and even their selling
price. As this was usually double the original cost, the permission
to ship goods to a certain amount was equivalent, under ordinary
circumstances, to the bestowal of a present of a like value. These
permissions or licenses (boletas) were, at a later period, usually
granted to pensioners and officers' widows, and to officials, in lieu
of an increase of salary; these favorites were forbidden, however,
to make a direct use of them, for to trade with Acapulco was the
sole right of those members of the Consulado (a kind of chamber of
commerce) who could prove a long residence in the country and the
possession of a capital of at least $8,000.

[Evasion of regulations.] Legentil, the astronomer, gives a full
description of the regulations which prevailed in his day and the
manner in which they were disobeyed. The cargo consisted of a thousand
bales, each composed of four packets, [28] the maximum value of each
packet being fixed at $250. It was impossible to increase the amount of
bales, but they pretty generally consisted of more than four packets,
and their value so far exceeded the prescribed limits, that a boleta
was considered to be worth from $200 to $225. The officials took good
care that no goods should be smuggled on board without a boleta. These
were in such demand, that, at a later period, Comyn [29] saw people
pay $500 for the right to ship goods, the value of which scarcely
amounted to $1,000. The merchants usually borrowed the money for these
undertakings from the obras pias, charitable foundations, which, up
to our own time, fulfil in the Islands the purposes of banks. [30]
In the early days of the trade, the galleon used to leave Cavite in
July and sail with a south-westerly wind beyond the tropics, until
it met with a west wind at the thirty-eighth or [Route outward.]
fortieth parallel. [31] Later on the vessels were ordered to leave
Cavite with the first south-westerly winds to sail along the south
coast of Luzon, through San Bernardino straits, and to continue along
the thirteenth parallel of north latitude [32] as far to the east as
possible, until the north-easterly trade wind compelled them to seek a
north-west breeze in higher latitudes. They were then obliged to try
the thirtieth parallel as long as possible, instead of, as formerly,
the thirty-seventh. The captain of the galleon was not permitted
to sail immediately northward, although to have done so would have
procured him a