Appendix:  Buying and Selling Prices of Oriental Products

[The first list of prices that follows is from a compilation by the procurator of the Philippines, Martin Castanos, and is taken from a relation of Governor Juan de Silva entitled:]

Relation of the importance of the Filipinas and Terrenate

The Malucas Islands yield from year to year four thousand four hundred bars of cloves.  Each bar is six hundred and forty libras.  If his Majesty would make himself master of this, as well as of the nutmeg and mace, and establish his factories—­in Yndia, in Ormuz, [57] for the nations who come from all Asia to trade for it; and in Lisboa, for Europa and the Yndias—­it would be worth [from one year to another?] three million seven hundred pesos at the least, as I reckon it; because in India each libra of cloves is worth at Ormuz one peso, and in Lisboa a greater sum, while in the West Yndias it is worth more than two pesos. [58] Averaging them all together, it will be equivalent to ten reals per libra, which will amount to three million five hundred and twenty thousand pesos....  It will cost his Majesty to buy the cloves, in cloth, silks, and other things which the natives value, eighty thousand pesos; while the navigation and the pay of the factors will amount to one hundred and twenty thousand, all amounting to two hundred and thirty thousand pesos.  Consequently, there will be a clear profit on the cloves of three million two hundred and ninety thousand pesos.

The nutmegs and mace when delivered in Europa cost the Dutch five hundred and twenty thousand pesos annually.  The purchase, navigation, and [pay of] factors amount to one hundred and ten thousand pesos.  Consequently, the net gain on the nutmeg and mace is four hundred and ten thousand pesos.  That added to the profit of the cloves amounts to three million seven hundred thousand pesos.

His Majesty can make a profit of two millions annually on the silks of China in this way—­that a ship of two hundred toneladas’ burden go each year with the ships from Filipinas to Nueva Espana, with these silks, which cost the following prices.

One thousand picos of spun and raw silk of Changuei, [59] each pico containing one hundred and thirty libras, and costing two hundred pesos, amount to two hundred thousand pesos.

Ten thousand pieces of Canton satin, at a cost of five pesos, amount to fifty thousand pesos.

Ten thousand pieces of damask, at four pesos, amount to forty thousand pesos.

Twenty thousand pieces of gorgoran, at a cost of one and one-half pesos, amount to thirty thousand pesos.

Thirty thousand varas of velvet in colors, at one-half peso, amount to fifteen thousand pesos.

These silks cost three hundred and thirty-five thousand pesos.  They will, with the condescension of his Majesty, be taken to Peru (as is done, that other silks of China may not be taken from Nueva Espana), and are sold at Lima at the following prices.