Both Perù and Nueva España oppose the method followed in the commerce of the said Philipinas Islands, and complain of the above prohibitions, setting forth certain difficulties which result from closing to them the commerce which those two most opulent states have maintained (as it were, by nature) between themselves; the chief of these is their being entirely deprived of the mutual intercourse and relations which ought to prevail between them. On this account, another permission of two ships has been granted to them. One of these shall sail every year from the port of Callao de Lima, and may carry to that of Acapulco silver to the amount of 200,000 ducados, for investment in the products peculiar to Nueva España--whether of agriculture, stock-raising, or manufacture--and no others, even those sent from these kingdoms. The other ship shall return from Acapulco to Callao with these proceeds [of the investment], the prohibition of cloth from China remaining in force; and the decree declares that none of that cloth may be sent in return for the 200,000 ducados, nor outside of that amount, enforcing its execution by heavy penalties [imposed] by the decrees of December 31, 1604, and March 8 and June 20, 1620. By these decrees final shape was given to this permission which now is suspended; and it was ordered to cease by a decree of November 23, 1634, without the reason which had given cause for this act being known--further than the measures which had been proposed for ruining the islands, and this, that the ships of Perù might not sail to Acapulco, to the so great harm of the Philipinas Islands, as this alone would be enough to ruin them. For if ships do not go from Perù, the islands remain exposed to the failure of their aid, in the year when their ships do not make the voyage, by having been wrecked, or forced to put back to port, or having arrived late. As in such cases, it is usual to make good their deficiency with the ships from Perù, sending in them the usual succor of men and money, if the latter do not go, and the others do not come [to Acapulco], there will not be ships for that purpose, and the islands might remain for several years without the succor that supports them, at the evident risk of being ruined. To this may be added, that there are, as will be stated, in Nueva España more than fourteen thousand persons who sustain themselves with the industry of silk-raising and silk manufacture, by express permission, and the order that this industry be preserved. It cannot be maintained with only the silk that is produced in that country, the total amount of which is very small, and it therefore employs the silk that comes from Manila, as being suitable for delicate fabrics. The silk fabrics of Nueva España have always been exported to Perù, as commodities included in the trade permitted to those countries, which was mainly composed of these stuffs; while the fabrics of China remained for meeting