ready happened), and the short time
that they spend in this city selling their goods. Those were causes
which could ensure the success of the contract which the citizens of
this city have offered to make with them, several years--namely, to
give them forty per cent clear profit upon the first cost which they
[_i.e._, the Portuguese] had invested. But as the Portuguese have
always beheld themselves powerful and masters of the said trade,
they have always refused to accept it--from which one can infer the
great gains which they have made and are making in the trade, since,
in short, more than sixty per cent [profit] has now to be given for
everything. That is a hardship which sufficiently accounts for the
present condition of the inhabitants of this city who are afflicted
with the many troubles which attend them by reason of the said
diminution of their wealth; and for the total ruin of others, who
see themselves dispossessed of what they had. For that reason they
make no further investments, because they have not the wherewithal.

Fifth, it ought to be considered how long and dangerous is the voyage
from these islands to the said Nueva Espana, and the heavy costs and
expenses caused by the investments; while the returns for what is
sent from here are not received even if good fortune attend them,
except at the end of two years, and sometimes more.

Sixth, that with the coming of the said Portuguese and ships from the
city of Macan to this of Manila, the commerce and trade which the
Sangley merchants of China usually carried on every year with this
city has ceased, because of the keen intelligence which the Portuguese
have employed in preventing it. That they have succeeded in doing,
entirely by means of a very astute plan which they have followed,
by taking to the annual fairs which are usually held at Canton so
many thousands of pesos to invest and to bring to this city, as, in
short, has already been said. In that way the Chinese sell them all
that they want, at a profit of twenty-five or thirty per cent. That
arrangement is so agreeable to the Sangleys, with the said profit in
their own land and without trouble, that they have ceased to come to
this city as they did formerly, risking the capital which they brought
hither. This has been aided greatly by the Portuguese persuading the
said Sangleys that the wealth of the inhabitants of this city is very
nigh gone, and to so great an extent that they cannot find an outle