an infinite number of streams and lakes descending
from the provinces by which the capital is surrounded, the produce and
effects are daily brought in and go out of suburbs so extended in a
diversity of small vessels and canoes, without its being possible to
obtain any exact account of the multiplicity of transactions carried
on at one and the same time, in a city built on so large a scale.

[Local markets.] Besides the traffic founded on ordinary consumption,
the necessity of obtaining assortments of home-manufactured as well
as imported goods, in order to supply the markets, known by the name
of tianguis, and which are held weekly in almost every town, there
is another species of speculation, peculiar to the rich natives
and Sangley mestizos, an industrious race, and also possessed of
the largest portion of the specie. This consists in the anticipated
purchase of the crops of indigo, sugar, rice, etc., with a view to fix
their own prices on the produce thus contracted for, when resold to the
second hand. A propensity to barter and traffic, in all kinds of ways,
is indeed universal among the natives, and as the principal springs
which urge on internal circulation are already in motion, nothing
more is wanting than at once to destroy the obstacles previously
pointed out, and encourage the extension of luxury and comforts,
in order that, by the number of the people's wants being increased,
as well as the means of supplying them, the force and velocity of
action may in the same proportion be augmented.

[External commerce.] Under "External Commerce" generally are comprised
the relations the Philippine Islands keep up with other nations, with
the Spanish possessions in America, and with the mother country; or,
in other words, the sum total of their imports and exports.

[Outside deterrents.] Many are the causes which, within the last
ten or twelve years, have influenced the mercantile relations of
these Islands, and prevented their organization on permanent and
known principles. The chief one, no doubt, has been the frequent and
unforeseen changes, from peace to war, which have marked that unhappy
period, and as under similar circumstances merchants, more than
any other class of persons, are in the habit of acting on extremes,
there have been occasions in which, misled by the exaggerated idea
of the galleon of Acapulco, and anxious to avail themselves of the
first prices, generally also the highest, foreign speculators h