o Manila the said merchandise for which they
trade in China, imposing therefor heavy penalties of confiscation,
and others more severe in case of violation. By this the royal
treasury will receive great benefit and increase, and avoid the so
considerable injury and loss that has been set forth; and the said
city and its inhabitants will receive an especial favor and grace,
as is hoped from the greatness and the royal authority of your Majesty.

Further, he besought your Majesty to have filed with this memorial the
letters which were in the secretary's office, written by the governor
and Audiencia in regard to what is represented in the memorial; so
that after the whole has been examined, the decision most fitting to
the service of your Majesty and the preservation of those islands may
be made. And that the great troubles that follow from the aforesaid
may be seen, he petitions that an examination he ordered to be made
of the memorial of seventeen articles which was presented by Jusepe
de Naveda, regidor of that city.

_Decree of our sovereign King Don Felipe Second, by which it is
prohibited that any one go to China to buy merchandise from the
Chinese; but the latter must go to the city of Manila to carry them,
and sell them at their own cost and risk_--_in which decree are to
be included the Portuguese of Macan._

The King. To Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, my governor and captain-general
of the Philipinas Islands, and any other person who shall hereafter
serve in the said office: know that I have been informed that many
persons of those islands are going to Macan and other ports of China
to trade and traffic with the Chinese for the profit that results
from it. From that result higher prices for the merchandise, and other
notable inconveniences. And as it is fitting that a remedy be applied
in this matter, I have determined to prohibit and to order--as I do
by this present prohibit, forbid, and order--that no person, now and
henceforth, shall trade or traffic in any part of China; nor shall
any merchandise, on account of the merchants of the said islands, be
carried or permitted to be carried from that kingdom to the islands,
unless the Chinese themselves, at their own account and risk, shall
carry it to the said islands, and sell it therein by wholesale. For
this, you, together with the city council of the city of Manila,
shall appoint each two or three persons whom you shall consider most
suitable to value and appra