Note 2 — Instructions to Gomez Perez Dasmarinas

9. I have also been petitioned, in the name of the said city, to order that neither in the said city nor in any other part of the other islands shall be paid the three per cent duty2 imposed by Don Gonzalo Ronquillo, as the country is very new and needy, and the inhabitants have to assist in many other things. Although I would be very glad to relieve them, still expenses are so heavy, that I must aid myself by whatever is available. Therefore it will be advisable to collect the said three per cent. You shall give orders to this effect; and that the amount that is collected from these duties on merchandise be placed in my treasury on a separate account, and it shall be used for paying the soldiers stationed there; and that of the rest that is collected this duty be discontinued for the present.3