The second, for proof of the aforesaid, is that, as is notorious, the amounts of capital [invested by] the inhabitants of these islands were very great in the first years of the coming of the said ships from Macan; but with the high prices which the Portuguese have always set upon their merchandise, and (as aforesaid) because the citizens have bought from them more by force than willingly, by reason of the lack of the goods which the Chinese brought formerly, for that reason the said investments of capital have stopped, and are so greatly diminished as has been, and is seen in general; because the gains have been very slight compared with the profits that have been made in Nueva Espana, considering the high prices that they demand here, as has been previously stated. The third point which ought to be considered is, that the customs duties on the merchandise brought by the Chinese to this city were worth to his Majesty from eighty to one hundred thousand pesos annually; while those on the merchandise of the ships which have come from Macan have not been worth more than twenty thousand pesos in any one year, and it is considered as certain that some years the duties have not exceeded twelve thousand. In regard to this truth, as a point so worthy of consideration--and of which this city council ought to take so much notice, as it is the body whom the increase of the royal revenues to their possible extent concerns so fully--we refer to what shall appear from the amounts of the said duties which the Sangleys now for twenty years have put into the royal treasury, and to those which the Portuguese have put in from the year six hundred and nineteen, the goods which they have generally brought being valued at about one million and a half, defrauding to a greater sum the said import and export duties so rightfully due his Majesty.