"Your Majesty has given notice, in your royal decree of May 27, 1710, that frauds in the commerce consist in the excess of the shipments [over the amount permitted], and in what relates to the money which is transported by the ships of Philipinas to each of those countries, and that this irregularity depends on the judges who at Acapulco receive and despatch the ships. Although I must acquiesce in these judgments, and, no matter how much care the viceroys take to confer these powers on officials of zeal, intelligence, and energy, it is possible for self-interest to corrupt them, I also grant that it is difficult to ascertain their transgressions--because, as there is but the one official before whom the declarations of the goods and the registrations of the silver are made, it is very possible that he may have an interest in one or the other of these--either recording a smaller quantity of goods, in order that there may be smaller duties; or not registering the silver, which he can allow to be shipped outside the amount permitted. But as in both cases there is no one to make objection besides the very parties who are interested--and it suits these to be silent, because their profit depends on that--nor is there a witness to state what occurs, nor document to prove it, the transaction goes on, under a system of confidence to which neither proof nor even suspicion can be opposed. "In some accounts, I have learned, certain sums have been credited to your Majesty, under the title 'Amounts in excess of the permission,' which is ten per cent of the excess over the 600,000 pesos which your Majesty allows to be transported; but whether these items are punctually credited or not, or whether under cover of these other and larger sums were received which were profitable to the judge, it is not easy to ascertain. I take abundant precautions to prevent these things from being done, but if they are done, or are hidden, I cannot prevent it; and I go on, sincerely believing that the minister [in whose charge this matter is], of whose fidelity I have had experience in other directions, will exercise that faithfulness in this also. "For the future, your Majesty commands that the merchants refrain from transgressing in what is prohibited; but the very nature of the subject leaves some openings that cannot be repaired, through which the greed for gain thrusts itself, not only among the officials but in the merchants; and thus the most sagacious understanding does not perceive or suspect them, and thus does not correct them. I will specify some cases to your Majesty which will make this point clear.