In the ships of last year, and by way of Yndia, I informed your
Majesty how expedient it was to charge five per cent duty on the
silver and reals that are sent annually from Nueva Espana, as no
remedy has been found whereby that commerce can be adjusted to the
permission of only five hundred thousand pesos, which your Majesty
has conceded to these islands. Past times can ill be compared with
the present; and granting the accidents which oblige the viceroys of
Nueva Espana not to practice the rigor which they themselves make the
governors of Philipinas overlook, and considering the present thing,
and watching out for the greater service of your Majesty, I am grieved
because the royal officials of the ships enjoy this advantage--which
as I have seen, amounts to more than one hundred thousand pesos per
year--and, notwithstanding this new tax, the inconvenience of the
quantities of money passing from those regions will increase; for it
is most certain that those to whom belongs the trade of Philipinas
always find a way by which to attain their objects; and because the
viceroy of Mexico undertook to check it this year, by only threats,
the inhabitants of these islands are ruined and left without their
capital, which remained in Nueva Espana.
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