t with which commercial
operations are attended, as well as the difficulty of calculating
their fluctuations. On the other hand, as in order to send off an
expedition by the annual ship to Acapulco, the previous consent
of the majority of the incorporated merchants is necessary, before
this point is decided, months are passed in intrigues and disputes,
the peremptory period arrives, and if the articles wanted are in the
market, they are purchased up with precipitation and paid for with
the monies the shippers have been able to obtain at an interest from
the administrators of pious and charitable funds. In this manner,
compelled to act almost always without plan or concert, yet accustomed
to gain in the market of Acapulco, notwithstanding so many impediments
and the exorbitant premiums paid for the money lent, these merchants
follow the strange maxim of risking little or no property of their
own; and unaware, or rather, disregarding the importance of economy
in the expenses and regularity of their general method of living,
it is not possible they can ever accumulate large fortunes, or form
solid and well-accredited houses.

[Merchants discouraged.] Thus oppressed by a system, as unjust as it
is absurd, and conducting their affairs in the way above described,
it is not strange that these gentlemen, at the same time yielding to
the indolence consequent on the climate, should neglect or behold with
indifference all the other secondary resources which the supplying
the wants of the country and the extensive scope and variety of its
produce offer to the man of active mind. Hence it follows, as already
observed, that the whole of the interior trade is at present absorbed
by the principal natives, the Sangley mestizos of both sexes, and a
few Chinese peddlers.

[The outlook brightening.] Notwithstanding, however, the defective
manner in which the generality of the merchants act, some already
are beginning to distinguish themselves by the prudence of their
conduct, by forwarding, in time, their orders to the manufacturers
of India and China, and, in other respects guiding themselves by the
principles which characterize the intelligent merchant. Finally, it
is to be presumed that, as soon as the government shall have thrown
down this singular and preposterous system that has been the cause of
so many disorders, and proclaimed the unlimited freedom of Philippine
commerce, the greater part of these people will rise up from the st