demanding that the royal will
be observed, and that the Portuguese be ordered not to return to this
city. And in fact they did not come for the time being, or for many
years after, until the said year of six hundred and nineteen--[since]
when, not encountering the resistance which had been formerly made,
they have continued the said trade, as aforesaid.

The second, for proof of the aforesaid, is that, as is notorious,
the amounts of capital [invested by] the inhabitants of these islands
were very great in the first years of the coming of the said ships
from Macan; but with the high prices which the Portuguese have always
set upon their merchandise, and (as aforesaid) because the citizens
have bought from them more by force than willingly, by reason of the
lack of the goods which the Chinese brought formerly, for that reason
the said investments of capital have stopped, and are so greatly
diminished as has been, and is seen in general; because the gains
have been very slight compared with the profits that have been made
in Nueva Espana, considering the high prices that they demand here,
as has been previously stated.

The third point which ought to be considered is, that the customs
duties on the merchandise brought by the Chinese to this city were
worth to his Majesty from eighty to one hundred thousand pesos
annually; while those on the merchandise of the ships which have
come from Macan have not been worth more than twenty thousand pesos
in any one year, and it is considered as certain that some years the
duties have not exceeded twelve thousand. In regard to this truth,
as a point so worthy of consideration--and of which this city council
ought to take so much notice, as it is the body whom the increase
of the royal revenues to their possible extent concerns so fully--we
refer to what shall appear from the amounts of the said duties which
the Sangleys now for twenty years have put into the royal treasury,
and to those which the Portuguese have put in from the year six hundred
and nineteen, the goods which they have generally brought being valued
at about one million and a half, defrauding to a greater sum the said
import and export duties so rightfully due his Majesty.

The fourth matter that must be considered for the greater proof of the
aforesaid statement is, the quickness of the voyage from the said city
of Macan to this of Manila, since it can be made in twelve days or a
fortnight (or in one week, as has al