been examined by the Bishop and seen by the Royal Audiencia." This
latter portion was applied specifically to the Philippines in a letter
[10] from Philip II to the Audiencia of Manila, also dated May 8,
1584, to which further reference will be made. It can be gathered
from Dasmariñas' implied apology that he had never before given such
a license, and, since he had arrived in the Philippines in 1590, that
no books had been printed between that time and the licensing of the
Doctrinas. It is, moreover, likely that if any similar books had been
printed during the administrations of his predecessors he would have
mentioned the fact as a precedent for acting contrary to the cedulas.

According to Dasmariñas he had priced the books at four reales a
piece, which followed the regular Spanish procedure, under which
books were subject to price control. The Governor, it will be noted,
also apologized for the high price he was forced to set, giving
general high prices [11] as his excuse. Yet, while the appraisal of
four reales for this book was high compared to the prevailing scale
in Spain, it was not high compared to prices allowed in Mexico. On
June 6, 1542 the Emperor had given the Casa de Cromberger, the first
printing-house in Mexico, permission [12] to sell books printed there
at seventeen maravedís a sheet, or exactly one half a real. If we
assume that, although the Doctrina had been printed page by page,
it was quarto in size and so appraised on the basis of eight pages
to a sheet, we find that the price per sheet comes to about fourteen
maravedís, or less than half a real. However, a contradiction occurs
between the letter of Dasmariñas and this copy of the Doctrina,
supported by the other 1593 document. On the verso of the title, Juan
de Cuellar, [13] the Governor's secretary and the logical person to
sign the official valuation, gives the price as two reales, and the
1593 account, while agreeing with the letter as far as the Chinese