Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 51).djvu/58

52 much during his term of office for the promotion of agriculture. He ordained (1825 and 1826) that the native gobernadorcillos should furnish to agriculturists the idle and unoccupied Indians within their jurisdictions, to work on the estates, these laborers being paid their daily wages; and on October 30, 1827, that all complaints in civil cases relating to farm laborers should be settled by the magistrates as promptly and simply as possible, "observing the contracts and usages of the Indians, when these are not unjust," and that no Indian laborer should be imprisoned for a purely civil debt (save those to the royal exchequer), nor should his animals, tools, lands, or house be seized therefor. The Spanish minister of the exchequer, Luis López Ballesteros, also took a paternal interest in the islands, and secured royal decrees for the benefit of their industries. One of these (dated April 6, 1828) encouraged the importation into Filipinas of all machinery suitable for spinning and weaving cotton, offered public aid to private enterprises for improvement in weaving and dyeing, and promised protection and encouragement to all projects for promoting native manufactures of cloth; and made the exportation of raw cotton from the islands free, in order to promote the cultivation of that plant. Another decree (of the same date) permitted the free