t
even for all the goods which they bring; and that, for that reason,
they give trust for the greater part of it--a thing that has never
happened, nor been done, for they have always received money, and
the value for everything that they have sold. To that is added also
that the said Portuguese have been wont to frighten the said Sangley
traders by telling them of the danger that they will experience in
their coming because of the Dutch pirates and the fleets of bancons
[29] with which some of the Chinese nation themselves go about
committing depredations along those coasts. At the same time they have
represented to the Chinese the heavy dues that they pay here, and the
injuries that are inflicted upon them in this city, notwithstanding
that they have [not] known that the Chinese have any complaint of
this. All is with the purpose of turning them from any design that
they have had of coming to this city with merchandise; for they fear
that if the Chinese did so it would result in impairing their trade
[30] and discrediting that which the said Portuguese hold so firmly.

The seventh is in regard to the Chinese merchants who refuse to sell
their goods in Canton to the said Portuguese of Macan, saying that
they prefer to bring them at their own cost and risk to this city
in their champans to sell them to the inhabitants of this city,
and to enjoy in their entirety the profits and gain which they
can thereby get. In order to dissuade these men from that purpose
and resolve which they have had, the said Portuguese have offered
(as many Chinese merchants who have come to this city this present
year have said) for the sake of peace to bring the goods of the
said Sangleys to this city at their own account and risk in order to
sell them here--as they could do, if they should carry them--making
a contract, by which for their administration [of this business]
they were to get five per cent. That has been seen now for two years,
during which they brought in this way more than one hundred and fifty
thousand pesos on account of Sangley merchants of Canton. They also
take the funds of the Chinese to make a return at so much per cent,
and bring it to this city, so that the Sangleys may not come here with
the said goods. That is a well known fact, and has been learned from
some of the Portuguese of Macan themselves. The said Portuguese make
those efforts in order to have the monopoly for themselves of the
merchandise brought to this ci