445 / 1060
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BooK
I.
Royal
Commentarie1.
4i.5 .
'' ti
.e
Revenue of th
e Kingis a
prodigious
Mafs
ofWealth and Treafure. Thus
far
a~e
Words of
Mo.ra(es,
which y-;e have willing}y
all~dged
in
~onfirmation
of the
rrn'ih
of what
we have faid, bemg ,defirotfs not
tp
wnte any thmg but that
which
we
c.\1n
avouch
on
good ground and authority. And for
fart~er ~roof
of this
difficulty, and how hard
a
thing it is to
furn
up
~e R.evenu~
of this King of
Spain,
now Emperour of che newWorld,
I {hall
proouce the Telhmony of
rohn Botero,
a
great
and
an univerfal Hifiorian who,
afc~r
he
h~~
made a
~lculate
of the
Re~enu~
.
,
of che King
of( hina,
and of che Rents which
Gali~za,
AjluriM
and
Portngal
anciently
yielded
to
the Roman Empire; with what was the Revenue of th,eKings of
Navar/"e;
France,
(he
Emperour,
Poland, England,
Duke of
Lorr~in,
King of
Sc<Jtland,
Swede/and
and
Goth/and;
as alfo
~hat
was the Income of the Houfe of
Anftria,
ofthe King
of
Narjinga,
rhe
N erijfe
of
Egypt~
and of the
Gran
Sign.or;
yet
coming tothe Reve-
nue of our King of
Spain,
he is
cher~
filent;.
for
whichI
can
render.noother rea-
fon, than becaufe this Apthour commg to
this
Account, he
f
ound himfelf
fo
plun-
ged and
im~erfe~
therein, chat he
~urfi
not adventure to. fathom
t~e
fame; _not
having., as
I
1magme, numbers fuffic1ent to
furn up
the Tnbute
of
his
many
King·
dams and with them the immenfe Riches imported from
Peru.
A~d
in confirmation of the great Treafure with which
Peru
hath enriched
all
theWorld,
I
have this
farther
Tefiimony to offer from the mofi Reverend Father
Don Paulo
de
L11g1,ma,
who was Prefident of the
Cowicil
-0f
his
Majell:y's Exche–
g~er,
and afterwards Prefident of the Council of the
Indies,
and Vice-king of
rhe
New World, and
in
the Year
1603.
was eleCl:ed Bifhop of
Cordova;.
tnis great
Perfon
difcourGng one day with
hiS
Confeffour, and others, concerning the
im–
menfe
Riches of
Peru,
did confidently affirm, that from one Mountain ooely of
Peru,
there had been tranfported into
Spain,
untill the Year
160~.
two hundred ·
Millions of Pieces of Eight, which had been regifired;
and
that at leaft one
hun–
dred Milliqns more had been imported without Regiller?
And
I
c11n
j'~rthcr
add,
(faid he)
that
twenty
five
MllionJ
in Gold
and
Silver have
heen
6rought
into
Spain
6y
one
Fleet in
my
time.
The Standers-by hearing this, anfwered,
We coHld never helieve
i·t,
my
Lord, IJHt
that we
receive
it
from..
fo
authentic/z
an
AHthour
tU
your Lordjhip.
what I
fay,
replied the Bifhop,
I
ktr/w
for
a
&ertain truth; and
moreover
I
af[ure
you,
that
all
the
Kings
of
Spain,
joined
together from King
Pelayo
to
thefe
times,
have
not
he
en Ma–
fters
(Jf
fo
much Money
M
King
Philip
the
l.O.
hath
h~en.
Afcer which te{l:imony from
fo
great a perfon, we
fuall
not need to add, or require farther proofs for
what we
have alledged.
But fucfi as look on the Riches of
Peru
with more than a common Eye, are of
opinion, that they have rather been hurtfull than good or beneficial to Mankind;
for that Riches have been the caufe of Vice, and not of Vertue, having inclined
the Nature ofMen to
Pride
and Ambition,
to
Gluttony and
Luxury;
for
enjoying
an affluence ofFortune, they have given themfelves up to Sloth, and Effeminacy;
becoming neither fit for Government in the times of eace, nor yet for
Hard!hip
and
Labour
in
the times of
War,
employing their whole thoughts and
time
in
contriving new Dillies, and Liquours, to pleafe their Appetite, and
fantaftical
Faibions for their Clothing; in which they are arrived to that height of extrava–
garn:e, that they fcarce know what
to
wear, and are come
to
that undecency
of
Drefs, that their Habit
is
more correfpondent to Women than to Men.
And
as the Rents of the Rich have been raifed to maintain the Lufis and riotous
Li–
ying
ofgreat Perfons,
fo
have the Poor been oppreffed, and reduced
to
Rags,
and
Famine, to fupport the
Pride
and Luxury
of
their
Landlords. And the
ttuth
is
the Poor are become much more poor than formerly; for the quantity of MoneY
being increafed, which
is
all
aGCumulated into the Coffers of the Rich,
hath
en–
hanfed the price of Provifions and Commodities to
that
degree, that the Poor
..
fiarve by the abundance of the Rich; and though the Rich have a plenty of
Mo–
ney, and may out of their great fiores enlarge their Charities towards the Poor·
yet the_ir A!ms do not anfwer
~he
price of ProviGons which the plenty
of
Money
hath ra1fed m the
W
odd ; fo m ihort they conclude, that the Riches of the new
V'!
orld not having increafed the Provilions nece!fary
for
the fupport of humane
Life,
~ut
ra.ther fe_rved to make chem dear, and Men effeminate, liaving enfeebled
them
m
their Bo.dies and Underfiandings, and debauched them in their Habits and
Cufioms of living,
the
generality
0£
Mankind
is
become much worfe
and
leJS
Contented, and having .been formidable, aHd dreaded in ancient
times
by
all
the
World, are
now rendred mean and
effeminate
by
rhe
corruption
of
their
Rk~hes.
.
.
Iii
Now