"Your Majesty commands in law 12 on 'Navigation and commerce of Philipinas,' in the compilation of laws of the Indias: 'That those who desire to go to Philipinas must give bonds, for their residing in the islands for at least eight years; and the viceroy shall allow them to carry with them their wealth in money, besides the amount of the general permission.' In virtue of this law, cunning has discovered two safe and sure ways for perpetuating the commerce of this kingdom with those islands: the first, in the permission [here given] for carrying the money; the second, in [the assumption of] citizenship. For experience has shown that, on pretext of [maintaining] confidence and friendly relations, the merchants here send out one or more persons, the profits of them all being contracted for with these persons; the latter ask permission from the government, and display 50,000 to 70,000 pesos as their own, which actually are amounts entrusted to them by many persons. Under this supposition, they go over to Manila with the title of citizens, trade with that money, and regularly ship, as their own, the goods consigned to the citizens here [in Mexico], to whom belonged the money [carried by these agents]; and by remittances of silver and shipments of goods they continue to perpetuate that commerce--in such manner that, if efforts are made to learn who is the shipper, it is [always ostensibly] a citizen of Manila, in whom it is taken for granted that there is no fraud; and if the names of the consignees are ascertained, answer is made that they are his agents. But the latter are not agents, but owners, and the former are not owners, but agents; and in this way the order of things is reversed, by changing their names and the titles to property, and the profits remaining in the hands of those who are under prohibition. "From this difficulty, authorized by the permission of the law, follow others. For, granting that these agents, even though they have actual residence in Manila, stay there not with the intention of becoming permanent settlers, but of living there only during the agencies which are patronized by the citizens of this kingdom, and that in virtue of the royal orders of your Majesty they are reputed as citizens: it [yet] follows that to them, as citizens, is assigned lading space in the ships, in accordance with the law, and with the royal decree of the year 1702; and thus they have the greatest facility for continuing in their trading, because no hindrance is offered to their shipments. They stand in the way of those who are really citizens and natives of those islands, whose remonstrances occasioned your Majesty's prohibition; but as this interference goes on under the shelter of so plausible a reason, the latter have no way in which to oppose it, nor can they avoid suffering from it; and what [the authorities] there decide to belong to the parties interested is, strictly speaking, what has been entrusted to them by the citizens of Mexico.