[From Extracto historial. [1]] PERIOD I Of what has been ordained by royal decrees, now compiled, in regard to the commerce of Philipinas. 1-15. [This "period" consists of a very brief summary of the laws regarding the above commerce, issued from 1593 to 1635; this matter, in fuller form, has been already given in VOLS. XVII of this series, pp. 27-50, and XXV, pp. 48-73, with which this document should be read.] PERIOD II Of the debates on this commerce which occurred in the royal Council of the Indias up to the year 1640, and the commissions which on that account were entrusted to Señor Don Juan de Palafox, who, being an official of the [India] House, went as bishop of Puebla de los Angeles. Although in the collection of documents which was furnished to us by the Council, for the compilation of this Extracto, nothing appears relative to the controversies which occurred during the greater part of the last century in regard to the commerce of Philipinas, in order that the long silence on this matter--from the earliest decrees up to the year 1684, of which an account is given us by the papers in the Secretary's office (with which "Period III" begins, and which the Extracto will follow)--may not seem irreparable, it has seemed to us desirable to form the present "Period" from a printed quarto book which was placed in the hands of Señor Palafox (who is now in Nueva España) by the deputy of those islands, and has reached us among other interesting documents. In this book are enumerated, for the purpose of furnishing information to that prelate--who was charged by the royal orders to inform [the government] regarding that affair [of the commerce]--the arguments which during the years 1638-40 were presented in behalf of the maintenance of the commerce of Philipinas, and the enlargement of the amount of trade allowed to that colony. We have not been able by any search to obtain the "Memorial" of one hundred and thirty-six sections which is said, in this printed book, to have been presented to the Council on this subject, in behalf of the city of Manila; but the insertion of the present document will not be unwelcome--not only because it contains substantially the same arguments which in following years up to the present time have been adduced, and which, it may reasonably be believed, those same islands will reproduce in the future whenever this subject is discussed; but because at the same time it presents certain information which is of no little value for better understanding the importance of that remote domain. Justification of the maintenance of the Philipinas Islands and their commerce To the very illustrious and reverend Señor Don Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, member of his Majesty's Council, in the royal Council of the Indias, and bishop of Puebla de los Angeles: by Don Juan Grau y Monfalcón, procurator-general of the Philipinas Islands, agent for the principality of Catuluña, and syndic of the city of Barcelona.