[164] On the seventh he took the oath to observe the Constitution of 1812; and on the tenth, by a decree ordered the reëstablishment of the Secretaría del Despachó de la Gobernación[, the first acts of which were the promulgation of the Constitution of 1812, and the reëstablishment of all the organisms created by the Cortes of 1810-1813. [165] Apparently appointed by the Secretary of Ultramar. Their credentials were approved at the third preliminary meeting of July 5 or 6. [166] A general decree of October 5, 1820, ordered a uniform and general schedule of duties for the Peninsula and Ultramar; but this law was modified by another law of December 20, 1821, recognizing the impracticability of uniformity of duties for Spain and the colonies, and providing that the schedule be uniform except for the differences rendered necessary in the provinces of Ultramar. [167] The secretary of Hacienda considered the privileges of the company for the importation of cotton goods as unconstitutional and contrary to the prosperity of national manufactures. At the meeting of August 18, it developed that the company had transferred its monopoly to a foreign merchant of Cádiz. The company was allowed to present its argument, but the report of the committees on Commerce and Hacienda was adopted. Later the company presented a petition requesting the liquidation of the government's indebtedness to it, the privilege of selling its stock of cotton goods, and various other concessions incident to the closing up of its affairs. This petition, sent to the Cortes by the secretary of Hacienda, was referred to the committee on Commerce on November 2. On the fifth, a petition was presented by the Philippine representatives and Gregorio Gonzales Azaolo, of Sevilla, asking that the prohibition of the importation of cotton goods should not affect the Philippines until the industry was developed or established in those islands. This petition having been referred to the committees on Commerce and Hacienda, their report on November 8 recommended the opening of the Oriental trade to all Spaniards trading in Spanish bottoms. This recommendation was embodied in article 3 of the decree of November 9, specifying the kinds of goods which Spanish ships trading by the Cape of Good Hope could introduce into Spain or Spanish America. [168] The decrees of the Diarios de las Cortes show no decree of this date confirming a previous decree of March 7, 1820, granting exemption of duties for ten years on natural and industrial products of the Philippines, when imported in Spanish bottoms into the Peninsula, as declared by Montero y Vidal. The decree of December 21, 1820, providing for the abolition of the monopoly on tobacco and salt after March 1, 1821, and providing customs and consumption duties, seems not to have affected the Philippines.