and the mates $9,000 each. [103] The pay of the sailors was three hundred and fifty dollars, of which seventy-five dollars was advanced before the start.  The merchants expected to clear one hundred and fifty to two hundred per cent.  The passenger fare at the end of the eighteenth century was $1,000 for the voyage to Acapulco, which was the hardest, and $500 for the return. [104] Careri’s voyage to Acapulco lasted two hundred and four days.  The ordinary time for the voyage to Manila was seventy-five to ninety days. [105] Careri’s description of his voyage is a vivid picture of the hardships of early ocean travel, when cabin passengers fared infinitely worse than cattle today.  It was a voyage “which is enough to destroy a man, or make him unfit for anything as long as he lives;” yet there were those who “ventured through it, four, six and some ten times.” [106]

Acapulco in New Spain had little reason for existence, save for the annual fair at the time of the arrival of the Manila ship, and the silver fleet from Peru.  That event transformed what might more properly be called “a poor village of fishermen” into “a populous city,” for the space of about two weeks. [107]

The commerce between the Philippines and Mexico was conducted in this manner from 1604 to 1718, when the silk manufacturers of Spain secured the prohibition of the importation of Chinese silk goods into New Spain on account of the decline of their industry.  A prolonged struggle before the Council of the Indies ensued, and in 1734 the prohibition was revoked and the east and west cargoes fixed at $500,000 and $1,000,000 respectively. [108] The last nao, as the Manila-Acapulco galleon was called, sailed from Manila in 1811, and the final return voyage was made in 1815.  After that the commerce fell into private hands, the annual exports were limited to $750,000 and the ports of San Blas (Mexico), Guayaquil (Ecuador), and Callao (Peru) were opened to it.

Other changes were the establishment of direct communication with Spain and trade with Europe by a national vessel in 1766. [109] These expeditions lasted till 1783 and their place was taken in 1785 by the Royal Philippine Company, organized with a capital of $8,000,000, and granted the monopoly of the trade between Spain and the islands. [110] The Manila merchants resented the invasion of their monopoly of the export trade, and embarrassed the operations of the company as much as they could. [111] It ceased to exist in 1830.

By this system for two centuries the South American market for manufactures was reserved exclusively for Spain, but the protection did not prevent Spanish industry from decay and did retard the well-being and progress of South America.  Between Mexico and the Philippines a limited trade was allowed, the profits of which were the perquisites of the Spaniards living in the Philippines and contributed to the religious endowments.  But this monopoly was of no permanent