Philippines

The Spanish Captaincy General of the Philippines kept its books in the peso de a ocho reales, the silver piece of eight; almost no coin was struck locally before the nineteenth century, so the circulating money was Mexican silver landed at Cavite each year as the situado, the Acapulco subsidy that paid the garrison, the friars and the shipyards. Because Manila spent money that Mexico sent, every peso had to be accounted for to the Council of the Indies, producing a dense fiscal record: governors’ letters enclosing itemised salary schedules, auditors’ certificates of what each post had drawn, shipyard and fortification accounts, now in the Audiencia de Filipinas papers of the Archivo General de Indias in Seville and much of it translated in the Blair and Robertson series. The territory is unusual for design spending because its most ambitious designed objects were ships: the galleons built of Philippine hardwood at Cavite and in the Bicol yards were the largest vessels afloat in their day, and the masters who drew them appear on the royal payroll beside gun-founders and military engineers.

Making a film here? The Canada–Philippines corridor covers the treaty, the incentives, and where to start.