"The petitioners think it unnecessary to enumerate, particularly the disadvantages of the first points alleged, that is to say, the abandoning of this commerce, because in all times the considerable importance of the Levant trade has been universally acknowledged, and your High Mightinesses yourselves have always shown that you have been intimately persuaded of it. It is then manifest, that in the present situation of affairs there remains only the second means, which is to employ foreign ships; nevertheless, as the small quantity of these vessels joined to the inclination on all sides to employ them, has already occasioned an enormous rise of their freights, and since moreover they cannot be ensured, but by paying a premium three times larger than in past times, we encounter here obstacles the most discouraging and invincible, considering, that besides all this, the extraordinary imposition beforementioned of five per cent of the value of the merchandises calculated after the augmented tariff renders almost impracticable this manner of negotiating, and deprives it of all advantage; which in this critical situation of affairs, must ruin absolutely the commerce of the Levant; for since at this time it cannot be carried on, but for the account of neutral foreigners, it is incontestible that their enterprises being in all cases so much confined, they will find themselves in the indispensable necessity to suspend this commerce with us, and to transmit it to other places; besides this, there will be found many foreigners, who for these causes will excuse themselves from remitting to the petitioners what they justly owe because at present, by the enormous rise of bills of exchange this cannot be effected but by sending merchandises, which still augments and extends, in an aggravating manner, the risk of the petitioners. "But finally to ward off this misfortune in season, if possible, the petitioners take the liberty respectfully to address themselves to your High Mightinesses, praying that you would please, during the course of this war, consequently as long as the Belgic vessels cannot be employed, to exempt the effects, loaded upon foreign ships and coming from the Levant to the ports of this country, from the said extraordinary imposition of five per cent of their value, and that you would also give the same advantages to the merchandises loaded on board the Pisano, a Venetian vessel, commanded by Captain Antonio Ragusin, from Smyrna, and lately arrived at the Texel; to the end that this branch of Commerce, so important, may not perish entirely, and that it may be preserved for the general well-being of the dear country.