ing, he would avoid, if it were possible. Having considered
everything, what the visitor writes has much force with the fiscal,
and persuades him that it is expedient and necessary to consult
with his Majesty regarding this letter--so that, having examined its
contents, and that, besides, which the council shall advise, he may
be pleased to order what may be most to the welfare of his vassals,
in whose conservation consists his best service; and approving the
mild method pointed out by the visitor (of which he availed himself,
in order that the trade might not cease, with the obvious danger of
greater loss), he concurs in everything, and thus petitions. Madrid,
September six, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five.

Don Juan Grao y Monfalcon, procurator-general of the distinguished and
loyal city of Manila, metropolis and capital of the Filipinas Islands,
in answer to what was said and alleged by his Majesty's fiscal to the
memorial and arguments which he has presented, in order that the effort
for the collection of the two per cent may cease and be abandoned,
declares that your Majesty, in heeding the arguments that he has
presented in another memorial, does not give up nor is he excluded
from what is alleged on the other side. On the contrary he expressly
recognizes (a fact that cannot be denied) the justification and urgent
reasons that are necessary and unavoidable, which strenuously oblige
to what the said city has entreated. In the name of the city, he
accepts what is said and alleged in its favor by the said fiscal. But
inasmuch as the fiscal mentions his approbation of the method which
the visitor approves--and of which he availed himself, so that the
said trade might not cease, which, he says with good reason, would be
of greater loss--and says that with the said method everything would
turn out well, he excludes the condition that it will not provide
for everything, but only for the effort to enforce the said duty of
two per cent. The difficulty would remain present, and the reasons
and arguments of the said city be as if they were not; and it and
its commerce would be left without any remedy, or means to preserve
itself. Nor is there nor can there be considered any difference of
opinion in the necessity that is mentioned of the royal treasury;
for, although this necessity is great, the contention of the said city
concerns not necessity, but the limits of impossibility. Consequently,
[the interests of] the c