weight consisted of cates, each about twenty-two onzas; the chinanta, which was equivalent to about ten cates, and in our Castilian weight to thirteen libras and twelve onzas; the quintal, which was worth about eight chinantas, or eighty cates, and corresponded to about one hundred and ten libras of our weight; and the largest was called pico, which was reckoned at ten chinantas, or one hundred cates, and in our weight five and a half arrobas. But as this correspondence of weight to weight was prevented as people understood more thoroughly the lack of accuracy in the said balances, and the [cause for] suspicion of the way in which they were managed by the Chinese--a people of such cunning that in their own land fraud is a science, in which degrees are given--the Spaniards found themselves compelled to depend on computing the equivalent [in Castilian weight], according to the greater or less skill of each person [in reckoning]; but the ignorance of the Indians and the common people, exposed [as they were] to the insatiable greed, lack of piety, and unscrupulousness of the said Sangleys, who gained great profits from this practice, aided the subtlety of the latter. Difficulties which arose in regard to the introduction of new weights This fact being established, from it follows the reason of the difficulty, which is the subject (and to this end the considerations) on which argument arises. In order to suppress the use of the said dachens, it was necessary to have in reserve other weighing instruments, with which the commerce, both wholesale and retail, could be regulated. In order to establish the Castilian weights, there must be specimens of the original standards which had to be followed, according to the royal decrees, to which weights must be conformed; and a factory must be established for the number of instruments which the new order of things would require. There was an absolute lack of everything; and therefore it was necessary either to permit the use of the dachens, or to make a general prohibition of commerce in the commodities for which the said balances served. To adopt any expedient less onerous was not allowed in the commission; that the former [i.e., the use of the Chinese weights] should be continued was the very thing which he [i.e., General Villavicencio] was ordered to prevent; to deny trade to the people would be ridiculous and ineffectual. The custom was as old as the Spanish occupancy of the country; the serious danger of disturbances, [if he undertook] to regulate steelyards by guess, without observing the exactness [required by] the laws, was a new difficulty; delay [would be ir]remediable, and the general injury irreparable! Let the most discreet person, then, infer from these circumstances whether the undertaking was an arduous one, whether the least [in]advertence would be conspicuous, and [what were] the risks to his reputation for good judgment; and whether recourse to