Among all those one hundred and fifty families who are settled at Manila, there are not two who are very rich. My plan would be to allow those inhabitants to export Chinese merchandise to the value of two hundred and fifty thousand escudos, the greater part of which should be raw silk and cotton bolls, so that they could be manufactured in this country [i.e., Mexico]. For there is less [chance for] trickery in that sort of merchandise than in the stuffs manufactured in China, which ought never to be allowed to be taken to Manila. The permission of trade to that sum would also be proportioned to the ability of the Manila merchants; and they would get more than five hundred thousand escudos in return for it, for the profits of that trade are exorbitant. Today even, when there is so much of this merchandise, four hundred per cent is gained on the poorest quality exported. By that means the Spaniards could be employed in manufacturing that silk, the textiles would be better, and they would secure innumerable other advantages. Accordingly, the inhabitants of the Manilas would not charge themselves with the commissions of Mexico, and they would get all the profit derived from those islands, which is now quite universally in the hands of foreigners. Further, as their affairs in the country became more prosperous, they would become more interested in its conservation; and they would be more careful to have the Indians, who have been assigned to them in encomiendas, instructed and held in subjection. They would save what they give to their agents in Mexico, who often ruin them. They keep their merchandise two or three years, and it has a poor sale in Mexico, because of the great quantity that is taken there; and trading only at Acapulco, and conducting their own business, they alone would enjoy, and that every year, the profits of that traffic.