In an appendix to this volume are presented several short papers which constitute a brief epitome of early seventeenth-century commerce in the Far East—­entitled “Buying and selling prices of Oriental products.”  Martin Castanos, procurator-general of Filipinas, endeavors to show that the spices of Malucas and the silks of China, handled through Manila, ought to bring the Spanish crown an annual net income of nearly six million pesos.  Another paper shows the extent and value of the trade carried on with Japan by the Portuguese at Macao; and another, the kind of commerce maintained by those enterprising traders with the countries of southern Asia from the Moluccas to Arabia.  All these enumerate the various kinds of goods, the buying and selling prices of most articles, the rate of profit, etc.

The Editors

September, 1904.

Documents of 1620

    Reforms needed in the Filipinas (concluded).  Hernando de los Rios
    Coronel; [1619-20]. 
    Letter to Alonso de Escovar.  Francisco de Otaco, S.J.; January 14. 
    Decree ordering reforms in the friars’ treatment of the
    Indians.  Felipe iii; May 29. 
    Relation of events in the Philipinas Islands, 1619-20. [Unsigned];
    June 14. 
    Compulsory service by the Indians.  Pedro de Sant Pablo, O.S.F.;
    August 7. 
    Letter from the Audiencia to Felipe iii.  Hieronimo Legaspi de
    Cheverria, and others; August 8. 
    Letter to Felipe iii.  Alonso Fajardo de Tenza; August 15. 
    Letter to Alonso Fajardo de Tenza.  Felipe iii; December 13.

Sources:  All of these documents, except the second, fourth, and eighth, are obtained from the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla.  The second and fourth are from the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid; and the eighth from the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid.

Translations:  The second and fourth are translated by Herbert E. Bolton, Ethel Z. Rather, and Mattie A. Austen, of the University of Texas; the eighth by Robert W. Haight; and the remainder by James A. Robertson.

Reforms Needed in the Filipinas (concluded)

Aid against the Dutch requested

Sire: 

Hernando de los Rios Coronel, procurator-general of the Filipinas Islands and of all their estates, declares that he came the past year to inform your Majesty and your royal Council of the Indias, in the name of those islands, of the desperate condition to which the Dutch enemy have brought them.  Desiring that your Majesty understand the importance of the matter, he gave you a long printed relation in which he discussed points important for their recovery from the enemy and the expulsion of the latter from that archipelago.  Your Majesty, upon seeing it, ordered a fleet to be prepared; but that fleet was so unfortunate as to