A Puzzle about Padrones: Tribute in the Eighteenth-Century Spanish Philippines

This essay critiques an argument by Luis Alonso Álvarez regarding a reputed change in tribute collection procedures in the eighteenth-century Philippines. It argues that Alonso's assertion on the diminished role of the priest in compiling the roster is unproven; that the statistics of augmented collections produced by the change seem to support a very different interpretation; and that the description of the change may have been taken from a 1799 order and mistakenly linked to the actions fifty-odd years earlier. The essay ends with suggestions concerning the importance and timing of trade in the provinces; and a series of questions and arenas awaiting further research in the history of the eighteenth-century Philippines.