of
dollars in a smuggled way, it must be acknowledged that it is the
harshness of the law which compels the merchant to become a smuggler;
for according to the strange regulation by which he is thwarted in the
returns representing the proceeds of his outward operation, he must
either bring the money to the Philippine Islands without having it
declared on the ship's papers, or be obliged to leave the greatest
part of it in the hands of others, subject to such contingencies
as happen in trade. As long, therefore, as the present limitations
subsist, which only authorize returns equal to double the value of
the outward-bound cargo, this species of contraband will inevitably
continue. The governors also, actuated by the principles of reason
and natural justice, will, as they have hitherto done, wink at the
infraction of the fiscal laws; a forbearance, in fact, indirectly
beneficial to them, inasmuch as it eventually contributes to the
general improvement of the colony. Indeed, without this species of
judicious condescension, trade would soon stand still for the want
of the necessary funds to carry it on.

[Unbusinesslike custom ways.] .... It will readily be acknowledged
that, in like manner as the good organization of custom houses is
favorable to the progress of general commerce, so nothing is more
injurious to its growth and the enterprise of merchants, than any
uncertainty or arbitrary conduct in the levying of duties to be
paid by them. This arises out of the circumstance of every merchant,
entering on a new speculation, being anxious to have, as the principal
ground work of his combinations, a perfect knowledge of the exact
amount of his disbursements, in order to be enabled to calculate the
final result with some degree of certainty. Considered in this point
of view, the system adopted in the Islands is certainly deplorable,
since it must be acknowledged that the principles and common rules of
all other commercial countries, are there unknown. For example; this
year a cargo arrives from China or Bengal, and the captain turns in
his manifest. The custom-house surveyors then commence the valuation
of the goods of which his cargo is composed: I say they commence,
because it is a common thing for them not to have finished the estimate
of the scale and amount of corresponding duties, till the expiration
of two, four, and not unfrequently six months. The rule they affect to
follow, in this valuation, is that of the prices