ta_) was not to be
transferable, except to _poor widows_. A sworn invoice of the shipment
was to be sent to the royal officials and magistrate of the Supreme
Court of Mexico for the value to be verified. The official in charge,
or supercargo, was ordered to make a book containing a list of the
goods and their respective owners, and to hand this to the commander of
the fortress in Acapulco, with a copy of the same for the Viceroy. The
Viceroy was to send his copy to the Audit Office to be again copied,
and the last copy was to be forwarded to the Royal Indian Council.

Every soldier, sailor, and officer was at liberty to disembark with a
box containing goods of which the Philippine value should not exceed
P30, in addition to his private effects. All hidden goods were to be
confiscated, one-half to the Royal Treasury, one-fourth to the Judge
intervening, and one-fourth to the informer; but, if such confiscated
goods amounted to P50,000 in value, the Viceroy and Mexican Council
were to determine the sum to be awarded to the Judge and the informer.

If the shipment met a good market and realized more than 1,000,000
pesos, only 1,000,000 could be remitted in money, and the excess
in duty-paid Mexican merchandise. If the shipment failed to fetch
1,000,000, the difference could not be sent in money for making new
purchases. (The same restriction as in the decree of 1720.)

The object of these measures was to prevent Mexicans supplying
trading capital to the Philippines instead of purchasing Peninsula
manufactures. It was especially enacted that all goods sent to Mexico
from the Philippines should have been purchased with the capital
of the Philippine shippers, and be their exclusive property without
lien. If it were discovered that on the return journey of the galleon
merchandise was carried to the Philippines belonging to the Mexicans,
it was to be confiscated, and a fine imposed on the interested parties
of three times the value, payable to the Royal Treasury, on the first
conviction. The second conviction entailed confiscation of all the
culprits' goods and banishment from Mexico for 10 years.

The weights and measures of the goods shipped were to be Philippine,
and, above all, wax was to be sent in pieces of precisely the same
weight and size as by custom established.

The Council for freight allotment in Manila was to comprise the
Governor, the senior Magistrate, and, failing this latter, the
Minister of the Supreme