last two years they have owed his Majesty two
hundred thousand ducados. It will be impossible to pay that sum and
what shall be owing in the future years, as long as the importation
and sale of that foreign silk is not prohibited. But if that be done,
the production will be increased, and the trade and value [of the
Spanish silk] will return to its former figure. By that benefit all
the producers will be encouraged to persevere in it, and will cause
greater duties, not only for the larger amount of silk that there will
be, but in the excise duty for the consumption of food. The producers
will have the means to pay what they owe on the annuities that are due
and will fall due. And although the silks will be dearer than now, the
greater durability of what will be made from them, because of their
good quality and worth, will make them cheaper. For if the Chinese
silk is not imported, nor ours mixed with it (which is the thing that
spoils, harms, and damages ours), what is woven will never break,
and will not be dear at any price. The money [now] invested in the silk
of China and taken to that country will come to these kingdoms, and
will be invested in our silks and merchandise and the returns from them
will continue to increase both in the increase of the royal revenues,
and in the universal welfare of his Majesty's vassals. Thus will it
be seen in a very short time how well advised has been the decision
that will be made in the prohibition of the said silks of China, as
well as the great damage that its importation has caused. Besides,
the danger of navigation will not be so great, because of both its
less distance and its greater safety; nor will there be so many losses
of ships and property as there arc continually now. This trade will
proceed with less coercion by the enemies; consequently, the power of
the latter will not be so great, nor will the depredations that they
commit on our own coasts by robbing us have to be feared. That is all
worth very considerable thought, in order that one may see how just is
this claim, and so that the remedy for this difficulty be procured,
as it is the one that demands reform most urgently of all that now
present themselves to our attention.

_Juan Velazquez Madrco_

[_Endorsed in writing_: [55] "Arguments why the silk of China should
not be admitted into the Yndias or into Espana. October 7, 628." "File
it with the papers that treat of this matter."]

DECREES REGARD