I do not merit being aided as they were, or cannot be aided because of the inclemency of the weather, your Majesty will be pleased to use me in another place where the employment and attainment of my desires is not impossible through the lack of cooeperation and outside aid.  May God preserve the Catholic royal person of your Majesty with the increase that we, your vassals, desire, and which Christendom needs.  Manila, August 4, 1628.  Sire, your Majesty’s humble vassals,

Don Juan Nino de Tavora

[In the margin:  “Seen.  Have the viceroy charged to be very punctual in this.”]

ECONOMIC REASONS FOR SUPPRESSING THE SILK TRADE OF CHINA IN SPAIN AND ITS COLONIES

Reasons of expediency existing why the importation of the silk of China and the other merchandise of that country ought not to be permitted in the Indias and these kingdoms, but rather prohibited; and the damages and troubles that follow from its not being prohibited in every point, and its trade, are the following.

It is very pernicious to permit the importation of the silk of China and its trade, both in the Indias and in Espana.  For although not more than two hundred and fifty thousand pesos de Tipuzque can be taken from Nueva Espana to the Filipinas annually, besides that sum another incalculable quantity of money is taken in reals of eight; for the said silk can be bought or traded for nothing else, nor will the Chinese give or exchange it for other merchandise.  Consequently, they manage to get hold of and carry away annually the greater part of the eight-real pieces which are made in the said Nueva Espana, in exchange for grass, which is the substance of that coarse and harsh silk which is so plentiful among the Chinese. [53] Thus do they weaken our strength and increase their own; and consequently they can make war on us whenever they wish, without any cost to them as far as we are concerned.  And since this money does not come to Espana, it cannot be invested there in merchandise, and the customs duties and the excise duty cannot be collected from them; and they cannot return with a greater sum of money with which to make larger investments, resulting in the great increase of the said royal incomes, and the common benefit of his Majesty’s vassals.  Besides, if that silk were not taken from China to Nueva Espana, it would not be used there; nor would it be poured into Piru and Tierra Firme, as is done.  For, notwithstanding the prohibition established forbidding any merchandise to be taken there from China, a very large quantity of it is taken to the said provinces from Nueva Espana, and it is used there—­the viceroys, generals, and justices concealing and favoring it for their own private interest and benefit.  For that reason much less Spanish merchandise is used in the said Piru and Tierra Firme than was formerly consumed, and than would be used if the merchandise of China