[239] “A three per cent duty was imposed in the Filipinas on merchandise, for the payment of the troops.  We order that part of the law to be observed, but that pertaining to the other things paid from those duties to be repealed.”  Anover, August 9, 1589. (Ley xxii.)

“We ordain that the Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, Borneans, and all other foreigners, who go to the ports of the Filipinas Islands, pay no duty on food, supplies, and materials that they take to those islands, and that this law be kept in the form in w, hich it may have been introduced, and not otherwise.”  Anover, August 9, 1589. (Ley xxiv.)

“On the Chinese merchandise and that from other countries, shipped to Nueva Espana by way of Filipinas, an impost ad valorem tax of ten per cent shall be collected, based on their value in the ports and regions where the goods shall be discharged.  This tax shall be imposed mildly according to the rule, and shall be a tax additional to that usually paid on departure both from the said Filipinas Islands and from the provinces of Nueva Espana, to any other places where they may and shall be taken.”  El Pardo, November 1, 1591. (Ley xxi.)

“We order that the duty of three per cent collected in the Filipinas Islands on the merchandise taken thither by the Chinese be increased by another three per cent.”  El Pardo, November 20, 1606. (Ley xxiii.) The above laws are from Recopilacion de leyes, lib. viii, tit. xv.

[240] The agave (Agave americana; the maguey of Mexico) is found in the Philippines, and is called pita, but Delgado and Blanco think that it was not indigenous there.  Its fibers were used in former times for making the native textile called nipis, manufactured in the Visayas.  As used in the text, pita means, apparently, some braid or other ornament of agave fibers.

[241] The ducado of Castilla was worth slightly more than two pesos.—­Rizal.

[242] These imposts and fetters, which the products of the country did not escape, are still [1890] in force, so that foreign markets must be sought, since the markets of the mother-country offer no greater advantages.  According to a document of 1640, this commerce netted the government 350,000 pesos annually.—­Rizal.

[243] The salary is now [1890] 40,000 pesos.—­Rizal.

[244] Recopilacion de leyes (lib. iv, tit. i, ley v) outlines the governor’s and Audiencia’s power in regard to conquests by private individuals, as follows:  “We grant permission to the governor and president of the Filipinas Islands and its Audiencia to make contracts for new explorations and conquests [pacificaciones] with persons, who are willing to covenant to do it at their own expense and not at that of our royal treasury; and to give them the titles of captains and masters-of-camp, but not those of adelantados [i.e., governors] and marshals.  Those contracts and agreements such