ate
of inaction in which they now live, and the relations of the colony
will then assume the course and extent corresponding to its advantages
of position. At least, if our national merchants should not act up
to the impulse given to all kinds of mercantile enterprises by the
beneficial hand of the sovereign, foreigners will not be wanting, who,
relying on due toleration, will be induced to convey their fortunes
and families to the Philippine Islands, and, vigorously encouraging
the exportation of their valuable productions, amply secure the fruits
of their laudable activity and well-combined speculations.

[Capital employed in commerce.] Were a person, judging from the
numbers constituting the body of registered merchants, and supposing
all of them to possess the essential requisites prescribed by our
commercial regulations, to form a prudent estimate of the amount of
capital employed by them, his calculations would turn out extremely
erroneous, for besides the case with which regulations of this kind
are eluded, many are merely nominal traders, and there are others whose
mercantile existence is purely artificial for they are sustained in a
temporary manner, by means of a forced species of circulation peculiar
to this country. This consists in obtaining the acquiescence of the
administrators of pious and charitable funds, let out at interest,
to renew the bonds they hold during other successive risks, waiting,
as it were, till some fatal tempest has swallowed up the vessel in
which these merchants suppose their property to be embarked, and
at once cancel all their obligations. On the other hand, neither
excessive expenses nor the shipment of large quantities of goods to
Acapulco can in any way be taken as a just criterion whereby to judge
of the fortunes of individuals; because, in the first, there is great
uniformity, every one, more or less, enjoying, exteriorly, the same
easy circumstances, notwithstanding the disparity of real property;
and in the second, considerable fiction prevails, many persons
shipping under the same mark, and even when the shipper stands alone,
he might have been provided with the necessary funds from the pious
and charitable establishments, possibly without risking a dollar
of his own in the whole operation. Under circumstances so dubious,
far from presuming to give a decided opinion on the subject, I am
compelled to judge from mere conjectures, and guided only by the
knowledge and experien