overstated; this matter has been duly investigated by the officials of the India House at Cadiz, and it appears that the maximum amount of ballast for a ship of 1,000 toneladas, of the usual construction and of American timbers, is 333 toneladas for a cargo of light goods (such as cinnamon and bales of cloth). The Philipinas ship carries stone for ballast; the 333 toneladas of this, each weighing twenty quintals, are equivalent (by cubic measure) to 117 toneladas of the vessel's lading-space or capacity, which leaves 883 toneladas of space in the hold for the cargo. To augment the above amount of ballast would too greatly reduce the cargo, and even the necessary supplies for the voyage. Cadiz criticises the construction of the Manila galleons, especially as they are evidently built so as to carry a larger cargo than that which is allowed by the permission--as is confirmed by the large amounts of property that have been confiscated at Acapulco. The "elephant" lienzos may be estimated to fill 800 bales, each containing 20 piezas, and each pieza being valued at 3 pesos; and the cotton stuffs and raw silk, etc., 1,512 bales, each worth at least 125 pesos. These cotton stuffs, when fine, are handsome, and find a large demand and sale in Nueva España; moreover, the raw silk imported into that country is worked up in Mexico, and is an important article of commerce. When the importation of Chinese silks is prohibited there, "the manufactories which had begun to be established in Mexico will be protected; in these many persons were occupied, and were supported by working floss and twisted silk into fringes [galon], and into the fabrics which were used in Mexico, produced by those factories." The "elephant" stuffs, "being equivalent to Rouen linen, and conveniently supplied, are purchased in Nueva España not only to be used as white goods, but they are dyed for linings and other purposes." The extent of their consumption is shown by the quantities of them that the Manila galleon brings to Nueva España: 3,117 bales in 1729, and 2,432 in 1730; but even these large importations did not overstock the market there. The customs duties are not diminished, as Manila claims, by the prohibition of Chinese silks; the cargo proposed by Cadiz would yield the regular amount of these duties, amounting to 17 per cent of the returns, as follows: on 168 sacks of cinnamon, at 32 pesos, they amount to 54,016 pesos; on 2,312 bales of cotton stuffs, etc., at 30 pesos each, 69,360 pesos; the five per cent exacted on the shipment of the silver for returns, figured only on a return of 900,000 pesos, 45,000 pesos. This leaves a balance of only 1,624 pesos to be levied on the wax, pepper, and other miscellaneous wares of the cargo, to fill out the 17 per cent demanded by the crown. Manila has omitted to include any estimate of the import duties which would be collected in that city on the cinnamon which Cadiz desires it to handle; these would