The tenth is, that what the ships bring from Macan is only silks, in bundles and in fabrics. If they have brought any cotton cloth needed by the poor, each piece of cloth has been sold at three or three and one-half pesos. The same price is received for one cate of sewing thread, and a dish of average quality sells for one real; and notwithstanding that they bring but little of this for the supply of this community, they have always sold the said articles at the prices quoted, because of reducing the cargo of the said ships to the said silks and stuffs, on account of the profits arising from such freights. The ships give little or no place for the lading of cotton cloth and other wares needed so badly by the poor, because of their volume and of the little profit made from such cargoes. Such things are also needed by those who are not poor; and even a single ship of those usually brought by the Sangleys from China to this city fills the land with the said common goods, which are so necessary, as can be understood; and the poor are supplied with these by the convenience of their prices, which are very low. They are still lower when a number of ships come, as was formerly the case. That is verified by the few which have come with the said goods for some years past, so that these articles have been valued at prices so low as the fourth part, and less, of the prices at which they have been sold by the said Portuguese, as has been stated. The eleventh is, that it would not have been any trouble for the Chinese to come to engage in this trade with a quantity of goods--as they did before the Portuguese represented to them the dangers of enemies or the other things aforesaid--if the trade of Macan had been suppressed. For the greed of gain, which they are so well known to possess, would have conquered everything, and they would come here; since an outlet for the merchandise in which they trade in China must be sought beneath the water. If the Chinese can know for only one year that no ships have come from Macan to this city, it is certain that they will come, and that beyond all doubt. Also the reestablishment of the trade of the said Chinese will be effected; and, since there will be great abundance in the goods which they trade, the customs duties will amount to the sums which I have already stated. Consequently, there will be a stop put to the loans, so numerous and usual, that we are wont to require every year from the inhabitants in order to supply the needs of the royal treasury; or at least the loans will not be so large, since the said duties will be able to supply much.