Note 1 — Two Letters from Domingo de Salazar to Felipe II

Don Phelippe, by the grace of God, King of Castilla, Leon, Aragon, the two Sicilies, Jherusalem, Portugal, Mallorca, Sevilla, Cerdeña, Cordova, Corçega, Murçia, Jaem, the Algarves, Algezira, Gibraltar, the islands of Canaria, the Eastern and Western Yndias, and the islands and mainland of the Ocean Sea; Archduke of Austria; Duke of Borgoña, Bravante, and Milan; Count of Habspurg, Flandes, Tirol, and Barzelona; Seignior of Vizcaya and Molino, etc. Inasmuch as I have been informed1 by the city of Manila in the Philippinas Islands that the great consignments of money sent by the wealthy from Nueva España, for investment in Chinese merchandise and that of other countries, have caused ruin to that country; and that the factors and others taking part in the said trade buy the goods at wholesale prices, and raise the price of all the merchandise, so that the poor and common people of the said islands cannot buy them, or buy them at very high rates; and Page 251furthermore that, because of the number and size of the said consignments of goods, and the vessels being few in number (indeed, sometimes and usually but one, and then quite filled up and laden with the said merchandise for Mexicans), no space is left for the citizens and common people [of the Philippines] to send their merchandise: therefore, as they have implored me, as a remedy for the said annoyances, to provide and order that no consignments of money be sent from the said Nueva España to the said islands, and that they be not allowed to have factors or companies there, but that the citizens of the said islands alone be allowed to buy and export to the said Nueva España domestic and foreign products; and that, if anyone else should wish to trade and traffic there, he should be compelled to become a citizen of the islands, and reside there for at least ten years, or as might be my pleasure; and because my will is to concede favor to the said islands, in order that their condition may continue to improve, and the inhabitants thereof to be advantaged—I grant that, for the present, they alone, and no others—whether of Nueva España, or any other part of the Indias—may trade in China, and export, take, or sell to the said Nueva España the merchandise and articles thus traded for in both the kingdoms and mainland of China, and in the said islands, for the time and space of six years, first commencing from the date of the departure of the first vessel with a cargo of merchandise for the said Nueva España. I prohibit and forbid all other persons whomsoever, of whatever rank and preeminence, from trading in the said islands and in China for the space of the said six years, reckoned as above stated, under penalty of confiscation of the Page 252merchandise that they have traded for therein. I order that this my provision be promulgated in the City of Mexico, and that my royal officials there enter it in their books. Those of the said islands shall do likewise, and they shall endorse on the back of this said provision the date upon which it took effect, by the departure from port of the first vessel with the said merchandise. They shall send me a separate attestation of the same, so that I may know when the said six years are to be in force. And neither one nor the other shall do anything contrary to this order. [Blank spaces for place, day, and month] one thousand five hundred and ninety.