as the new king. Thus start the era of the Bourbon Dynasty in Spain. |
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The term "Real" came about in a declaration of Don Pedro de Cruel (1350-65) stating that the official coin is to be known as "Numus Regalis" (Royal coin) and was valued at 3 maravedis. This was later shortened to "Real" On June 13, 1497, King Ferdinand & Queen Ysabel pegged the uniform value of the real. It was decreed that from a silver cut with weight equivalent to the Mark (German) with was half of a Cologne, there shall be sixty seven (67) reales. The Mark value became known as the "Marco de Castilla" and is roughly 230.0465 grams. Thus the weight-value of a real was 3.4335 grams. It was further decreed that fineness shall be in form of 11 dineros and 4 granos, translated as approximately 930.55 mills of Silver. The Spanish eight reales coin was set at a weight of 423.9 grains (27.468 grams) of .9305 fine silver. From that date, the coin only depreciated by 1.5% and not until the introduction of the modern milled coinage in 1732! The coinage of Spain and its American colonies, especially Mexico came to dominate the Philippine commercial scene. Early in the Spanish colonial rule, the Philippine traders used hammered coins -- the "macuquinas" or cobs. Because of their rude mintage, they were odd shaped. They were known as the "hilis kamay". The Barillas were the first coins struck by Spain for the Philippines. These were uniface brass coins which bore the coat-of-arms of City of Manila. They appeared in 1782, and had a value of about one centavo.Subsequently, new varieties of copper coins appeared from 1782. These were denominated as Octavo (Eight-Part) and Quarto (Quarter) 8 Octavo = 4 Quarto = 1 Real During the reign of Philip V, a Royal decree in 1728 brought the beginning of the milled or machine-struck coins for the Spanish colonies. This came about because of the popular and unscrupolous practice of some merchants to chip the existing coin to retain more silver for themselves. The coins were marked with border making chipping easy to detect. |
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Copyright 1998. JTChen (Philippines) and CJara (Chile)