Besides his judicial authority the governor shared legislative functions with the audiencia. We have noted in an earlier chapter that the acuerdo passed ordinances for the domestic welfare and local government of the colony. It prescribed rules and issued regulations for merchants, encomenderos, and religious, in accordance with the rulings for royal ecclesiastical patronage. The acuerdo developed from the advisory power of the audiencia. The king in his first decrees ordered the viceroys and presidents to consult with the oidores whenever the interests of the government demanded it, [436] and if necessary the opinions of the magistrates could be required in writing. When an agreement was reached upon a given subject, they voted in acuerdo and gradually that acuerdo came to have the force of law. On many occasions the acuerdo prevailed over the governor's will. There was no constitutional basis for this, and the acuerdo, when it became a legislative function in passing ordinances and overruling the governor himself, assumed prerogatives which were never exercised by the audiencias of Spain. [437]
The laws of the Indies established the governor as the sole executive, and forbade the audiencia to interfere with the government. [438] The governor, occupied by his extensive administrative and military duties, came to devote less attention to the judicial side of his office, which was left almost entirely to the audiencia. So it developed that the acuerdos in reference to judicial matters--the establishment of tariffs and rules for their observance and the dispatch of pesquisidores and visitors to the provinces, came in the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to be increasingly the concern of the audiencia. The authority of the tribunal in these matters was recognized by the Constitution of 1812 and the reforms made in pursuance thereof. [439]
In the same manner the acuerdo came to be recognized in governmental and administrative matters. The enactments of these legislative sessions of the audiencia were known as autos acordados. They ultimately came to embrace a wide field. The audiencia passed laws for the regulation of the provinces; it made rulings which the alcaldes mayores and corregidores were to follow in the collection of tribute; it prescribed their relations with the parish priests; it issued regulations for the conduct of the friars and the ordinary clergy relative to the royal patronage. Laws were passed for the encouragement of agriculture and industry and the regulation of commerce. Rice, tobacco and silk culture, the production of cinnamon and cocoanuts, the breeding of fowls, the regulation of cock-fighting, cloth-making and ship-building all came in for their share of attention in the acuerdo. [440]