accordingly, the thousand toneladas of the two ships would mean 6,000 boxes. Each box is worth 1,500 pesos, and therefore all would be worth 900,000 pesos. Now if from this amount supposed be deducted the toneladas occupied by the men, artillery, ammunition, and food, those toneladas that the ships have below 500, and those toneladas which are of other kinds and not of silk (for those containing cotton cloths are estimated to have a value of 100 pesos and less, and usually exceed [in all] 2,000 and at times 4,000), it easily follows how impossible it is to carry four millions in merchandise in these two vessels--if indeed the three and one-half millions do not come in gold, pearls, and diamonds (products of which 20,000 pesos' value are not brought). Number 86. Permission for the merchandise of the islands: how it is understood there The sixth reason is founded on the truth regarding the commerce of the islands, namely, that in regard to the value of the two hundred and fifty thousand pesos allotted by the permission, the governors have granted favors in two ways. One is by admitting registers of more merchandise than is included in the permission, for certain reasons and motives that they have had, guiding themselves more by the burden of the ships and their toneladas, and by the volume of the goods, than by their intrinsic and real value. That has not been any fault or transgression in the citizens, nor in the government employees--of the former, because they are masters of what is allotted to them, but not of its restriction or its increase; of the latter, because it is clear that they must have had an order or sufficient reason for it--and even if such order or reason were lacking at the beginning, those who have succeeded and have found them in this practice and procedure, have not greatly transgressed in following it. The other method is by allowing the citizens to export more than the amount ordinarily allowed, in the products of their own land, which they get from their harvests or their encomiendas. Such are white and yellow wax, and civet; _talingas_, _manteles_, _lampotes_ (which are cotton fabrics); and certain kinds of blankets [_mantas_] from Ilocos, Moro, and Bemben. Of these products, eight hundred piezas (which make one hundred toneladas) are generally sent; and they are declared and appraised at Acapulco, as will be told of the rest. [_In the margin_: "In numbers 96 and 97."] That practice seems to have been introduced on the ground that it was considered probable that the permission was for the Chinese cloth and other foreign stuffs, and not for those peculiar to and native to the islands; these latter were always admitted, and never needed any permission to carry them to Nueva España--both because of their little value, and because, as will be said, they do no harm to the commerce of España. This is where the excess [over the permission] lies, and not where it is imagined by him who is not conversant with the facts.