st, or when summoned for some particular object.

[Export taxes.] The exports of the colony were almost entirely
limited to its raw produce, which was burdened with an export duty
of three per cent. Exports leaving under the Spanish flag were only
taxed to the amount of one per cent.; but, as scarcely any export
trade existed with Spain, and as Spanish vessels, from their high
rates of freight, were excluded from the carrying trade of the world,
the boon to commerce was a delusive one. [16]

[Laws drove away trade.] These inept excise laws, hampered with a
hundred suspicious forms, frightened away the whole carrying trade
from the port; and its commission merchants were frequently unable
to dispose of the local produce. So trifling was the carrying trade
that the total yearly average of the harbor dues, calculated from
the returns of ten years, barely reached $10,000.

[Manila's favorable location.] The position of Manila, a central
point betwixt Japan, China, Annam, the English and Dutch ports of
the Archipelago and Australia, is in itself extremely favorable
to the development of a world-wide trade. [17] At the time of the
north-eastern monsoons, during our winter, when vessels for the sake of
shelter pass through the Straits of Gilolo on their way from the Indian
Archipelago to China, they are obliged to pass close to Manila. They
would find it a most convenient station, for the Philippines, as we
have already mentioned, are particularly favorably placed for the
west coast of America.

[The 1869 reform.] A proof that the Spanish Ultramar minister fully
recognizes and appreciates these circumstances appears in his decree,
of April 5, 1869, which is of the highest importance for the future
of the colony. It probably would have been issued earlier had not the
Spanish and colonial shipowners, pampered by the protective system,
obstinately struggled against an innovation which impaired their
former privileges and forced them to greater activity.

[Bettered conditions.] The most noteworthy points of the decree are
the moderation of the differential duties, and their entire extinction
at the expiration of two years; the abrogation of all export duties;
and the consolidation of the more annoying port dues into one single
charge.

[Pre-Spanish foreign commerce.] When the Spaniards landed in the
Philippines they found the inhabitants clad in silks and cotton stuffs,
which were imported by Chinese ships to exchange for