Of the demonstration which was made in the year 1712, when the Duke de Linares was viceroy, of the illegalities in the trade permitted to Filipinas, and the difficulty of preventing them. 41. On May 27, 1710, a despatch was sent through the private correspondence office [via reservada], addressed to the Duke de Linares, viceroy of Mexico, directing him, on account of the pressing necessities of war, to grant indult of the penalties for the illegalities (specifying those which had been committed in notable transgression of the law) with which the Filipinas commerce had been and was still carried on--not only in the commodities which were shipped, but in the silver which was sent back for them--neglecting the rules and orders that had been given for that commerce. In consequence of this, by order of the viceroy, an investigation was made in Mexico by an auditor in the year 1712, of both the shipment and the returns; and as a result of this was shown the great illegality with which the stuffs from China had been traded. It appeared that the goods that came without registration were allowed to enter on the declaration of them; that, contrary to the permission, all or the greater part of the merchandise in this commerce belonged to citizens of Mexico, Puebla and other parts of that kingdom, and not to the native citizens of the islands; that while the permission limited the returns to only 600,000 pesos, the amount thus permitted had been exceeded in some years by two millions, and in every year by a considerable amount; and that no investigation had been made of the chests carried by the mariners of those ships, to see whether they contained more than 30 pesos' worth of goods. 42. Although with this investigation and the accompanying report of the auditor who made it (which he sent to the viceroy), and the opinion given by the fiscal of the Audiencia when he saw it, that court was of the opinion that the indult should be granted to the traders of Mexico who proved to be guilty, that body of traders refused such benefit, supposing that against its individuals such guilt would not be proved as to require compurgation [by the grace] of the indult; and the viceroy Linares, in a letter of August 4, 1714, in giving account of these investigations, made the following statement: