King Don Felipe Second, having considered and foreseen the many difficulties [involved in decreeing] that no one of his vassals go to China to buy merchandise from the Chinese, ordered the said decree to be despatched January eleven, of the said year, one thousand five hundred and ninety-three (a copy of which is here presented), by which he ordered Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, governor of Manila, not to allow any inhabitants of those islands to go to China to buy merchandise from the Chinese; but to have the latter come to that city to sell them, at their own risk. That decree was enforced until the year one thousand six hundred and six; but it is now violated because the Portuguese have crossed over, contrary to the order of the said decree. They go to China, which is the act prohibited in the decree; and not only do they cause that damage, but they also deprive the inhabitants [of Manila] of the benefit which they had of receiving on credit the merchandise from the Chinese who go to that city. Further, they bought the goods at very low prices, since, in accordance with the terms of the said decree, the governor and the city set the prices for the merchandise, which was a thing of great importance. And in order that the Chinese might return to Manila, and the inhabitants enjoy the profits and accommodations of former times, and the terms of the said decree of 593 might be obeyed, in which all the trouble that happens now was anticipated; and for confirmation of the above statement, and so that your Majesty may see that not only do the inhabitants of that city suffer damage because the Portuguese go to it with Chinese merchandise, but that your Majesty also loses vast sums of which the royal duties are defrauded: will you be pleased to order the certification which the writer presents, from the accountant of the official visit to be examined. From this, it is apparent that during the last thirteen years while the Sangleys had the trade in that city--from the year one thousand six hundred and six until that of one thousand six hundred and eighteen--they paid in duties to your Majesty, 574,627 pesos and six tomins; and that in another thirteen years while the said Portuguese of Macan have had the said trade, they have paid only 90,041 pesos. Figuring one period against the other, the royal treasury has had a shortage of 483,986 pesos and four tomins, a considerable quantity in only thirteen years. And, in order that this truth may be apparent to your Majesty, the writer presents the said certification of the annual amounts of the said duties, for both the thirteen years of the Portuguese and the thirteen of the Chinese.