Precios corrientes de Manila [i.e., "Prices current at Manila"],[1] in the Spanish and English languages. A royal decree of October 4, 1839, provided for the introduction and circulation of books in the islands; the fiscal must designate those that merited examination, and then they must be passed upon by two censors, appointed by the governor and the archbishop respectively, whose opinion must be submitted to the fiscal; and if "there shall appear sufficient ground for prohibiting the circulation of any work, because it may contain principles, opinions, or doctrines opposed to the rights of the legitimate government or to the religion of the State, it shall be not only seized but reshipped."[2] On July 15, 1840, was opened the School of Commerce, established at the request of the Board [Junta] of Commerce. "On November 11 Lardizábal repeated Ricafort's edict of 1828, prohibiting foreigners from selling merchandise at retail and entering the provinces to trade." At the end of this year important changes were made in the administration of financial affairs, all the revenues arising from government monopolies being united under one bureau; and another bureau was likewise created for the general administration of the tributes and
- ↑ In Retana's Periodismo filipino (pp. 566, 567) Torres y Lanzas describes some copies of this periodical, dated October 5-November 9, 1839, and January 23-February 6, 1841; he cites a letter by Urréjola to show that Precios corrientes was published weekly, beginning July 6, 1839, by private enterprise.
- ↑ By a later royal decree, the fiscal was to settle any case of disagreement between the two censors, and any books seized by the authorities should be only sent back to the shipper, and not kept by them – the archbishop having demanded that confiscated books should be surrendered to him. (Note by Montero y Vidal.)
