antity of cloth is
used--far more, as it seems to this witness, than the number stated
in the question; and he is very certain that, if this tendency is not
checked and corrected, the price of every one of these stuffs will in
a few years be doubled; for now even the cheapest costs not less than
a peso. For the natives of these islands do not accumulate wealth,
but spend it all in food and clothing; and as none of the natives,
however high his rank may be, needs more than two or three pieces
of cloth in a year, in order to avoid the labor of weaving them,
and so that they can spend their time in idleness, they prefer to
buy them from the Sangleys, whether they are cheap or dear, paying
without hesitation or heed whatever price is asked. The result is that
everything is growing much dearer; for a piece of cloth which at first
usually cost, on the average, three or four reals, as already stated,
now costs ten reals, and, unless this rise is checked, will very soon
cost twenty--and this for the reasons mentioned in the question. These
matters should be considered, and some corrective be found, to avoid
further difficulties. Thus did he reply to this question.

To the third question he replied that, for the reasons mentioned in
the preceding question, considerable damage has been and is suffered,
and, unless some check and remedy is applied, will continue to be
suffered in these islands, by the Spaniards and by the inhabitants
of the country, both Spaniards and natives, and especially to the
injury of his Majesty's service; this damage consisting in the
fact that while the Chinese formerly took away from these islands,
in exchange for their merchandise which they bring from their own
country, at the most from twenty thousand to thirty thousand pesos in
money, at the present day--as all the natives are extravagant enough
to buy their clothing, since they can dispense with making it--these
merchants take from the country all the money stated in the question,
and even more. This money they take out of his Majesty's dominions
to their own country, whence it never returns. And this might be
prevented if the natives were forbidden to buy the said clothing,
and would dress in the stuffs which they formerly were accustomed to
wear. This was his answer to this question.

In reply to the fourth question he stated that, before the coming of
the Spaniards, all the natives lived in their villages, applying
themselves to the sowing of