Patronage and Accounting Between the Philippines and China, 1733–1797

Missionary efforts followed the expansion of the Old World’s frontiers, often entwined with trade. This article reviews the accounts of the Franciscan mission in China and of the obras pías of Manila during the eighteenth century to analyse how local conditions and empire-wide structures translated into specific actions on the ground. Through a reconstruction of the economic circumstances, the article explores how the interests of religious orders and merchants became entangled in Manila, showing how this marriage between religion and commerce resulted in a peculiar approach to the financing of the missions, which highlights the versatile nature of Catholic organisation abroad and is reflected in the recordkeeping of the missionaries themselves. The fragmentation and co-optation of multiple interests resulted in greater independence for religious provinces and a method of accounting that prioritised reporting to different patrons over a unified recordkeeping of expenses and sources of income.