Note 1 — Discussion Regarding Portuguese Trade at Manila

Sixth, that with the coming of the said Portuguese and ships from the city of Macan to this of Manila, the commerce and trade which the Sangley merchants of China usually carried on every year with this city has ceased, because of the keen intelligence which the Portuguese have employed in preventing it. That they have succeeded in doing, entirely by means of a very astute plan which they have followed, by taking to the annual fairs which are usually held at Canton so many thousands of pesos to invest and to bring to this city, as, in short, has already been said. In that way the Chinese sell them all that they want, at a profit of twenty-five or thirty per cent. That arrangement is so agreeable to the Sangleys, with the said profit in their own land and without trouble, that they have ceased to come to this city as they did formerly, risking the capital which they brought hither. This has been aided greatly by the Portuguese persuading the said Sangleys that the wealth of the inhabitants of this city is very nigh gone, and to so great an extent that they cannot find an outlet even for all the goods which they bring; and that, for that reason, they give trust for the greater part of it—a thing that has never happened, nor been done, for they have always received money, and the value for everything that they have sold. To that is added also that the said Portuguese have been wont to frighten the said Sangley traders by telling them of the danger that they will experience in their coming because of the Dutch pirates and the fleets of bancons1 with which some of the Chinese nation themselves go about committing depredations along those coasts. At the same time they have represented to the Chinese the heavy dues that they pay here, and the injuries that are inflicted upon them in this city, notwithstanding that they have [not] known that the Chinese have any complaint of this. All is with the purpose of turning them from any design that they have had of coming to this city with merchandise; for they fear that if the Chinese did so it would result in impairing their trade2 and discrediting that which the said Portuguese hold so firmly.